STRESS

Stress is our body’s response to pressure. Many different situations or life events can cause stress, such as job loss, exams, deadlines, finances, or divorcing a spouse. However, stress is not always harmful, while trauma is nearly always harmful.

TYPES OF STRESS

  • Positive Stress: Positive stress, otherwise known as good stress, is the stress response that we feel when we get excited. Positive stress can also refer to the times you respond well to a challenge that you experience from a stressor.
  • Tolerable Stress: Tolerable stress relates to the exposure to non-normative experiences that pose a threat and cause a great deal of adversity, i.e., a family member’s death, a serious illness or injury, a natural disaster, or an act of terrorism. What makes this type of stress response tolerable is having the protection provided by supportive adult relationships that enhance the child’s ability to cope and gain a sense of control.
  • Toxic stress: The National Scientific Council on Developing Child considers toxic stress the most dangerous type of stress response. Toxic stress also relates to exposure to non-normative experiences that pose a threat and cause adversity, but it can have damaging effects on learning, behavior, and health across the lifespan.[1] In addition, when a toxic stress response occurs continually or is triggered by multiple sources, it can have a cumulative toll on an individual’s physical and mental health.[2]

TRAUMA

Trauma is a response to real or perceived harm or danger. Trauma can be experienced by an individual or witnessed by an individual. Research shows that experiencing multiple types of child abuse and victimization once homeless can cause trauma or posttraumatic stress disorder among homeless young adults between 18–24.[3]

Trauma is an emotional response to a stressful event, including accidents, rape, or natural disasters. This response typically includes shock and denial immediately after. Long-term emotions can include flashbacks, strained relationships, and physical symptoms. Physical symptoms can include headaches or nausea.8 These responses are normal, but individuals can have trouble moving past them.

DIFFERENT TYPES OF TRAUMA

  • Acute trauma results from a single incident.
  • Chronic trauma (repetitive trauma) is repeated and prolonged, such as domestic violence or abuse. 
  • Complex trauma is exposure to varied and multiple traumatic events, often of an invasive, interpersonal nature (ie. family violence).
  • Complex developmental trauma is repetitive trauma as a youth
  • Vicarious trauma is trauma that service providers may experience, resulting from empathetic engagement with a client’s/patient’s traumatic background.
  • Historical and/or intergenerational trauma could include war, slavery, racism, colonization, loss of culture, etc.

References

1. Florida State University. (n.d.). What is Toxic Stress | College of Medicine. https://med.fsu.edu/childStress/whatis

2. Harvard University. (2020, August 17). Toxic Stress. Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/key-concepts/toxic-stress/

3. Kim, Y., Bender, K., Ferguson, K. M., Begun, S., & DiNitto, D. M. (2017). Trauma and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Among Homeless Young Adults: The Importance of Victimization Experiences in Childhood and Once Homeless. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 26(3), 131–142. https://doi.org/10.1177/1063426617710239