Pastoral Care for Trauma Survivors:
Congregation and Trauma Links
Links of interest to Congregational Support for War Veterans and Other Trauma Survivors
Trauma and Mental Illness
When people refer to "serious mental illness", they generally are referring to schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and clinical depression. While post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is sixth in prevalence among mental illnesses, it should be noted that a significant result of PTSD is depression.
Another way of distinguishing between mental illness and trauma is to think of trauma as a mental wound rather than mental illness. Groups like NAMI refer to mental illness as "brain disorders," which arise as biochemical disturbances of brain function, usually without human agency. Trauma, on the other hand, is most destructive when, as in combat, rape, domestic violence, child abuse, terrorism and holocaust, the trauma is overwhelming, it is intentional, it involves betrayal, and it involves fear for one's life. There are important points of convergence between the two perspectives. Damage to the brain -- mental illness -- is traumatic and involves pain. Painful trauma, on the otherhand, can cause damage to the brain. Regardless of the distinctions between trauma and mental illness, many of the approaches recommended to congregations are similar.
A symptom-based approach may lead to a mental illness diagnosis but does not necessarily uncover underlying trauma. A trauma-based approach typically discoveres that large numbers of persons diagnosed with mental illnesses are also trauma survivors. A trauma approach would assert that the mental illness cannot be adequately addressed without also addressing the unresolved trauma issues.
Given this strong interplay between trauma and mental illness, the International Conference of War Veteran Ministers is a national member organization of Pathways to Promise: Ministry and Mental Illness.
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