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SYMPTOMS OF LIFE CHALLENGES OR TRAUMA
Below is a list of symptoms that you can check off to assess how your life experiences have impacted you: 
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Emotional and Psychological Symptoms

  • Intrusion Symptoms: Unwanted memories, recurring thoughts, distressing dreams, or flashbacks, where a person feels the trauma is happening again. 

  • Avoidance Symptoms: Avoiding people, places, or activities that remind them of the traumatic event. 

  • Changes in Thinking and Mood:  Negative thoughts about oneself, others, or the world, feelings of guilt or shame, and emotional numbness. 

  • Changes in Arousal and Reactivity:   Being constantly on edge, irritable, easily startled, or having difficulty sleeping or concentrating. 

  • Other Emotional Responses: 

    -Feeling overwhelmed, helpless, confused, or experiencing panic or anxiety attacks. 
    -PTSD can develop if symptoms become persistent
    -Anxiety
    -Depression
    -OCD symptoms 
    -Avoiding closeness in relationships, feeling clingy in relationships, codependence
    -Feeling unsure about your identify, lack of confidence, self worth, or self value 

     

Physical Symptoms

  • Sleep Disturbances: Insomnia or other severe difficulty sleeping. 

  • Physical Aches and Pains: Headaches, body aches, and other unexplained physical complaints. 

  • Fatigue: Excessive tiredness. 

  • Changes in Appetite: Alterations in eating patterns or a loss of interest in food. 

  • Other Physical Conditions: Trauma can also contribute to long-term physical health issues linked to stress, such as gastrointestinal, cardiovascular, or neurological problems. 

     

Challenges in Daily Life

  • Social Difficulties: Trouble maintaining relationships with family, friends, and colleagues.

  • Viewing the world or yourself differently, changed beliefs about oneself 

  • Work or School Problems: Difficulty completing tasks, holding a job, or performing well at school. 

  • Risk-Taking Behaviors: Engaging in self-destructive or reckless behaviors. 

  • Substance Abuse: Using alcohol or drugs as a way to cope with overwhelming feelings. 

  • Other addictions:  food, pornography, sex, love, shopping

  • Living Skills: Hoarding, difficulty with organizing or household hygiene

  • Challenges with executive functioning:  planning, attention, focus, or follow through 

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BELOW ARE SOME LIFE CHALLENGES THAT CAN MAKE A BIG IMPACT ON PEOPLE.
(Note which ones you've experienced)


___ Caregivers arguing, fighting, domestic violence, separation or divorce.
___ Foster care or adoption experiences 
___ Having a mentally ill sibling, child, caregiver, or partner.
___ Having an addicted sibling, child, caregiver, or partner.
___ Having a challenging sibling, child, caregiver, partner.
___ Having an emotionally unavailable, critical, or emotionally abusive caregiver. 
___ Sexual abuse, sexual inappropriateness, or sexual misinformation/shame/judgment 
___ Sex trafficking, forced childhood or adult pornography
___ Rape, date rape, sexual harassment
___ Physical abuse, physical neglect
___ Abusive or controlling relationships, sexual violence in relationships
___ Cult abuse, religious abuse, religious control 
___ Hoarding, disorganization, overwhelm in physical environment
___ Witnessing or being aware of the abuse of someone else
___ Not fitting in, social anxiety, bullying, social rejection, social media bullying
___ Shyness, lack of confidence, social anxiety, challenges with introversion
___ Challenges in school, academics, learning challenges, ADHD, performance expectations
___ Spectrum issues 
___ Financial challenges, poverty, food insecurity
___ Cultural challenges: racism, sexism, gender or LGBTQ challenges, immigration
___ Unsafe or harassing work environments
___ Death by suicide
___ Murder, homicide, death by accident, death by drug overdose 
___ Grief, loss, and prolonged grief
___ Infidelity, affairs, betrayal, distrust
___ Pandemic/Covid19 trauma
___ Fertility issues, miscarriages, challenging births, newborns with challenges
___ Diagnosis of a chronic illness, life-threating illness, disability, physical "differentness"
___ Weight, eating disorders, challenges with food, food addictions  
___ Car accidents, other accidents, or witnessing an accident 
___ War, violence, or witnessing war

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