How do I know if I have trauma?

Believe it or not, this question is actually hotly debated in mental health circles. The argument has two camps. The first camp posits that only individuals who meet full criteria for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) should classify their life experiences as traumatic. I see the argument here; basically, providers in this camp don’t want to water down the definition of trauma to the point where a life-or-death situation and something more mundane, like saying something embarrassing in front of a crush, are both described using the same word. The other camp, the camp I fall into, posit that gatekeeping a definition does more harm than good. Sometimes, providers in this camp will make a distinction between big T traumas and little t traumas. A big T trauma is something like a life-or-death situation or being sexually assaulted. A little t trauma is something like a bad break-up or getting fired. I hesitate to even provide examples because for some individuals, losing a job might mean only being one missed paycheck from homelessness, or a bad breakup could get violent. Under the right circumstances, anything can be traumatic. So, to answer the above question, you know you have trauma when something bad happened and you can’t seem to think about anything else. Maybe you are losing sleep or maybe you are replaying scenarios in your head, trying to figure out where you went wrong. Gatekeeping only serves to restrict access to those who need care.