You don't get to monopolise 'trauma'

Let's hash things out on this contentious little word, shall we?

This week’s post is a follow-up to last week’s. I was blown away by the number of DMs I received after sharing ‘How we gave birth was not okay’. A lot of women were sharing their stories of giving birth in Covid - some particularly harrowing - while others said it had only dawned on them, upon reading, just how much it had impacted their experience, the memory of which they hadn’t realised they’d buried. I reshared a few of them, and one word that came up a lot was ‘trauma’. 

Trauma is a tricky word. It’s emotive. It’s heavy. It means different things to different people. It is, arguably, a lot more ubiquitous in our language these days, sometimes being used facetiously - I’m sure I’ve done it myself. The use of the word can be contentious, even when it’s used sincerely. In fact, I think the Real Housewives of Beverley Hills (big fan) got through an entire season of drama, fuelled by one person’s version of trauma versus another’s. 

One person sent me a DM, which riled me up.