Op… schools have mass shooter drills. So yes going to school can be traumatic especially if you are bullied or you actually end up witnessing a mass shooting yourself. I was bullied for years which made school fairly traumatizing for me. And having someone threaten to shoot up the school I went to did not help things. They were caught before they acted on that threat but it could just as easily have been another dozen dead kids.

No, but I do think there are varying levels of trauma. I had a coworker that was traumatized by a former abusive partner who frequently chewed gum - I greatly enjoy chewing gum but avoided doing it around them because it deeply effected them… they never offered details about their traumatic experience and I never pushed them on it.

Extremely minor seeming actions can produce trauma, trauma can even be internally manufactured - perseveration, a common habit in autism, can produce trauma simply by the person imaging what might happen in a way convincing to them way and that leads to a reasonable position. Just because someone’s trauma is focused on an action someone else did doesn’t necessarily mean that other person is responsible for that trauma… rape and assault are awful and obviously lead directly to trauma but normal acceptable actions like grounding may traumatize a child - that doesn’t mean we should tar and feather that child’s parents but nor does it mean their trauma isn’t real.

Trauma is about how you react to a situation and what emotional baggage you carry away from it - it’s a very personal thing and we should respect other people’s trauma within reason. It’s not our job to judge trauma valid or invalid but to be kind to one another and considerate of what people are going through because, honestly, some people have deep scars and we don’t need to cut them any deeper.

Yes and no. I think we all experience a lot more trauma than most people recognize and that we undersell the trauma we do acknowledge.

The thing is, life is made up of one trauma after another, often that we learn from. We are disposed to finding the silver lining and so we look at a lot of these negative experiences that do have a lasting impact and choose to address it with the positive outcomes. It’s just that some traumas aren’t as easily addressed and result in things like PTSD or cPTSD.

It’s not a matter of trauma being overused as a term so much an issue of how we define trauma.

• Trauma, to describe a negative experience
• Depression, to describe healthy, intermittent sadness
• Trigger, to describe a pet peeve
• Dysphoria, to describe concern
• On the Spectrum/neurodivergent, to describe something a strawman normie wouldn’t do

The spike of interest in mental health over the past couple decades (in the West) has certainly been a net positive, but an unfortunate side effect - one that is true every time science becomes trendy - is that technical terms get grossly misused/overused. Sometimes it’s malicious, like someone exaggerating a self-diagnosed condition to get out of work; other times it’s benign, like someone using a term which they genuinely think they understand but the reality is only half so. If you recognize someone as being the latter, just try to ignore it or gently guide them to better terminology; else, if they’re being the former… well that’s more complicated, but just don’t be a dick about it because that’s never changed anyone’s mind

Let’s take a look at trauma.

Trauma is a result of intense emotional stress, which overwhelms a person’s coping ability.

An example: Let’s say someone is very delicate, and gets a scare at secondary, nearly an adult. A friend came up behind them and shouts, “roar”, causing the subject to jump. Let’s say this delicate person begins to develop semi-random bouts of terror. Usually at school. Sometimes in the middle of the night. Is that trauma? Over something as “silly” as a friendly jump scare? Yes it is, as it overwhelmed the person’s ability to cope, and had lasting negative consequences.

Gate-keeping trauma helps no-one. Being, “lightly pushed into a locker”, could cause someone to look over their shoulder for the rest of their life. Please be respectful of other people’s constitution. Something mundane and silly to you, may be a life-long trauma to someone else. PTSD can occur over something as simple as fire crackers. A bit of consideration can go a long way toward understanding other people.

I worry that I am someone who does this because I know I’ve let things get to me to the point of being paralyzed or unproductive in life. I made a post on this earlier in which I talk about some of my “trauma”, but tbh I just to want to be productive. I know other people go through worse and do amazing things. I don’t know if I am just making excuses for myself.

Everyone is a drama queen attention seeker who seeks labels and victim status instead of a personality. We used to actually call these people on Tumblr “snowflakes”, which is where the term originated.

Trauma is real. Negative feelings are not trauma.

It absolutely is. I’ve been traumatized by seeing that word used too often.

Yes. 100% overused.