Taming the Hydra: Naming Our Many Mounting Traumas

Through my personal and professional work with trauma, I’ve become acutely aware of a particular dynamic that is as significant as any trauma by itself: the frequency of trauma.

When trauma occur consecutively — as any combination of losing a loved one, illness or the constant threat of serious illness, financial loss, mental breakdown, homelessness, abuse, loss of one’s sense of home and belonging, or any of the collective traumas discussed just ahead—it can be difficult to overcome. When traumas “stack” before we have the chance to recover and integrate one to the next, the overload and overwhelm can leave us burdened and bedraggled indefinitely.

This frequency and intensity can be the proverbial straw that breaks backs, which is why it’s crucial to address trauma as it arises rather than wait. Being proactive also helps us minimize normalizing trauma, which in a sense is to become paralyzed by it.

STANDING BACK

It’s helpful to stand back and get perspective on the trauma of severely imbalanced mental and emotional states. Being able to label anxiety or depression, for example, and see them as separate from who we essentially are, helps us cope with and overcome them. This “affect labeling” helps us manage overwhelming emotions, says Dr. Matthew Lieberman, a cognitive social neuroscientist at UCLA. Naming our feelings is a form of regulation — being able to feel robustly and think clearly without totally losing our shit — which helps us get through trauma.

My friend Catherine Welch says:

Putting a face and a name to that which threatens to destroy us gives us some spark of hope to carry on.

When trauma is intense, this capacity for stepping back to gain perspective can be very difficult, if not impossible. When traumas stack and exponentially increase their impact, regulation can be all but impossible. This is one reason why, as global conditions continue to deteriorate and our traumas continue to mount, we need support. But as each of us becomes more overloaded, as the natural world deteriorates, and financial strains become more severe, our resiliency is ever more challenged.

We all suffer personal trauma to varying degrees, as well as collective trauma , especially the poor. We are currently in the midst of several major traumas. As we can with personal trauma, it’s helpful to pause, stand back, and see what we’re dealing with from a vantage point.

SIX NAMES

The same way that we stand back and name feelings, we can also pause to see and name the traumas we are experiencing to help us cope and heal through them. Here, then, are the largest collective traumas we are currently enduring:

Systemic Racism

Fascism

The Sixth Mass Extinction

Covid Pandemic

Financial Distress

Climate Crisis

Now I will briefly describe these systemic traumas, keeping in mind that the goal of this writing is simply to see and name the crises in which we are currently immersed:

1) Systemic Racism: The oppression and abuse of BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) and the current uprising of demonstrations and riots ignited by George Floyd’s murder is traumatic for all of us. It is especially traumatic for BIPOC that will hopefully bring healing to the systemic trauma endured for generations. This trauma is unique among the others below because it is a rebellion against the systemic traumatization of an entire sector of society and the extended effects of racism onto the environment.

2) Fascism: The ecocide, genocide, and abuse of all life by Donald Trump and the Republican Party (as well as other far-right dictators such as Jair Bolsonaro and Narendra Modi of India) creates a sense of helplessness, despair, and sorrow that is difficult to bear. The almost daily reports of more injustice and deceit by these in power is an ongoing nightmare.

3) Sixth Mass Extinction: Closely linked with climate crisis and fascism, this is the ongoing destruction and death of the world’s fauna, flora and whole ecosystems. A 2018, a UN-backed report (discussed here) shares what we are losing, which includes 60% of average animal population size and severe injury to the world’s fisheries and insect populations. The primary drivers for this ecocide are habitat loss, invasive species, chemicals, and climate change.

4) Covid: Suffering due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic hits us at a survival level, stoking grief, anger, and fear. It disrupts our sense of normal and requires us all to seriously change how we live and operate, and what we prioritize. Fear of suffering and death; not knowing how much it will spread; if we or a loved one will catch it any day, or for how long into the future it will continue; and overall extreme suffering from Covid-19, is a multi-faceted trauma of grand proportion, stoking both reasonable and unreasonable fear. Polarizing public opinion and ideological warfare (fueled by fear) adds to the trauma-drama.

5) Financial Crisis: We are currently in a recession and many believe headed for a depression as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. While marginally good for climate crisis, it’s been hell for millions who need to work to put food on the table. If the $600 extra in unemployment benefit is not renewed in July, and SARS Cov-2 is still rampant — for which there is every reason to be believe it will be — it seems we are going to have a lot of destitute Americans facing homelessness, hunger, and a spate of mental illness.

6) Climate Crisis: As an ongoing disaster of enormous and unimaginable proportion, climate crisis has been unfolding exponentially for decades. It is the backdrop against which all other traumas intersect and interface. This event alone is so big and overwhelming it is difficult to impossible to wholly wrap our heads around, which is part of why most don’t engage with it to the degree required.

Simply acknowledging these systemic stressors helps me regulate my own nervous system and map their effects in my life and in the world around me. I had written about specific ways I interface with and heal through these traumas, but I’ve deleted that part because I don’t want to obscure the focus and purpose of this essay: to simply name and realize the traumas we are enduring.

Jack Adam Weber, L.Ac., is a Chinese medicine clinician with over 20 years’ experience working with patients after having graduated valedictorian of his class. He is also a climate activist, organic farmer, and celebrated poet. Jack has authored hundreds of articles, thousands of poems, and several books. He is an advocate for embodied spirituality and writes extensively on the subjects of holistic medicine, emotional depth work, mind-body integration, and climate crisis, while encouraging his readers to think critically, feel deeply, and act boldly. Jack also developed the Nourish Practice, a deeply restorative, somatic meditation practice that doubles as an educational guide for healing through the wounds of childhood. His work can be found at jackadamweber.com