Weaponizing Trauma and The Dangers of Unhealed Wounds

What exactly is trauma?

Trauma is any experience that is deeply distressing or disturbing. Trauma overwhelms our ability to cope and undermines our sense of safety. Trauma can cause us to feel powerless and hopeless relative to our capacity to defend ourselves. It can rob us of the belief in our ability to heal, trust, live, and love as we once did, before a traumatic experience occurred. On today’s episode, we are discussing weaponizing trauma and the trouble of unhealed wounds.

So, I’ve explained what trauma is, now let’s dive into how that unhealed trauma can be used, whether consciously or unconsciously, as a weapon. First, let’s define weaponizing: To weaponize something is to exploit something for the purpose of attacking a person or a group of people as well as spreading strife or discord. Weaponizing something is also an attempt to manipulate a person or to avoid accountability for an act, words, or reaction.  

So, at some point in our lives, we’ve all experienced a form of being bullied, right? I know I have my share of stories of being bullied during my middle school days. What we may not have realized is that the bully was exercising their hurt and trauma in an unhealthy and unhealed way. They weaponized their trauma onto others. Experiences of trauma can lead to trauma-related disorders, such as post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. Trauma can be collective (experienced by a group of persons) or individual (experienced by one). It can be episodic (happening every so often), isolated (happening once), or chronic (unabating, not weakening or losing intensity). It can even be vicarious (e.g., by empathically engaging with the trauma of others). Whatever event caused the trauma in your life (death, emotional, physical or sexual abuse, car accident, a race related incident, etc) it is never easy to accept, process nor heal from. It’s understandable that many who have experienced trauma may be withdrawn, angry, resentful, lonely, introverted, fearful and the likes, trauma is not an excuse for perpetuating harm and suffering, nor a get-out-of-jail-free card for causing emotional or physical pain to others. healing from trauma is an easy or simple process. Processing trauma is messy and painful and dirty and even through the process, triggers will happen. So, this is not to negate the very real and damaging effects trauma can have on our ability to regulate our emotions, accurately appraise situations, relate to and become close with others, or maintain positive beliefs about the world, ourselves, and the inherent goodness of humanity.

Want to learn more? Click the link to listen to our segment of Episode 08 “Hurt People, hurt..people” : Weaponizing Trauma and the Dangers of Unhealed Wounds