There are three different levels of trauma, and the experience of trauma can negatively affect the human brain in many different ways.

According to information that has been posted on the Psychology Today.com website, the three different types of trauma can result in different consequences for an individual’s mental health.

Acute trauma: The experience of acute trauma reflects intense distress in the immediate aftermath of a one-time event of short duration. The individual’s reaction is likely to be short-term, often resolving on its own or with the help of counseling. A car accident, the sudden death of a loved one, a medical emergency, or a physical or sexual assault can cause acute trauma.

Chronic trauma: The experience of chronic trauma refers to the harmful effects of trauma that are repeated or prolonged. These harmful effects can develop in response to adverse experiences such as persistent bullying, physical, sexual or emotional abuse, neglect, and domestic violence. Because of its repeated nature and inescapability, the experience of chronic trauma often has serious mental health consequences for individuals.

Complex trauma: Much like chronic trauma, the complex type of trauma can arise from experiencing repeated or multiple traumatic events from which there is no possibility of escape, such as continuous incidents of child abuse. The sense of being trapped is a feature of the experience. Like other types of trauma, complex trauma can undermine a person’s sense of safety.

Alison Seltzer is a Licensed Professional Counselor who works with victims of trauma as the director at InnerPeaceCounseling in Altoona. Seltzer said that all three types of trauma — acute, chronic and complex — can be very damaging.

“I would say that the most difficult to treat are the chronic and complex traumas, although acute trauma — like that which can occur as a result of an event like a car accident — can happen from a single incident, and that can involve many factors as well,” Seltzer said. “I don’t know that there’s such a thing as an ‘easy’ trauma (for people to experience).”

Seltzer said that individuals who experience trauma as children often gravitate to the same traumatic interactions with significant others in their adult lives.

For instance, a woman who grew up in an abusive home often selects a spouse or paramour who turns out to be abusive.

Though this dynamic is self-defeating and maladaptive, it is also a familiar one for the person with a traumatic background.

“They may indeed go and put themselves in a traumatic situation or an abusive situation in adulthood because that’s what they were used to as a child,” Seltzer said.

Many professional studies have been done that verify the adverse effect of trauma on the human brain. Brain scans of trauma victims are visibly different in many ways from the brains of people who have not experienced significant trauma.

Several parts of the brain can be severely and adversely affected by the experience of trauma.

According to information posted on the National Library of Medicine’s National Center for Biotechnology Information website under the auspices of the National Institute of Health, the brain areas that are implicated in a person’s stress response to the experience of trauma are the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex.

Trauma can cause the amygdala to become overactive, leading to heightened anxiety, fear responses, and difficulty in distinguishing between real and perceived events.

Prolonged exposure to stress hormones can lead to a shrinking of the hippocampus, which can affect memory and the ability to process traumatic events.

Trauma can also impair the function of the prefrontal cortex, making it difficult to regulate emotions, control impulses, and make sound decisions.

“There are many things that people who have experienced trauma do, because the physicality of the brain is negatively affected and the autonomic nervous system has been de-regulated by the experience of trauma,” Seltzer said. “Not only the brain, but our entire nervous system and physical health, can change as well, after the experience of trauma.”

Trauma victims may also experience a dissociative state in which they feel disconnected from their bodies. A person’s entire being is affected.

“Your brain and your body take in everything,” Seltzer said.

Next: How people are affected differently by trauma.

John Hartsock can be reached at jhartsock@altoonamirror.com