Did You Know That…
Sometimes people turn to alcohol and drugs to deal
with stressful and even traumatic experiences.
A traumatic event is a time in your life when something very scary, sad, or
dangerous happens to you or someone close to you. It can be something
that you saw or something that you went through, and it might have made
you believe that you or someone else was going to die or was going to get
very badly hurt physically or emotionally.
Traumatic events might happen only once and last a short time, or they
might happen many times over many months or even years. After these
traumatic events you might have very strong feelings that you feel you cannot
control—like feeling really scared, horrified, and helpless.
A traumatic event includes being physically or sexually abused or seeing
these things happen to someone you care about. Sometimes a traumatic
event can be seeing violent things happening in your neighborhood or at
school, or when someone you love dies. Being in a natural disaster like a
hurricane or tornado, or a disaster caused by people like a fire or terrorist
attack are also examples of traumatic events. There can be other forms of
traumatic events. If something happens that scares or upsets you to the
point that it is very hard for you to deal with, it is a traumatic event.