Can untreated trauma prevent a person from effectively managing their emotions? For example, is crying when angry a trauma response?
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Is Crying When Angry a Trauma Response?
What is Trauma?
Does the reference to “other excessive emotional outbursts” in the list of trauma responses above include expressions of sadness? Is crying when angry a trauma response?
Yes, it can be, though not everyone with a history of trauma exhibits this symptom. Trauma can cause some people to become hypersensitive and overreactive, while others may feel emotionally numb and disconnected.
However, even among those within the overreactive group, their outward displays of anger may not be accurate indicators of what they are actually feeling.
Sometimes, outbursts of anger can be the result of internal feelings of shame, guilt, fear, frustration, and similar emotions. But if a person doesn’t have the support they need to identify and process these feelings, they may manifest as anger, irritability, and other more aggressive responses.
What is Trauma?
To understand if crying while angry is a trauma response, it can be helpful to first review a few basic facts about trauma and trauma responses.
When the term trauma is used in a mental health context, it refers to the psychological impact of a life-threatening or otherwise terrifying experience.
Events That Can Cause Trauma
Examples of potentially traumatizing events include:
- Physical attacks
- Sexual assaults
- Kidnappings
- Extreme neglect
- Verbal or online harassment
- Acts of terrorism
- Military combat
- Automobile accidents
- Serious illnesses
- Cataclysmic weather (such as tornadoes or hurricanes)
Common characteristics of these disparate experiences include:
- They are extremely distressing
- They typically involve feelings of powerlessness
- They can cause people to fear for their life, or for the life of another person
Trauma Risk Factors
People can become traumatized by being directly involved in one or more traumatic events, witnessing a traumatic event, or even learning of the details of a loved one’s traumatic experience.
Individuals who are repeatedly exposed to the aftermath of traumatic occurrences, such as firefighters and emergency room doctors and nurses, may also be affected.
Not everyone who endures experiences like these will develop psychological trauma. Factors that can increase a person’s risk include:
- History of abuse, neglect, or other adverse childhood experiences (ACEs)
- Experiencing multiple or particularly severe traumatic events
- Having financial difficulties, relationship problems, and other types of adversity in the aftermath of the traumatic experience
- Having depression or another pre-existing mental health condition
- Being a member of a marginalized group
- Lacking effective emotional support
- Low socioeconomic status
- Having poor coping skills
How Does Trauma Affect the Brain?
Trauma can cause both structural and functional changes in a person’s brain, affecting areas including the prefrontal cortex (PFC), the hippocampus, and the amygdala.
The prefrontal cortex is a brain region that plays a key role in higher-level functions such as:
- Planning and strategizing
- Storing and retrieving memories
- Setting goals
- Solving problems
- Acquiring and using language
- Interacting with others
The hippocampus’s responsibilities include learning, memory, emotional behavior, and spatial navigation.
The amygdala is a small region that is involved in functions such as:
- Processing emotions such as fear and anxiety
- Activating the sympathetic nervous system (which is commonly referred to as the body’s “fight or flight” response
- Connecting emotions to memories
The potential effects of trauma-related harm to these areas can include emotion dysregulation, impaired ability to solve problems and make decisions, and the sense of being constantly under threat or otherwise in danger.
What Are Trauma Responses?
Though the sympathetic nervous system is often described with the term “fight or flight,” this system can actually trigger four types of responses:
- Fight: Attempting to eradicate the threat via an aggressive response
- Flight: Avoiding the threat by getting away from the source of danger
- Freeze: Becoming incapable of movement, which may be a primal attempt to avoid detection
- Fawn: Trying to neutralize the threat by exhibiting deference or submission
It’s not difficult to see how these short-term, reflexive responses can be valuable when a person is in imminent danger. But trauma can cause the brain to believe that the danger is constant, even when no actual threat is present.
When a person’s sympathetic nervous system is stuck in permanent activation mode, the impact can include:
- Persistent muscle tension and headaches
- Anxiety and irritability
- Heightened emotional sensitivity
- Disrupted sleep patterns
- Disproportionate reactions to relatively minor problems
In terms of their day-to-day life and interactions with others, someone who has been affected in this way may exhibit trauma responses such as:
- Having difficulty taking action due to overthinking and indecisiveness
- Responding to seemingly mild challenges or setbacks with anger, aggression, and other excessive emotional outbursts
- Demanding perfection from themselves
- Struggling with undeserved self-criticism, guilt, and shame
- Blaming themselves for problems they did not cause
- Attempting to avoid conflicts by becoming a people-pleaser
- Becoming either hypersensitive or emotionally numb
- Being easily startled and react in an over-the-top manner when surprised
- Reacting to stress by dissociating, or feeling as though they have become detached from their mind, body, and surroundings
Begin Luxury Mental Health Treatment in Northern California
If you have been struggling with the effects of untreated trauma, please know that effective help is available. When you get the care you need, you can experience significant relief and begin to look at life from a much healthier and more hopeful perspective.
Robles Ranch Mental Health is a trusted source of compassionate residential mental health treatment near San Luis Obispo for adults whose lives have been disrupted by psychological trauma and other mental health concerns.
We’ll work closely with you to understand how you have been affected by trauma, and then we’ll identify the programs and services that best align with your unique needs and goals.
To learn more about how we can help, or to schedule a free consultation, verify your insurance today.
Get Help Now
If you or a loved one is struggling with mental health issues or dual diagnosis disorders and seeking a balanced approach to recovery, our luxury mental health programs in California may be the right choice.
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