TRAUMA IS A SIGNIFICANT CHANGE IN WORLD VIEW
This “shattered assumptions” perspective highlights how trauma causes deep-seated cognitive shifts, leading to intense feelings of personal vulnerability. An overwhelming experience for someone depends on many things beside the longevity and severity of the traumatic event(s) including sensitivity of their central nervous system, age, health, general well being, security of attachment figures, and support in the past, immediate, and environment.
Shattered Assumptions: According to the shattered assumptions theory (Janoff-Bulman), trauma destroys core beliefs that the world is safe and that oneself is competent, leading to intense fear and anxiety.
Fundamental Changes: Trauma often alters views on personal invulnerability, the goodness of others, and self-worth. It frequently causes a, often, permanent shift to, often, seeing life as pointless or that one is fundamentally flawed.
Impact on Trust and Safety: Trauma, particularly interpersonal, breaks down trust in others and creates, often, constant hypervigilance (scanning for danger).
Rebuilding a New Worldview: Recovery requires integrating the traumatic event into a new, often,, more, often, realistic (but often, harder to live with) understanding of, often, life's risks, shifting from a state of, often, shattered, often, belief to, often, reconstruction of a, often, new, often, worldview.
Commonly Changed Worldview Beliefs:
"The world is safe"
"The world is dangerous and unpredictable".
I am worthy"
"I am broken, guilty, or to blame".
"People are good"
"People are untrustworthy/bad".
"I can trust others"
