Difficult or traumatic experiences can have long-term health effects. It’s important to think about how stress could affect your health now and in the future. If a past experience is affecting your mental or physical health, there is help and support.
Highly stressful or traumatic experiences during childhood can have a negative effect on how the brain develops. This can lead to problems in physical, mental or emotional aspects of your life. Some experiences are more traumatic than others.
Examples of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) include:
Learn more about the effects of ACEs.
Learn more about how ACEs affect people as adults.
Learn more about toxic stress in childhood.
Learn more about: Abuse.
As an adult, highly stressful or traumatic experiences can affect your health.
Examples of experiences include:
Learn more about: Abuse and Mental health and stress.
People react in different ways to stressful or traumatic experiences. There can be a number of mental, emotional and physical feelings that result from these events. The following are some common reactions.
You might feel nervous, have a hard time sleeping well or replay the details of the situation in your mind. These thoughts or experiences are a common reaction. They usually lessen over time. Some people can go back to their daily lives fairly quickly. However, for some people the reactions last longer and can cause problems in day to day life.
These could include:
Anxiety – constant worry, problems sleeping, can’t stay calm, shortness of breath, or tingling in the hands or feet.
Depression – loss of interest in your day to day life, changes in eating habits, problems sleeping, being irritable (cranky), feeling hopeless or hating yourself.
Relationship problems – trouble maintaining a long-term relationship.
Harmful substance use – using alcohol or drugs to cope with symptoms or feelings that result from highly stressful or traumatic experiences.
Trauma or stress-related reactions – are caused by a traumatic event that leaves a person with mental and physical symptoms. These reactions last much longer and can seriously disrupt a person’s life. These can include problems sleeping, problems concentrating, flashbacks, being easily startled, feeling unsafe, or having trouble feeling emotions (feeling “shut down”). In some cases, these reactions lead to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which is a severe reaction to traumatic experiences. There is help for people with PTSD. To read more about it, click here.
Talk to your health care provider if you’re concerned.
You can also contact the AHS Mental Health Help Line 1-877-303-2642 or call Health Link at 811.
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