Yes, something can be traumatic even if other people had it worse. Trauma is relative to each person. The idea of “worse” is also relative. Person A may think that the sexual abuse Person B experienced was way worse than their own emotional neglect. Meanwhile, person B might be thinking, “At least I was loved.”
One person’s trauma is not another person’s. Trauma occurs when a nervous system is overwhelmed by an experience and is unable to cope with it or process it. You may believe that others have it worse or that your own situation could have been even worse than it was; that doesn’t mean that whatever you experienced wasn’t traumatic. It simply means it could have been even worse and traumatic.
This page is part of the What Counts as Trauma? section of the CommuniDID site, which explains how trauma can occur without obvious violence and why survivors often doubt or normalize what happened to them.
Explore more:
- Questions about What Counts as Trauma?
- The guide What Counts as Abuse? helps readers evaluate past experiences and understand why confusion about abuse is common.
- What Counts As Trauma?
- Why It Can Be Hard to Recognize Your Own Trauma
- How Do I Know If Something I Experienced Was Traumatic?
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