Have you ever been affected by a traumatic event that you were exposed to but didn’t actually experience yourself? If yes, then you’ve likely been impacted by vicarious trauma.
What is vicarious trauma, you ask? Vicarious trauma is when you experience physical, emotional, and/or spiritual effects from witnessing someone else encounter a traumatic event. This can happen whether you personally witness this traumatic event or when a survivor later recounts their story to you (or you come across it on social media, which I’ll touch on in a minute). You’re essentially vicariously affected through the process of empathizing with someone else’s traumatic experience. You may even feel as if you experienced the traumatic event too.
According to licensed psychologist Dr. Jennifer B. Hughes, vicarious trauma “occurs when there is a change in a health care professional’s physical and emotional functioning after working with patients who have experienced stressful or traumatic events. Trauma can be defined as a deeply distressing event that one directly witnesses or hears about. Potentially traumatic events include natural disasters, interpersonal violence, traumatic injury, war, divorce, and childhood abuse.”
As the quote illustrates, most of the research conducted on vicarious trauma has so far been centered on helping health care and helping professionals affected by this phenomenon. This is actually how I first came across this term as a social worker – I was trying to understand the emotional effects of being in a role that required me to coldly report the stories of people surviving the violence of poverty for grant compliance purposes.
But what if you’re not a health care or helping professional and you witness someone else’s traumatic experience and feel as though you experienced it too?
Although there hasn’t been a lot of research on this topic yet, one thing I know from lived experience is that vicarious trauma absolutely affects more than helping professionals. Just think about how social media has exposed us to all types of traumatic things happening around the world with a nonstop feed of information. Constantly absorbing trauma, even virtually, can produce the same effects as having someone recount a traumatic event in a clinical setting.
Not to mention that clinical definitions often ignore the trauma that Black and brown people encounter on a daily basis, witnessed both in real life and on social media. Consider the videos of Black people injured and killed that flooded our timelines during 2020. How does seeing people who look like us experience trauma over and over again affect us physically, emotionally, and spiritually? I’m not sure the effects of that can ever be truly known. But one thing is for sure – we’re being vicariously affected by what we’re witnessing.
If you’re experiencing vicarious trauma, please know you’re not alone. If you’re able to empathize with what someone else has experienced (which I hope you can), you’re at risk of encountering the effects of vicarious trauma. For those of us who are empaths, the risk is even higher. And if you’re someone who is marginalized in this oppressive society, it’s almost guaranteed that you will experience vicarious trauma from seeing others who share your identity be traumatized.
To protect yourself from some of the harm caused by vicarious trauma (because I don’t think it’s possible to fully shield yourself with so many traumatic events happening around us), it’s crucial to check in with your body and pay attention to its signals when you witness something traumatizing. Notice when you start feeling tense and disconnected from your breath and take a break to prioritize your wellness.
Remember you can always take a moment for yourself and breathe deeply, meditate, journal, or talk to a trusted confidant. Finding a community of supportive, uplifting people to unpack this trauma with can also be beneficial.
Vicarious trauma has real effects – physical, emotional, and spiritual – and it’s important to understand the harm it can cause so that you can protect your well-being as much as possible.
I’m here to support you. Sending love to you on your healing journey.