"Breaking The Silence"

In this podcast episode, the hosts discuss the stigma surrounding trauma in young adults. They highlight the importance of creating an open and empathetic environment for those who have experienced trauma. One of the hosts shares their personal experience of losing their parents at a young age and the resulting mental health struggles. They discuss the domino effect of trauma, where parents' pain can reflect in their children, and the need for open discussions to overcome this. Stigma is defined as disapproval of mental health issues based on perceived weaknesses. They also mention the impact of family stigma and the struggle to speak up about trauma. Different forms of trauma, including microtraumas and absent parents, are discussed, as well as the difficulties faced by young adults transitioning into adulthood. The recent passing of an actor and the importance of understanding individual experiences of trauma are also mentioned. Hello, and welcome to Breaking the Silence, the podcast where we address important mental health issues and work towards creating a more supportive and understanding society. We're your hosts, Kylie and Mia, and in today's episode, we'll be diving into the topic of reducing the stigma of trauma in young adults. Before we begin, let's take a moment to reflect on a stat that highlights the importance of this issue and may hit close to home. According to recent research from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration, more than two-thirds of children reported at least one traumatic event by age 16. That emphasizes just how crucial it is to promote an open and empathetic environment for young adults who have experienced trauma. For me, I sadly suffered the loss of both of my parents at a young age, and as a result, was put in an unstable home environment, which has led to me having a variety of issues to this day. Some of these issues include anxiety and PTSD, but a lot of these issues I suffer are not diagnosed mental illnesses, but rather just everyday struggles. I often fear I may lose more people in my life or fail to trust those who are closest to me. Luckily, I am receiving help, but without understanding that my trauma is normal and having people to talk to, I could not say that I would be doing this. More than likely, I would still have the mindset that keeping my trauma to myself is my only option. My personal experience is getting crashed by a car, which was what I endured at the ripe age of five years old when I was in pre-K. I remember I was walking home with my grandpa, and I was just very excited, and as a young child who was still growing and just wanted to have fun, I ran across the street and let go of my grandpa's hand without any hesitation. I was rushed to the hospital, and from there on out, everything that happened to me, I completely have no recollection about, only the fact that I used to get stitches and staples that were on my head. I although remember being told, if the car would have hit you any closer to your pelvis, you would have been dead. From that moment on, I couldn't believe that it actually occurred, and I understood that when that happened, my grandpa for a very long time blamed the situation on himself and how he was a terrible person for letting that happen to me. But I would say I have gotten so close to my grandpa over time as he also was the main guardian over me when my mom had to work and I had other siblings she had to provide for. While my dad wasn't in the picture, he was just absent at times across the years of my childhood. I would say this traumatic experience shaped the way I think about things today and my process and the overall importance of safe driving and everything in between. Also, the challenges created for me mentally due to my parents who had difficulty being together, it was hard for my siblings and I to feel a sense of security. Therefore, I did a lot of questioning to myself as I got older about certain things and just had constant thoughts of negative connotation towards myself through a lot of situations. To add on an important term known as the domino effect, which causes a parent's trauma and pain to reflect in their child, and this can go on for generations because people don't realize they can talk about their trauma and overcome it. Instead, they just project it and the reality due to that is they release it out onto others because they yet have not dealt with what they've gone through. We share this with you guys because we know how hard it can be to speak up about issues that have affected you and we want to help guide you into opening up and speaking out about anything you may have gone through. Stigma can be defined as a message of disapproval of certain mental health illnesses based on perceived weaknesses. Perceived stigma, this is the fear of not being accepted because of what it is you're struggling with and what causes that internalized shame and embarrassment in yourself. You may therefore isolate yourself because you don't feel normal enough. I know for me, I still struggle with feeling like everyone is judging me when they find out that I have trauma. I know deep down most people are not, but when I put myself out there, I still worry about it sometimes. A way to combat these feelings is to find a group where you all speak up about what you're going through so that you have a safe space when you need it. Although you want the safe space, you still need to make sure you do not feel pressured to speak out about these things unless you are with someone who makes you feel comfortable and valued. Family stigma is when your family doesn't accept the reasoning for why you deal with certain aspects of mental health and they just push it away and kick you to the dirt, which may cause you to believe that whatever you're going through is not real or you don't have a true reasoning behind why you should feel that way. An example is if you feel sad, you must have to go through something so specific in order for you to feel that way. Or even to say if you are on the road to finding your true self and you get a diagnostic ran for whatever it is and it comes back positive and you go to one of your family members and tell them and they say that the doctors are wrong and they ghost you and cut you off. People often don't speak about their trauma because they may not know or understand what happened or how it affected them. Some people will try to compare what they have gone through to others and believe that since what they went through may not be as traumatic or severe as others, they keep it inside. They may also not realize that they have experienced trauma, they just know that the event that occurred has changed them. While trauma comes in many forms, here are some things that are deemed as trauma but not everybody realizes it. One example of this is microtraumas, which are often subtle but harmful experiences that occur throughout your life. This can include microaggressions, which are negative comments about someone's identity or sexism and gender norms. Depending on somebody's gender identity, they can suffer instances where they are not treated as fair or are treated as less than due to their gender. And this can cause trauma and make them feel inadequate for most of their life. In my experiences, to add on specifically, as the feeling that it's not being treated fairly or less than, it definitely can have an impact of trauma and causes that sense of not belonging in their life and creates uncertainty with relationships built. As a little girl, I was the one who was blamed for with everything. Like if my older sister was complaining that I was talking too much or wanting to play with her but she didn't, or even if something in the house went missing, it was automatically my fault. And I heard it so often that it made me feel a certain way all the time because it made me believe that something was wrong with me. Even the fact that my sister excelled in school way more than I did and having the comparison of her and I through the family and teachers created the visionary of myself to feel viewed less than and I wasn't capable. Many negative thoughts were always instilled in my head and it was hard for me to break that. And even to this day, I struggle with inner messages. Know me about is a great example that I'm sure many people can relate to, especially a lot of us in the bridge program who may have imposter syndrome right now being here. Another example of this is the trauma that forms from having to raise yourself or having an absent parent. This can cause issues with letting people in or just general trust issues. While many people just see this as self-preservation, it is important to recognize it is a real issue so that you do not suffer from making connections. Personally, I still struggle with this concept, so I don't expect anyone to magically be able to work through these feelings overnight. I do think it is important, though, to have someone you trust and can confide in. Many young adults are just finding their way in life, whether they are going straight into the workforce or going to college or taking some time to figure out what they want in life. Adding trauma to the stress that these people are already dealing with can cause transitional issues and making growing up more difficult. People do not always realize that someone who is rude is not that way because they are out to get you, but because they could have gone through something traumatic and do not know how to deal with their emotions properly. Moving to university is especially hard for many students because they could have traumas that they bring with them and don't think they can work through them while also being a full-time student. Because there are not many open discussions about trauma in college, it is hard for people to feel like they belong because they feel too damaged or inadequate because they are seen as broken. But this could be eliminated if we talked about this normally. Trauma comes in variety. It comes differently for everyone with the way they deal with whatever they are going through. Recently, in the news, we have seen the well-known HBO actor that played Fesco in Euphoria, better known as Inger's Cloud, who has passed away from said to be overdose. The backstory of his passing due to his father, his best friend, being buried just a week before, and the struggles he faced with mental health up until then and coping with that and what it meant to him. Many are going to the media to talk about the casting crew he worked with and why some haven't come out to say anything right after it happened. But everything comes with waves. Time is a virtue, and there shouldn't be harassment because people go through trauma in their own unique way. I think this is a great real-life example of how trauma can affect you and is still an issue today. If you know someone who has gone through trauma that we have mentioned, or even something we haven't mentioned, reach out and share your experiences because until people start talking about these issues, the stigma will be there forever. All right, everyone. Thanks for listening to us today, and we hope that something we said today has resonated with you and made you understand that you are not alone and you are normal. Everyone goes through something in their life that is difficult, and if we all come together and support one another, we can combat the stigma surrounding trauma. Thank you once again. This has been Nia and Kylie, and join us next time on Breaking the Silence.