Trauma

What we still don't understand about the T-word.

This essay will be a little more personal, as for maybe the first time publicly I start to finally talk about my personal trauma, and the difficulties I’ve had about communicating it. We’re going to touch on the Neil Gaiman case, as this is what a lot of you are here for, and the rhetorical use of trauma as an explanative factor for the claimants behaviour has often been invoked.

I’d like to do something against the norm, and talk about why an understanding of trauma is important, but also the ways in which ideas surrounding it are misused.

A few years ago I experienced domestic violence. It was unexpected, unprovoked and there was little in the way of acknowledgement from my partner that they had done anything wrong. After this happened a few times, I left. In all sorts of practical ways I was disoriented. I called a family member expecting emotional support. Instead their response more or less sealed in the trauma.