Trauma means wound, not weakness

The word trauma is Greek, and it means wound. Most people picture a wound on the body: something visible, which can be cleaned and bound and given time.

There are also wounds that nothing shows from the outside.

Why the distinction matters

If you treat your reactions as a weakness of character, there is nothing to be done about them except feel ashamed. If you treat them as a wound, there is something to be done: it can be tended, and tending takes time.

An untended wound on the body does not simply stay as it was. It becomes infected, it opens again, it interferes with everything else. An untended wound in the soul behaves in much the same way.

Not everyone reacts the same way

Two people can live through the same event and carry it very differently. That difference is not a measure of strength. It reflects what each person had around them: their history, their support, their resources, and what else was happening at the time.

He heals the broken in heart, and binds up their wounds. Psalm 147:3