Is Poverty a Form of Trauma?

With greater and greater awareness and discussion on the impact of trauma, there is a growing conversation on the types of experiences that can be a form of trauma. Today, we will discuss poverty as a form of trauma and discuss the impacts of property on those who experience it. 

What is trauma? 

Before we begin this discussion, it is important to have a quality working definition of what constitutes trauma. As a trauma therapist, the most effective definition that appropriately defines a traumatic experience is anything that overwhelms an individuals ability to adequately cope with the circumstances that they are experiencing. This definition is important for several reasons: 

• It is subjective to the individuals skills and experience in the situation. It is entirely possible that multiple people can experience the same r similar circumstances and have different levels of trauma experience, exposure, and impact resulting from that experience. 

• It is broad enough to include exposures outside of explicit violence. It is a common misunderstanding that trauma only really involves violence, military exposure, and abuse, but that is not the case. Trauma can take much more broad and more diverse forms. 

• It is based on the neurological responses of the body. Trauma is associated with the initiation of trauma or stress response centers of the brain. Therefore anything that triggers the protective stress responses of the brain can be seen as trauma as it is experienced in the body and nervous system. 

So what about poverty and trauma? 

It is becoming more and more accepted that poverty and its accompanying challenges can be experienced as trauma for those that experience poverty. The Nation Child Traumatic Stress Network identified that poverty impacts individuals and family systems on multiple leaves increasing exposure to trauma and traumatic responses on multiple levels. (1) 

Childhood poverty is also associated with decreased outcomes in adult psychological well-being as adults exhibit higher rates of chronic stress, maladaptive behaviors (like addiction and aggression), depression, and cognitive deficits in memory recall. (2) 

Finally, we also know that the presence of poverty appears to be a vulnerability that results in higher rates of exposure to other forms of trauma, including violence, neglect, family separation, lack of support, and more. The ACEs study is one of the most thorough and extensive studies available on the impacts of adverse childhood experiences and the long-term impact of these trauma exposures and shows the drastic impact of the presence of one adverse childhood experience to predispose the exposure of additional adverse experiences. (3)

So if I have experienced poverty, what can I do about it?

The great thing about trauma (if there can be a good thing about experiencing negative life events) is that there are very effective treatments for all kinds of trauma exposure. Many of the symptoms, sensitivities, and reactivities learned through traumatic experiences can be reduced and resolved with the right kind of interventions and therapy. One of the most effective forms of trauma treatment is EMDR therapy, where we are able to help the brain reprocess negative experiences and change the way that the brain interacts with and processes that traumatic material.

If you are interested in learning more about the impact of poverty or other forms of trauma on your mental health, our team would love to connect with you. We employ highly trained trauma therapists who are able to support your mental health needs. Connect with us with online therapy or in person, at our Arlington, TX-based therapy office.