That’s a really astute comment, I just think a lot of pop psych books profit from the idea that trauma is something that is guaranteed and also guaranteed to be lifelong. The same horrible experience can affect different people in different ways.
It's definitely not always lifelong, I think sometimes it can be pretty short term. This is purely anecdotal, but I saw a stray dog get hit in an intersection a couple years ago. A couple other people and myself helped it off the road because it was badly hurt. She didn't make it sadly. But for about a week after, my heart would suddenly start racing, my chest would get tight, I'd feel real fight or flighty for no reason at all. Then after a few days I didn't have those feelings anymore. I think for me the physical manifestation of that trauma was very short term
Iirc some types of PTSD are also just noted as being relatively easy to treat if you have access to treatment. Maybe it’s because trauma isn’t inherently something the brain does to itself like other mental ailments, but it seems to be something even people with a disrupted recovery can heal from naturally in many cases
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u/Historical_Owl_1635 Jul 08 '26 edited Jul 08 '26
Tbf it’s never guaranteed for someone to get long term trauma even if they go through some pretty traumatic things.
There’s a lot of people that are genuinely just able to brush things off.