Secondary traumatic stress is defined as “behaviors and emotions resulting from learning about an unexpected or violent death, serious harm, or threat of death or injury experienced by a family member or other” (Figley, 1995).
I think we are really limited on the scope of trauma. We once thought only Massive issues caused trauma and we now know that trauma is also about perception. How we perceive experiences in our environment has a direct link to whether it will be received as trauma. We also as whole do not understand trauma and in many cases poke fun at it when we do not agree with it (think Trump syndrome). The reality is that people experience things differently. We need to accept that- A great example is the above definition of Secondary traumatic stress- We can experience trauma when someone we know is traumatized- interestingly, we can also experience trauma energetically- i.e. historical trauma.
Let’s learn to stay present within ourselves and be aware of our own actions. We don’t have to “change” for anyone but if we all stood in the realm of “being a nice person” We would have less trauma.