The concept of trauma is far more widely discussed these days. Almost always, these conversations will center on emotional, physical, and sexual trauma. But medical trauma deserves just as much attention. Underlying an illness, injury, or disability is, by definition, traumatic. Even successful treatments can feel overwhelming.
However, medical trauma arises from many other sources. For example, it has been found that medical error is one of the primary causes of death in America. Woman are particularly vulnerable to medical trauma and often find their complaints and reports not even taken seriously. Let’s take a closer look at all of the above realities.
Medical Trauma: The Basics
When someone interacts with the healthcare system, the variables are innumerable. As with any kind of trauma, medical trauma is in the eye of the beholder. That said, the symptoms are often familiar to those with an understanding of how trauma works. These signs include:
- Flashbacks and other forms of intrusive thoughts
- Anxiety and/or depression
- Being a perpetual state of high alert
- Unexplained physical symptoms like digestive disturbance, sleep issues, and body aches
- Feeling emotionally numb, withdrawing from social interactions
- Avoidance of any reminder of the trauma or medical care in general
- Thoughts of self-harm
Any of the above can arise for general reasons like medical negligence, errors, or incorrect diagnoses. In some cases, just being subjected to today’s version of healthcare is enough to feel traumatized.
What Else Causes Medical Trauma in Women?
Childbirth
Let’s start with something specific to females. Almost half of women report experiences of birth trauma. During one of the most important times of their lives, they feel controlled, manipulated, coerced, or even deceived.
Heart-Related Issues
This area of potential trauma impacts men and women. But there’s a crucial distinction. Generally speaking, women display more subtle cardiac-related symptoms — especially for heart attacks. This is life-threatening, of course, but it also ties into the gaslighting touched on above and below.
Invalidation
Men rarely have doctors suggest that the distress they feel is “all in their head.” For women, this trend is frighteningly common. Having your concerns downplayed or ignored often leads women to avoid contacting medical professionals. All of this adds up to:
- Women feeling angry and anxious about being treated like they don’t know their own needs
- Women allow problems to go unaddressed rather than risk gaslighting
- The pressure of having to be a patient and a patient advocate at the same time
Such issues are found to be more common for women of any minority group.
How Does a Woman Heal From Medical Trauma?
Like any trauma, there are trauma-informed professionals and proven protocols available. Thus, a big part of recovery is connecting with a practitioner who has your best interests at heart. Working with someone who doesn’t doubt your experiences is essential.
Some other self-help steps you can take are:
- Practice Daily Self-Care: Build resilience while reminding yourself that you are so worth the effort. Be sure to safeguard your eating, sleeping, and fitness habits — while practicing stress management.
- Avoid Self-Blame: Trauma is never the survivor’s fault. No one should blame you — even yourself.
- Get Comfortable Standing Up for Yourself: We’re conditioned to never question people in white coats, but it should be the norm. Show respect but never at the expense of self-respect.
Getting the Help You Need and Deserve
Working with a therapist who understands trauma is a life-changing experience. It’s a way to gain knowledge, heal, and be validated. Also, you can learn firsthand that not all medical practitioners are dismissive and biased. The path to recovery is available to you and we have therapists who specialize in therapy for women ready to help you! As always, you can self-schedule an appointment for therapy any time or reach out to our Administrative Goddess by filling out our contact form and we’ll get back to you before the close of the business day.
