Month: April 2026

A peer-reviewed exploration of how unresolved trauma rewires the brain, regulates the nervous system, and silently orchestrates our everyday lives.

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There is a particular kind of suffering that doesn’t announce itself with a single, datable event. It doesn’t always arrive in the form of a car accident, a natural disaster, or a violent assault — the traumas most commonly depicted in clinical textbooks. Instead, it accumulates. It seeps in through years of emotional neglect, through childhoods spent walking on eggshells, through relationships that felt unsafe, through the ongoing experience of being small in a world that felt threatening. This is complex trauma, and its effects are as pervasive as they are often invisible — to others, and sometimes even to the person living inside them.

In 1994, psychiatrist and Harvard scholar Judith Lewis Herman first articulated the concept of Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) in her landmark book Trauma and Recovery, arguing that the diagnostic framework available at the time failed to capture the full range of psychological devastation wrought by prolonged, repeated traumatisation — particularly when it occurs in childhood, within relationships, and from which there is little or no escape (Herman, 1992). Decades later, the World Health Organisation formally recognised C-PTSD as a distinct diagnosis in its ICD-11 classification (2019), distinguishing it from standard PTSD as a more severe subtype that is more common following repeated interpersonal trauma, with prominent disturbances of emotion regulation, self-identity, and relational capacities.

But the question that haunts clinicians, researchers, and the people living with it remains: how, exactly, does trauma get under the skin? And what does it actually look like — not in a clinical checklist, but in the texture of a real human life?

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The Brain on Alert: What Trauma Does to Your Neurobiology

To understand complex trauma, we first need to understand what happens inside the brain when threat — especially repeated threat — rewires the system designed to protect us.

The human stress response is centred on what is sometimes called the threat triad: the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex. The hippocampus, amygdala, and the medial prefrontal cortex are all important limbic structures involved in the processes that undermine mental health, and hyperarousal of the sympathetic nervous system with sustained allostatic load along the Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis has been theorised as the basis for adult psychopathology following early childhood trauma.

In plain terms: when a threat is perceived, the amygdala — our brain’s alarm system — fires first. The amygdala instantly sends signals to the hypothalamus and brainstem, which results in activation of the autonomic nervous system and secretion of cortisol and catecholamines, the key drivers of stress reactions. This is adaptive. Under normal circumstances, once the danger passes, the prefrontal cortex helps regulate the alarm back down. But when stress is chronic — when there is no “once the danger passes” — the system becomes recalibrated.

Research has demonstrated what happens to these structures under prolonged duress. Chronic stress exposure leads to dendritic atrophy in the prefrontal cortex, dendritic extension in the amygdala, and strengthening of the noradrenergic system. High levels of norepinephrine release during stress rapidly impair the top-down cognitive functions of the prefrontal cortex, while strengthening the emotional and habitual responses of the amygdala. In other words: the rational, regulating part of the brain shrinks back; the reactive, threat-detecting part grows stronger.

Neuroimaging data reinforces this picture. Research consistently shows altered connectivity between the insula, amygdala, and prefrontal regions in individuals with PTSD, with hyperactivation of the amygdala and insula coupled with hypoactivation of prefrontal regions during emotion processing and regulation tasks — an altered connectivity pattern thought to contribute to heightened threat sensitivity and difficulties in emotion regulation.

The world’s largest childhood trauma study, published in 2024 by researchers at the University of Essex, uncovered a disruption in neural networks involved in self-focus and problem-solving, meaning that those under 18 who experienced abuse may struggle with emotions, empathy, and understanding their own bodies.

This is not metaphorical damage. It is measurable, structural, and neurologically real — and it shapes everything that follows.

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The Body Keeps the Score: Physical Manifestations of Unresolved Trauma

Bessel van der Kolk’s seminal phrase — that the body keeps the score — has entered popular consciousness for good reason. It describes something clinicians and survivors have long observed: that unresolved trauma does not stay neatly contained in the mind. It lives in the muscles, the gut, the skin, the breath.

Individuals with C-PTSD often exhibit a heightened or diminished awareness of internal bodily sensations, such as heart rate or respiratory changes, which in turn affects their ability to regulate emotional responses to stress or trauma cues appropriately. This disruption of interoception — the ability to sense and interpret one’s own bodily signals — is central to understanding why so many trauma survivors find it difficult to know what they are feeling, or feel overwhelmed by physical sensations without understanding why.

The autonomic nervous system (ANS), which governs involuntary functions like heart rate, digestion, and breathing, is thrown into chronic dysregulation. Two PTSD subtypes have been proposed: a dissociative (hyporeactive) subtype characterised by extreme inhibition of emotion, and a re-experiencing/hyperaroused subtype characterised by under-modulation of emotion. One person with complex trauma may be perpetually activated — heart racing, muscles braced, breath shallow, unable to relax in quiet moments. Another may feel chronically numb, flat, and disconnected from their own physical experience. Both are responses to the same underlying dysregulation, expressed differently.

Common physical symptoms include persistent sleep difficulties and nightmares, chronic muscle tension, jaw clenching and headaches, gastrointestinal problems, and an exaggerated startle response — the flinch at a door slamming, the spike of panic at an unexpected touch. Perhaps most confounding is the presence of chronic pain without a clear medical explanation, which is increasingly understood not as psychosomatic dismissal but as a genuine physiological consequence of a nervous system that has been held in prolonged fight-flight-freeze activation.

Symptoms related to arousal and reactivity — such as irritability, hypervigilance, and sleep disturbances — are associated with dysregulation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, increased activity of the noradrenergic system, and weakened inhibition of limbic systems by the frontal cortex. Together, these neurobiological changes sustain the chronic dysregulation of systems responsible for fear, arousal, and emotional control.

For many survivors, these physical symptoms are the first — or only — place the trauma appears. They visit doctors for fatigue, for chronic pain, for digestive issues, never connecting these to experiences that may have happened decades earlier. The body, as van der Kolk observed, never forgets.

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The Emotional Landscape: Feeling Too Much, Feeling Nothing, or Oscillating Between the Two

The emotional signature of complex trauma is not one thing. It is a constellation — and it is often internally contradictory. Survivors may describe feeling intense, overwhelming emotion that seems disproportionate to any visible trigger, while also describing long stretches of emotional numbness or flatness, as though a dimmer switch has been turned down on their inner life.

Complex PTSD was formulated to include, in addition to the core PTSD symptoms, dysregulation in three psychobiological areas: emotion processing, self-organisation (including bodily integrity), and relational security. The emotional dysregulation that characterises C-PTSD is not simply moodiness or sensitivity — it is a nervous system that has lost the capacity for flexible, graduated response, instead lurching between extremes: flooded and overwhelmed, or shut down and dissociated.

Shame is a central emotional feature, often more prominent than fear in complex trauma — particularly when the trauma was interpersonal and relational. Individuals with clinical levels of dissociation display increased levels of both state and trait guilt and shame, coupled with a tendency toward social withdrawal and an obsessive preoccupation with social interactions. This shame is not a rational judgement. It is somatic, preverbal, often arriving before conscious thought, producing a pervasive sense of being fundamentally flawed or different from other people.

Other common emotional experiences include persistent anxiety or a low-grade, free-floating dread that is hard to attribute to any single cause; depression; grief; and a deep difficulty trusting others — not as a choice, but as a nervous system default shaped by past experience of betrayal or abandonment. Rapid mood shifts, difficulty feeling pleasure, and a sense of being disconnected from oneself or from one’s life are also frequently reported.

What makes the emotional experience of complex trauma so disorienting — and so often misunderstood by others — is that these responses are frequently not linked to what is visibly happening in the present. A benign comment, a tone of voice, the smell of a particular place: these can trigger a cascade of emotion that, to an outside observer, seems entirely out of proportion. The key word is trigger — and it speaks to a nervous system that has learned to pattern-match present cues to past danger with alarming efficiency.

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The Cognitive Architecture of Trauma: How It Reshapes Thought

Complex trauma does not merely colour how a person feels. It rewrites how they think — about the world, about other people, and most profoundly, about themselves.

Prolonged and complex trauma exposure leads to the establishment of highly probable hypotheses — for example, perceiving situations as unsafe or others as inherently dangerous — that are based on the impact of the trauma and the physiological response it triggers. Such trauma-based predictions often get reactivated in later situations, regardless of whether they match current sensory data, allowing them to override actual perceptions and elicit negative emotions tied to present circumstances instead of being correctly attributed to past events.

This is one of the most important — and least appreciated — aspects of complex trauma: it is a predictive system. The brain, having learned that certain patterns were dangerous, pre-empts new experience by applying old templates. What looks from the outside like an irrational response is, from inside the traumatised nervous system, a completely logical extension of what was learned.

Common cognitive patterns include intrusive thoughts and unwanted memories that break through without warning; flashbacks, in which the emotional and sensory reality of a past event is re-experienced as though it were happening now; difficulty concentrating; and what many survivors describe as “brain fog” — a sense of mental slowness or inability to think clearly that reflects the prefrontal cortex’s compromised functioning.

Dissociation deserves particular attention here. Trauma-related dissociation is a biological response to a stressful event in which the victim finds themselves in a completely helpless situation, to which the body responds by stopping processing perceptual, cognitive, and emotional information. In complex trauma, this can manifest as memory gaps, a sense of watching oneself from the outside (depersonalisation), feelings that the world is unreal or dreamlike (derealisation), or the more complete “spacing out” that renders a person temporarily absent from a conversation or situation. Far from being a dramatic phenomenon, many survivors experience low-grade, everyday dissociation — the phenomenon of “losing” large portions of a day, or not being able to remember much of childhood.

Complex trauma occurring within attachment relationships would interrupt emotional development and the development of social cognition and social information processing. This manifests in the cognitive realm as difficulty reading social situations accurately, misinterpreting others’ intentions (typically in the direction of perceived threat), and an impaired capacity for what researchers call mentalisation — the ability to understand one’s own and others’ mental states. Relationships become cognitively exhausting and confusing, because the mental models built from early experience are fundamentally distorted.

Negative core beliefs — “I am not safe,” “I am worthless,” “I am different from everyone else,” “I am fundamentally broken” — are not conscious intellectual conclusions. They are deeply embedded assumptions, formed in the crucible of early experience, that filter all subsequent perception. A compliment slides off; a criticism confirms what was already “known.”

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The Behavioural Imprint: How Trauma Lives in What We Do

Perhaps the most visible — and most judged — dimension of complex trauma is its behavioural expression. The patterns that emerge from unresolved trauma are, in a very real sense, adaptations: strategies that once served survival and have since become habits the nervous system cannot easily relinquish.

Hypervigilance is one of the most consistent. The person who scans a room upon entering, who monitors tone of voice and facial expressions with exhausting precision, who cannot sit with their back to the door — this is not anxiety in the ordinary sense. It is a nervous system executing a threat-detection protocol that was once, in a different context, an entirely rational response to an unpredictable or dangerous environment.

Avoidance — of people, places, conversations, and feelings that echo past pain — is another core feature. Avoidance mechanisms are associated with reduced functional connectivity between the prefrontal cortex and limbic structures, reflecting processes of emotional and cognitive suppression related to trauma. The problem is that avoidance, while offering short-term relief from activation, prevents the nervous system from ever learning that the avoided thing is no longer dangerous. The threat remains vivid and alive precisely because it is never re-encountered in safety.

People-pleasing and difficulty setting limits are particularly prevalent in those whose early trauma occurred within attachment relationships — where expressing needs was dangerous, and whose sense of safety became contingent on managing others’ emotional states. The adult who cannot say no, who exhausts themselves maintaining social harmony, who feels profound guilt or dread at the prospect of disappointing anyone, is often unconsciously re-enacting the relational dynamics of a much earlier, much more constrained world.

At the other end of the behavioural spectrum: sudden anger, emotional outbursts, or what appears to others as aggression or volatility. The affective domain problems characteristic of C-PTSD are evidenced by heightened emotional reactivity, violent outbursts, reckless or self-destructive behaviour, or a tendency towards experiencing prolonged dissociative states when under stress. These are not character flaws. They are the product of a regulatory system that was never properly developed, because the environment that should have co-regulated it — usually a safe, consistent caregiver — was not consistently available.

Increased use of alcohol, substances, or other numbing or regulating behaviours is extremely common, and again, makes perfect adaptive sense: when the nervous system cannot regulate itself, external means of regulation become necessary.

Perhaps the most enduring behavioural signature is the re-enactment of relational patterns. Complex PTSD is associated with traumatic events that start earlier in life and are perpetrated by acquaintances or family members. When the source of trauma is relational — a parent, a partner, a sibling — the nervous system learns that intimate relationships carry particular qualities: unpredictability, danger, simultaneous need and threat. Those templates, if unaddressed, get applied to future intimate relationships with remarkable fidelity, producing cycles of conflict, dependency, or distrust that can baffle and exhaust both the survivor and those around them.

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The Hidden Prevalence: Who Is Affected, and Why It Goes Unrecognised

A critical but often overlooked dimension of complex trauma is the breadth of experience it encompasses. While the public imagination tends toward extreme, dramatic events, trauma is substantially broader. Trauma exposure is common — lifetime estimates in the United States range from 50% to 89%, and in an international study of 69,000 adults, 70% reported lifetime exposure to a traumatic event and 30.5% reported being exposed to four or more traumatic events.

Crucially, C-PTSD is a stress-related mental disorder generally occurring in response to complex traumas — commonly prolonged or repetitive exposure to traumatic events from which one sees little or no chance to escape. This includes, but is not limited to, childhood neglect, emotional abuse, domestic violence, bullying, medical trauma, community violence, and the cumulative stress of marginalisation and systemic inequality. The question is not only what happened, but how long, how often, and within what relationship.

One of the most striking clinical observations is the capacity of highly traumatised individuals to present as high-functioning — capable, competent, even successful externally, while carrying an enormous internal burden. The dissociative and compensatory strategies that trauma produces can be extraordinarily effective at maintaining surface functionality, making it difficult for others — and sometimes the person themselves — to recognise that anything is wrong. The absence of obvious distress does not equal the absence of suffering.

Patients with CPTSD report earlier onset of trauma, more trauma perpetrated by acquaintances or family members, and more comorbidities than those with PTSD. This comorbidity — with depression, anxiety disorders, substance use, chronic pain, and personality difficulties — means that complex trauma is often treated piecemeal, its symptoms addressed in isolation from their common root.

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The Path Forward: What Healing Requires

Understanding complex trauma is not merely an academic exercise. It is, for millions of people, the difference between a lifetime of confusion about why they are the way they are, and a coherent framework that opens the door to recovery.

The same neuroplasticity that allows the brain to be shaped by trauma also provides the basis for healing and recovery — the brain can re-wire, the nervous system can regain regulation, and evidence-based trauma therapies and intentional lifestyle practices offer concrete pathways to support this healing process.

Treatment approaches specifically designed for complex trauma — including trauma-focused CBT, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing), and phase-based approaches such as STAIR — aim to work not just with conscious narrative but with the body, the nervous system, and the deep relational wounds that lie at C-PTSD’s core. Techniques such as Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction, which has been found effective in addressing C-PTSD symptomology, incorporate elements designed to enhance interoceptive tolerance and accuracy, facilitating a more nuanced understanding and integration of bodily sensations with corresponding emotional states.

The recognition that persists through all the research is this: complex trauma is not a weakness of character, not a failure of resilience, and not a permanent state. It is a deeply human response to experiences that exceeded the capacity of the nervous system to integrate — often with very limited support and at a very young age. Its symptoms, however disruptive, are adaptations that once served a purpose. The task of healing is not to extinguish those adaptations by force, but to slowly build the safety, the relational experience, and the neurological capacity from which they are no longer needed.

If something in this article resonates — if you recognise patterns that keep repeating, reactions that feel disproportionate to present circumstances, or a persistent difficulty feeling safe, calm, or connected — it may be worth exploring with a qualified therapist who works with trauma. The body remembers. But it can also, with time and the right conditions, learn something new.

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References

• American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.).
• Frontiers in Psychiatry. (2024). Tracing the paths: a systematic review of mediators of complex trauma and complex post-traumatic stress disorder. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1331256
• Frontiers in Psychiatry. (2024). A network analysis of ICD-11 Complex PTSD, emotional processing, and dissociative experiences. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2024.1372620
• Guzman Torres, E. et al. (2023). Predictors of complex PTSD. Borderline Personality Disorder and Emotion Dysregulation. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40479-022-00208-7
• Herman, J. L. (1992). Trauma and Recovery. New York: Basic Books.
• Kaplan Therapy. (2025). The trauma-brain connection. https://kaplantherapy.org/trauma-brain-connection/
• Kozlowska, K., et al. (2022). Childhood Trauma, the HPA Axis and Psychiatric Illnesses. Frontiers in Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2022.748372
• Lanius, R., et al. (2024). Reconceptualizing complex PTSD: A predictive processing framework. Neuroscience & Biobehavioural Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0149-7634(24)00305-1
• MDPI Journal of Clinical Medicine. (2025). Impact of PTSD duration on hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortex. https://doi.org/10.3390/jcm14207242
• MDPI International Journal of Molecular Sciences. (2025). Hyperarousal, dissociation, emotion dysregulation and re-experiencing. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijms26115216
• Quirk, G. J. & Beer, J. S. (2014). The effects of stress exposure on prefrontal cortex. PMC. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4244027/
• Siciliano, R. E. & Compas, B. E. (2022). Autonomic nervous system correlates of posttraumatic stress symptoms in youth. Clinical Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2022.102125
• Stein, M. B. & Bhatt, D. (2024). Neurobiology and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.ajp.20240536
• University of Essex. (2024). World’s largest childhood trauma study uncovers brain rewiring. ScienceDaily. https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2024/02/240205165831.htm
• van Dijke, A., et al. (2015). Association of childhood complex trauma and dissociation with C-PTSD symptoms in adulthood. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation. https://doi.org/10.1080/15299732.2015.1016253
• van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Viking.
• World Health Organization. (2019). International Classification of Diseases (11th ed.).

NOTE: All these skills will require practice

1. Cognitive (thinking) techniques

• Identify your stressors or potential stressors. Sometimes, “stress” is frustration or fear in disguise.
• Plan ahead
• Decision making and problem solving
• Accept what we cannot change

Changing how we see stressful situations

We may not be able to change our circumstances, but we can see them differently (Forsyth & Eifert, 2016). For example, stress can be viewed as an experience that will support our learning, growth, and personal development.

Technique: Accept – Choose – Take action

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) has proven valuable for people learning to manage anxiety and stress; it encourages:

• Letting go of the struggles that keep them stuck
• Cultivating peace of mind
• Accepting what is, and doing what works

Rather than struggle to reduce stress and anxiety, we:

a. accept what we are already experiencing and then 

b. choose the direction we would like our life to take, and then

c. take action that reflects are values

Technique: Radical acceptance

Radical acceptance is often practiced within Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT).  Radical acceptance is based on the notion that suffering does not come directly from painful experiences but our attachment to them. For example, workplace stress may be more about your identity and status in the workplace rather than the stress itself.

Radical acceptance means fully accepting everything that you are experiencing in the present moment i.e., thoughts, feelings, emotions, body sensations, reactions, attitude, environment etc. We fully accept the present moment because what we resist persists. The more we deny reality the more painful (or unpleasant) we will perceive it to be. Radical acceptance is about saying “yes” to exactly what is happening for us in the moment.

• Radical acceptance is about accepting life on life’s terms and not resisting what one cannot or chooses not to change.
• Accepting doesn’t mean agreeing. It’s simply exhausting to fight reality, and it doesn’t work.
• Resisting reality delays healing and adds suffering to one’s pain.

Technique: Challenging core beliefs

Our core beliefs can shape how we face up to the difficult times and how we react to stress (Beck, 2011) and reconstructing them in a balanced way that allows room for perceived shortcomings.

Humans subconsciously “look for” evidence to support their core beliefs about themselves and the world.

You may have to take mental control to actively on-purpose look for evidence to the contrary.

Technique: Acceptance of our thoughts and feelings

The goal of ACT is to accept what lies beyond our control and commit to life-enhancing actions instead.

There are six core processes in ACT:

1. Contact with the Present Moment

Conscious awareness of your experience in the present moment enables you to perceive accurately what is happening Gives you important information about whether to change or persist in behaviour Enables you to ‘catch’ cognitive fusion ‘in flight’ Allows you to engage fully in what you are doing.

2. Acceptance

Actively contacting psychological experiences directly, fully, and without needless defense Definition: defused, open, undefended contact with the present moment, as a fully conscious human being.

‘Opening yourself fully to experience, as it is, not as your mind says it is’.

3. Defusion

Looking at thoughts, rather than from thoughts Noticing thoughts, rather than being caught up in thoughts Seeing thoughts as what they are, not as what they seem to be Aim of Defusion is NOT to feel better, nor to get rid of unwanted thoughts Aim of Defusion IS to reduce influence of unhelpful cognitive processes upon behaviour; to facilitate being psychologically present & engaged in experience; to facilitate awareness of language processes, in order to enhance psychological flexibility.

4. Self-as-context or The Observing Self:

Observe and accept all changing experiences.

How rigid is your thinking? Allow for psychological flexibility. Think in new ways. Consider other perspectives. Ask people for their perspective.

It is a process, not a thing: an awareness of awareness itself: ‘pure awareness’.

It is that aspect of a human being that does all the noticing/observing of one’s inner and outer world. You could call this “meta-awareness” or “pure awareness” if you prefer: it’s the awareness of one’s awareness, or the noticing of one’s noticing, or the consciousness of one’s consciousness.

5. Values

 Chosen life directions ‘Your heart’s deepest desires for the sort of person you want to be and the things you want to do in your time on this planet; in other words, what you want to stand for in life’ Provide motivation & inspiration Provide guidance for your actions Give life meaning Give a sense of abundance Are different to goals 6.Committed Action Overt behaviour in the service of values (may require skills training) Committed action is: values-guided, effective & mindful

Technique: Meditation for acceptance

Meditation is a powerful tool for accepting stressful situations and difficult emotions. Bring your attention, non-judgementally, to your mind, body, and environment. Here are some alternative definitions:

 “Bringing one’s complete attention to the present experience on a moment-to-moment basis.” (Marlatt & Kristeller)

“Paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally” (Kabat-Zinn).

“The nonjudgmental observation of the ongoing stream of internal and external stimuli as they arise.” (Baer)

“Awareness of present experience with acceptance.” (Germer, Segal, Fulton)

“Consciously bringing awareness to your here-and-now experience, with openness, interest, and receptiveness.”

Allow everything to be just as it is. Do the following to start for 2 minutes, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, or as long as you like, whenever you like:

1. Take a seat. Find place to sit that feels calm and quiet to you.

2. Set a time limit.

3. Notice your body.

4. Feel your breath.

5. Notice when your mind has wandered.

6. Be kind to your wandering mind.

7. Close with kindness.

Technique: Grounding and centering

• 5-4-3-2-1 Technique

Using the 5-4-3-2-1 technique, you will purposefully take in the details of your surroundings using each of your senses. Strive to notice small details that your mind would usually tune out, such as distant sounds, or the texture of an ordinary object.

Vision	What are 5 things you can see? Look for small details such as a pattern on the ceiling, the way light reflects off a surface, or an object you never noticed.
Touch	What are 4 things you can feel? Notice the sensation of clothing on your body, the sun on your skin, or the feeling of the chair you are sitting in. Pick up an object and examine its weight, texture, and other physical qualities.
Sound	What are 3 things you can hear? Pay special attention to the sounds your mind has tuned out, such as a ticking clock, distant traffic, or trees blowing in the wind.
Smell	What are 2 things you can smell? Try to notice smells in the air around you, like an air freshener or freshly mowed grass. You may also look around for something that has a scent, such as a flower or an unlit candle.
Taste	What is 1 thing you can taste? Carry gum, candy, or small snacks for this step. Pop one in your mouth and focus your attention closely on the flavours.

• Naming categories

Choose a category (e.g., colours, shapes, textures), then look around the room and name all of the things you can see in that category.

Cold water

Have a few slow sips of cold water, feeling the sensation of the cold water in your mouth and notice the sensation as you swallow.

Washing your face with cold water can also reduce your heart rate and lower stress levels.

• Counting

Count backwards from 20. You can do this as many times as you need to. Say to yourself that you are becoming calming as you count down each number.

• Notice your breath

Take a deep breath and as you exhale, imagine breathing out strongly through the soles of your feet. Feel the connection of your feet with the floor. Do this three times.

2. Behaviours that can protect our vulnerability to stressful situations

It is essential to consider what skills and tips we can use to manage stress and ultimately improve our wellbeing inside and outside work:

• Exercise i.e., running, swimming, resistance training, aerobics etc.
• Eating healthy foods
• Avoiding alcohol and other drugs
• Recommended sleep at the recommended times i.e., 8 hours during the night hours.
• See your GP if you are experiencing physical or psychiatric illness
• Spend time with family and friends
• Engage in a hobby or create a hobby
• Meditation, yoga, group exercise, group mindfulness classes
• Listening to music
• Setting a time to watch tv and having boundaries re length of time watching tv
• Read a book

Self-care tips

Life, and particularly work, can be stressful. Self-care is essential to keep us functioning well and improving our overall wellbeing (Bush, 2015).

The following aspects of our health are vital to our wellbeing and crucial for managing stress better. Ask yourself the following questions when your intuition tells you that you may be in a deficit:

1. Without sleep, we cannot think clearly – are you getting sufficient sleep?
2. Exercise is one of the best cures for stress – are you prioritizing physical activity?
3. Our brain is maintained by the food we eat – are you eating a balanced and varied diet?
4. Healthy relationships are vital for our wellbeing – are you making time for the people you care about?
5. Self-expression enriches who we are and how we live – are you giving the focus you would like to the things you are passionate about?
6. Community and spirituality ground who we are and how we live – how can you make yourself more open to both?

Managing stress in the workplace

Stress is a significant factor in many workplaces, resulting in countless hours lost due to time off or non-productive hours. We may think the responsibility is on workplaces to create environments that reduce stress and help workplace stress, but it’s also very much an individual responsibility.

Putting in place each of the following will help (modified from HBR guide to beating burnout, 2021):

1. Increase psychological safety
   Trust and collaboration will reduce the perception that the workplace is a threat.
2. Build regular break times
   We cannot focus for beyond 120 minutes without appropriate rest breaks. Build them into the day and encourage people to use them.
3. Encourage the use of private workspaces
   Open offices often have many distractions that can frustrate staff when unable to concentrate. Supply private workplaces where staff can focus without interruption.
4. Set boundaries around time outside of work
   The borders between work and personal life are often blurred, especially if working remotely. Set clear expectations and stick to them.
5. Create flexible work policies
   Juggling work and family life is not easy. Flexibility can remove or reduce that stress without feelings of guilt.
6. Make sure people are in the right roles
   When staff are doing jobs they enjoy and are well supported they thrive and take challenges in their stride.
7. Encourage autonomy
   Micromanaging is stressful for everyone. Give teams the autonomy to manage their own projects and staff their individual tasks.

3. Further Stress Relief Activities

Positive emotions such as joy, awe, hope, and optimism are essential to living the good life and are known stress relief techniques. They strengthen our psychological resources for overcoming tough, stressful times (Seligman, 2011).

Boosting positive emotions

• Practice gratitude. A helpful way to practice gratitude is to think of everything you have in life and imagine if something was taken away.
• Spent time with people who you love.
• Do something kind for someone else.
• Spend time in nature.
• Take a break from screens (tv, mobiles, computers).
• Take a break from listening to the news.
• Take a work holiday.
• Laugh more – find something to laugh about and share it with someone. How often are you laughing?

Build hope

Hope is a positive, optimistic frame of mind in which we expect good events and scenarios to occur. The ability to remain hopeful can help you bounce back more effectively from life’s difficulties when they crop up (Seligman, 2011).

Improving self-awareness

Mindful reflection can leave us grounded and better aware of ourselves and our situation. The Who am I without this stress? exercise helps us focus on what is “right” with us rather than what is “wrong”.

Once centred by our breathing, ask yourself to consider:

What do I value most in life?
Are my current stressors more important than what’s most important?
What do I enjoy doing?
What do I look forward to every day?
When do I feel at my best?

Change the way you talk to yourself

When we are stressed, we sometimes say negative or self-defeating things to ourselves. Unhelpful self-talk might include things like, “I can’t cope”, “I’m too busy to deal with all this”, “This is all their fault”, or “I’ll never get this done”. Negative self-talk can make it more difficult to manage stress.

Notice your self-talk and work on using helpful, soothing, and calming self-talk, such as, “I am coping well given what I have on my plate”, “Relax, this stressful time will pass”, or “This is a stressful situation, but what is one thing I can do to help me get through this?”

Ask yourself:

• Am I overestimating the likelihood of a negative outcome?
• Am I overestimating how bad the consequences will be?
• Am I underestimating my ability to cope?

The word ‘trauma’ originates from the Greek word ‘wound”, which at the time, was primarily used to refer to physical injuries. Today, trauma is also frequently used to refer to “emotional wounds” that can cause psychological symptoms any time after the traumatic event has occurred, including years later. Emotional and psychological trauma can be lifelong.

The word ‘trauma’ has been popularised, and is arguably used carelessly or inaccurately, to indicate almost any kind of unpleasant experience or stressor by an individual (Haslam, 2016). A stressful life experience is more commonly being labelled as trauma or a traumatic experience. While both stress and trauma can impact our wellbeing, we must differentiate the two for diagnostic and treatment purposes within the mental health field.

Emotional and psychological trauma is associated with significant unexpected incidents that are, or perceived as, threatening to a person. The most recognised examples of traumatic events include unexpected natural disasters, a serious car accident, war, rape, bullying/intimidation, or losing a loved one. Traumatic experiences are often described as overwhelm the nervous system and experienced as deeply distressing events, and adverse short or long-term impacts are commonly experienced. It is also worth noting that some people may not recognise they have experience trauma. I once heard a story of a boy in high school who accidently severed a major artery of his peer with a school prop while joking around. His peer was taken to hospital and survived, but ears later he began having night terrors of the incident.

The following is a definition from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) in the United States: “Individual trauma results from an event, a series of events or a set of circumstances that is experienced by an individual as physically or emotionally harmful or life threatening and that has lasting adverse effects on the individual’s functioning and mental, physical, social, emotional, or spiritual well-being.” (SAMHSA, 2014a, p. 7)

“Traumas can affect individuals, families, groups, communities, specific cultures, and generations. It generally overwhelms an individual’s or community’s resources to cope, and it often ignites the “fight, flight, or freeze” reaction at the time of the event(s). It frequently produces a sense of fear, vulnerability, and helplessness.” (SAMHSA, 2014b, p. 7)

The determinants of acquiring post-traumatic symptoms are influenced by how individuals interpret their circumstance(s), their developmental stage, cultural beliefs, availability of resources and support, and the physical and psychological disruptions they experienced (SAMHSA, 2014b). I have heard the word ‘trauma’ used to describe neglect and abuse during childhood. It’s important to note that while some caregivers may have neglected the emotional and psychological needs of a child, or used ‘smacking’ (positive punishment) to discipline children, not all individuals will develop symptoms that meet the current criteria by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DMS) for Trauma. It is fair to say that all people have likely experienced life stressors that have conditioned them to think, behave, and react emotionally in specific or general social contexts, and will effect their quality of life and health.

As a rule of thumb, for trauma to be classified as a clinical psychological or emotional condition, I consider the 4 D’s: is there post-traumatic symptoms of DISTRESS, DYSFUNCTION in daily living, DANGER (to self or others), or DEVIANT behaviour. I think the word ‘deviant’ has prejudicial connotations so to clarify, it means departing from usual or accepted standards, especially in social or sexual behaviour.

Thank you for reading. Of course, there’s plenty more to say on the topic of emotional and psychological trauma, especially how cultures differentiate it from more commonly experienced yet individually meaningful life stressors. Stress that doesn’t fit the clinical criteria of ‘trauma’ is still valid and can be detrimental to our health. It can be helpful to seek psychological or psychiatric treatment, or spiritual alternatives to traditional Western health care.

References:

1. Haslam, N. (2016, August 15). The problem with describing every misfortune as ‘trauma’. Chicago Tribute. From website.
2. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA, 2014a). SAMHSA’s concept of trauma and guidance for a trauma-informed approach. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. From website.
3. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. (2014b).  A treatment improvement protocol: Trauma-informed care in behavioral health services TIP 57. From website.

Across Australian Demographics in Today’s Climate: A Review of Current Statistics and Research | webbtherapy.org | 2025–2026

Introduction

Australia is navigating one of the most psychologically challenging periods in its modern history. Converging social, economic, and political forces — including a cost-of-living crisis, housing unaffordability, the lingering aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, and growing climate anxiety — are placing significant strain on the mental health of people across all age groups and demographics.

According to the National Mental Health Commission’s National Report Card 2024, approximately 3.8 million Australians aged 16 and over — nearly one in five — experienced a mental disorder in the past year, with anxiety and depression the most prevalent conditions (NMHC, 2025). This document draws on the most current Australian research and data to provide a demographic overview of the psychological and emotional issues affecting Australians today.

1. Children & Adolescents (Ages 12–17)

Young Australians are experiencing rising rates of psychological distress at a level that represents a genuine public health emergency. Multiple intersecting pressures — financial insecurity in the home, climate anxiety, social media use, and disruptions to schooling and socialisation — are placing extraordinary demands on developing minds.

Key Statistics

Psychological distress: A 2025 headspace survey of over 3,000 young Australians found that nearly half (49%) were experiencing high or very high levels of psychological distress. Among 12–14 year-olds, the rate was 31%, rising to 65% among 18–25 year-olds (headspace, 2025).

Financial stress: The Mission Australia Youth Survey 2025 found that 64% of young people aged 14–19 identified cost of living as Australia’s most pressing national issue — the highest level since the question was first asked in 2010, and up from 56% in 2024 and 31% in 2023 (Mission Australia, 2025).

Mental health concerns: Two in five young people (39%) reported stress related to their own mental health and wellbeing, and nearly one in five (19%) reported experiencing high psychological distress in the weeks prior to being surveyed (Mission Australia, 2025).

Gender differences: The ABS National Study of Mental Health and Wellbeing (2020–22) found that 34.2% of females aged 16–24 reported high or very high psychological distress, compared with 18% of males in the same age group (ABS, 2023).

At-risk subgroups: Distress rates are especially elevated among LGBTIQA+ young people (77%) and First Nations young people (59%) (headspace, 2025).

Contributing Factors

The National Mental Health Commission (2025) identifies multiple drivers of deteriorating youth mental health, including increased financial insecurity, concerns about climate change, shifting social connection patterns — particularly the move to digital interaction over in-person connection — changes in sleep, screen time, and nutrition, and the disproportionate socioeconomic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people’s lives.

2. Young Adults (Ages 18–35)

Young adults are among the most psychologically vulnerable groups in Australia at present. They face a unique confluence of pressures: the transition to independent adulthood, entry into an unaffordable housing market, tertiary education debt, precarious employment, and an uncertain political and economic landscape.

Key Statistics

Prevalence: Young adults aged 18–34 report the highest rates of mental health symptoms of any adult age group, with approximately 45% experiencing symptoms in 2025, up from 40% in 2023 (NMHC/AIHW, 2025).

Cost-of-living and mental health: A 2025 Compare the Market survey found that 72% of Gen Z respondents said cost-of-living pressures had worsened or triggered anxiety and depression, impacting their health, sleep and relationships — the highest rate of any age cohort (SBS Insight, 2025).

Housing stress: Australia’s Rental Affordability Index labels all major cities and regional areas as ‘critically unaffordable’ for people on lower incomes. A 2025 longitudinal study tracking more than 10,000 Australian renters found mental health declines sharply once housing costs exceed 30% of income (The Conversation, 2025).

Loneliness: Recent data suggests that 1 in 4 Australian men aged 15–34 report feeling lonely most days (Psychology NSW, 2025).

Emerging Concerns

Social comparison via social media, economic precarity*, and the perceived impossibility of home-ownership are contributing to a pervasive sense of hopelessness and deferred life milestones. Many young adults report anxiety about the future as a core psychological preoccupation.

*Precarity definition: the condition of existence without predictability or security, characterised by instability in employment, income, and social safety nets.

3. Men (All Ages)

Men represent a persistently underserved demographic in mental health. Cultural norms around masculinity continue to suppress help-seeking, while suicide rates among men remain disproportionately high across all age groups. In 2024, men accounted for 76.5% of all suicide deaths in Australia — a ratio that has remained largely unchanged for decades (ABS, 2025; AMHF, 2025).

Key Statistics

Suicide: 3,307 Australians died by suicide in 2024, of whom 2,529 (76.5%) were male. The age-standardised suicide rate for men was 18.7 per 100,000, compared with 5.5 per 100,000 for women. Men aged 40–44 accounted for the largest proportion of male suicide deaths (10.5%) (ABS, 2025; Life in Mind, 2025).

Working-age men: The number of suicides in men of working age (25–64) reached a record high in 2024 (AMHF, 2025), with males aged 60–64 experiencing an 18% increase in age-specific suicide rates from 2023 to 2024 (ABS, 2025).

Help-seeking gap: While men are 3.5 times more likely to die by suicide than women, they make up less than 40% of people seeking mental health support. Research indicates that 1 in 8 Australian men experience depression or anxiety, but fewer than half receive treatment (Psychology NSW, 2025).

High-risk occupations: Suicide rates among male construction workers are approximately double those of other male workers, with an age-standardised rate of 26.6 per 100,000 compared to 13.2 for other male workers (Lancet Regional Health, 2024).

Somatic presentation: Men are more likely to present with physical symptoms of depression and anxiety — chronic headaches, fatigue, back pain — rather than emotional ones, often delaying diagnosis and intervention (Psychology NSW, 2025).

4. Women (All Ages)

Women consistently report higher rates of psychological distress, anxiety, and depression than men. Additional psychological burdens arise from gendered experiences including domestic labour, caregiving, family violence, reproductive health, and workplace inequity.

Key Statistics

Distress rates: In the 2022 National Health Survey, women aged 18 and over were more likely to report high or very high psychological distress than men. Among young women aged 18–25, the rate was 34.2% — the highest of any adult demographic (ABS, 2023; Dharmayani & Mihrshahi, 2025).

Financial stress: 56.6% of millennial women surveyed in 2025 reported that cost-of-living pressures had worsened or triggered anxiety and depression (SBS Insight, 2025). Single mothers and women in casual employment are particularly vulnerable to financial-related mental health impacts.

Suicide: Women aged 25–29 had the highest age-specific female suicide rate (9.8 per 100,000) and accounted for the largest proportion of female suicide deaths (12.3%) in 2024 (Life in Mind, 2025).

Income and distress: Research from Dharmayani and Mihrshahi (2025), using Australian National Health Survey data, found that psychological distress increased as personal weekly income decreased, confirming income insecurity as a significant driver of poor mental health among women.

5. Older Adults (Ages 65+)

Older Australians face a distinct set of psychological challenges shaped by major life transitions — retirement, bereavement, declining health, loss of independence, and changing living arrangements. These experiences, when compounded by social isolation, can have profound effects on mental health.

Key Statistics

Loneliness and social isolation: According to the AIHW (2024), approximately 16% of Australians aged over 65 experience loneliness, and 11% are socially isolated. Research suggests loneliness may increase the risk of premature death to a degree comparable to smoking or obesity (Ausmed, 2026).

Depression in aged care: Approximately 52% of older adults in residential aged care experience depressive symptoms, while 8.2% of community-dwelling older adults experience depression (ScienceDirect, 2021).

Men aged 85+: Older men are at particularly elevated suicide risk. In 2024, males aged over 85 had the highest age-specific suicide rate of any group at 31.2 per 100,000 (Life in Mind, 2025).

Digital exclusion: Australians aged 65 and over remain the least digitally included age group, with an Australian Digital Inclusion Index score of 49.7 compared to the national average of 63.0 (NMHC, 2022). This digital exclusion compounds social isolation, particularly post-pandemic.

Contributing Factors

As identified by Engel and Mihalopoulos (2024) in the Medical Journal of Australia, the ‘loneliness epidemic’ represents a major public health concern in older age. Life transitions including retiring from work, loss of friends and partners, declining physical health, and the move to residential aged care all increase vulnerability to loneliness, depression, and anxiety.

6. Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Peoples

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples experience significantly higher rates of psychological distress and suicide compared to non-Indigenous Australians. These outcomes must be understood within a broader cultural, historical, and social context that includes the ongoing impacts of colonisation, systemic racism, intergenerational trauma, and ongoing barriers to accessing culturally safe services. Mental health in this context is better understood through the framework of social and emotional wellbeing (SEWB), which encompasses connection to Country, family, kinship, community, and culture.

Key Statistics

Psychological distress: In 2022–23, approximately 30% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander adults experienced high or very high levels of psychological distress in the four weeks prior to interview (ABS, 2024; NMHC, 2025). This is more than double the general population rate of 14% (ABS, 2022).

The role of discrimination: Analysis of the Mayi Kuwayu study (2018–2021) found that 42% of First Nations people experienced high or very high psychological distress; among those experiencing everyday racial discrimination, the rate was 49%, compared with 32% for those who did not report such discrimination (ABS, 2024).

Suicide: In 2024, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people had an age-standardised suicide rate of 33.9 per 100,000 — more than triple the non-Indigenous rate. This rate was 6.5% higher than in 2023. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander men, the rate was 55.1 per 100,000 (Life in Mind, 2025).

Anxiety: Anxiety was the most common mental or behavioural condition reported in the 2022–23 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Survey, affecting 21% of respondents aged two and over; it was 1.5 times more common among females (25%) than males (17%) (ABS, 2024).

Access to services: Around one in four First Nations people aged 15 and over (26%) would have liked to access mental health support but did not in the 12 months prior to survey, with access barriers particularly pronounced in remote areas (ABS, 2024).

7. LGBTIQA+ People

LGBTIQA+ Australians continue to experience disproportionately poor mental health outcomes compared to their heterosexual and cisgender peers. These outcomes are directly linked to experiences of stigma, prejudice, discrimination, and social exclusion — often described through the lens of minority stress theory. Progress in legal rights does not automatically translate to psychological safety or equitable mental healthcare.

Key Statistics

Mental disorders: People with a diverse sexual identity are three times more likely to be diagnosed with a mental disorder compared to heterosexual people (ABS, 2023).

Self-harm: Trans and gender-diverse Australians are twice as likely to engage in self-harm throughout their lifetime compared to cisgender Australians (ABS, 2023).

Psychological distress in youth: Among young people, LGBTIQA+ respondents reported a distress rate of 77% — significantly above the general youth population rate of 49% — in the Headspace 2025 survey.

Suicidality: Members of the LGBTQIA+ community report suicide attempts at rates up to 10 times higher than the general population (Lifeline, 2025).

Healthcare barriers: In the Private Lives 3 national survey, 57% of LGBTIQ respondents reported being treated unfairly in the past 12 months based on their sexual orientation, and 77.5% of trans and gender-diverse respondents reported being treated unfairly based on their gender identity. Only 43.4% of LGBTIQ respondents felt accepted when accessing health services (AMA, 2024).

Rural/regional compounding: Research published in 2025 found LGBTQ+ people in rural and regional communities experienced compounded psychological harm due to conservative social environments, limited peer connection, and inadequate access to inclusive services (Tandfonline, 2025).

8. Financial Stress as a Cross-Cutting Issue

Economic pressures represent one of the most significant cross-cutting determinants of psychological distress across all Australian demographics. The confluence of rising housing costs, elevated mortgage rates, rental stress, and a persistent cost-of-living gap is affecting people’s mental health in tangible and measurable ways.

Key Statistics

Financial stress prevalence: Close to 7 in 10 Australian households (69%) are dealing with significant financial stress, with 57% struggling to afford household essentials including groceries, utilities, and healthcare (Real Insurance, 2024).

Mental health impact: A 2025 Compare the Market survey found that nearly half of Australians (48.7%) said cost-of-living pressures had worsened or triggered anxiety and depression, affecting their health, sleep, and relationships (SBS Insight, 2025).

Housing stress: In 2024–25, an estimated 1.26 million low-income households were in financial housing stress, spending more than 30% of their disposable income on housing (AIHW, 2025). Almost half (44.5%) of households with a mortgage spent above this threshold (AIHW, 2025).

Skipping healthcare: Almost two-thirds of financially stressed Australians (65%) have skipped essential medical appointments — including mental health appointments — due to cost (Real Insurance, 2024).

Beyond Blue’s Clinical Spokesperson Dr Luke Martin has noted the bidirectional relationship between financial stress and mental health: financial hardship affects mood, cognition, sleep, and relationships, while poor mental health in turn impairs a person’s capacity to manage money and seek help — creating a cycle that is often difficult to escape without external support (HIA, 2026).

9. Summary of Key Themes by Demographic

• Children & Adolescents (12–17): Rising psychological distress (49% high/very high); financial stress at home; social media pressures; climate anxiety; loneliness; academic disruption. Elevated risk for LGBTIQA+ youth (77%) and First Nations youth (59%).
• Young Adults (18–35): Cost-of-living and housing affordability crisis driving anxiety and depression; loneliness; identity and purpose challenges; deferred life milestones; highest mental disorder rates of any adult cohort.
• Men (All Ages): Persistent help-seeking barriers; disproportionately high suicide rates (76.5% of deaths); somatic symptom presentation; high-risk occupations (construction); financial and work-related stress.
• Women (All Ages): Higher distress and anxiety rates; financial vulnerability; caregiving burden; family violence; cost-of-living impacts; elevated suicide risk in young women aged 25–29.
• Older Adults (65+): Loneliness and social isolation; depression; bereavement; loss of independence; digital exclusion; very high suicide risk in men aged 85+.
• Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Peoples: Intergenerational trauma; systemic racism; high distress and suicide rates (33.9 per 100,000); cultural disconnection; access barriers to culturally safe care.
• LGBTIQA+ People: Minority stress; discrimination in healthcare; three-fold increase in mental disorder diagnoses; elevated self-harm and suicidality; rural/regional compounding factors.

Disclaimer

This document has been prepared for informational and professional development purposes. All statistics and research references were current as at April 2026. Data from some primary sources have been collected in prior years; readers are encouraged to consult primary sources for the most current figures. This document does not constitute clinical advice.