Healing after trauma: The complexity of social support
In the second episode of the second season Sex Education, which portrays high school teenagers’ sexual issues, Aimee, one of its characters was sexually assaulted by a man [1]. The male stranger ejaculated on her on the bus and the season explores her difficulties coming to terms with her trauma. Trauma has often been a precursor to posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), generating stress in normal situations due to its frightening memories [2]. When the victims endure PTSD, and the challenges that disrupt their core beliefs, they will cultivate personal growth, known as posttraumatic growth (PTG) [3]. One important factor in their recovery process is social support, which focuses on a supportive network guiding survivors to grow. The complexity of social support can be seen in how it is established, who can access it and how long it is maintained.
The importance of social support in PTG is dependent on the relationship between the element and survivors’ coping methods. In order to gain insights into how coping styles assist PTG, researchers surveyed 268 white individuals experiencing trauma from Northwest England [4]. It found that PTG relies on survivors’ adaptive coping, which gathers diverse perspectives in social circles to alter the negativity of their intrusive thoughts, which drive their cognitive assessment of the trauma. Avoidant coping spurs minimal PTG because hesitating to reflect on trauma deters survivors from disclosing them to others and depriving them of social support. Although emotional coping, involving revisiting the traumatic events, plays a beneficial role in gaining social support, it does not greatly impact PTG. The finding that adaptive coping is more effective in facilitating PTG than avoidant and emotional coping indicates that not all aspects of social support positively affects healing.
The mechanism of social support in establishing PTG after trauma is manifested in anti-sexual assault activism by sexual-assault survivors. A study investigating anti-sexual assault activism found it to be positively correlated with PTG among 282 U.S. sexual assault survivors [5]. Activisms foster greater interpersonal relationships by creating space for survivors to reconstruct the narration of their trauma through others’ perspectives. Through involvement in activism, participants feel a greater sense of meaning in life because working for social change instills them a purpose. Besides, advocacy can encourage effective adaptive coping through bonding between trauma victims, which shield them from the internalization of the distress caused by the oppressive experience of the sexual trauma. Still, participation in activism does not guarantee to erode survivors’ self-blame and shame due to the possibility of negative social reaction and coping during their involvement.
Despite being very beneficial to those suffering from trauma, the effect of social support can deteriorate once they stop accepting help in the long haul. A longitudinal research that recruited injury survivors across Australia found that high levels of PTSD symptoms were associated with a decrease in perceived positive social support between 3 and 12 months after the trauma [6]. This pointed to the importance of survivors’ perception of support, in which lower social embeddedness contributed to graver symptoms of psychological distress. Thus, the awareness that social support is available can provide greater protection against PTSD, particularly in a discrete trauma occurring in a stable social network. Furthermore, trauma survivors’ irritability may instigate conflict and worsens their perceptions of social circles. Thus, the study demonstrates the complicated effect of the severity of the PTSD symptoms on survivors’ social support.
Male victims of trauma face a tougher time finding social support because of society’s tendency to minimize and humiliate their pain. A study conducting interviews with military officers who have experienced sexual assault suggested that negative reaction to their disclosure disrupt their ability to trust and be intimate with others [7]. Participants report that they frequently seal their experience away from others and don’t communicate their incident to other military officers or higher authority. When they do, the response most often is disbelief, which is usually followed by contempt and harassment from other officers and reinforces the victims’ avoidant coping through substance abuse. In contrast, a supportive response invites lower distress, less self-blame and increased emotional coping. The fact that men have to hide their sexual trauma and struggle to gain social support after their sexual assault is disheartening.
The intersection between masculinity and race establishes another set of barriers preventing men from sharing their trauma in their social circle. A study interviewing black men admitted to a Trauma Center in Philadelphia found that they are at an incredible risk of not seeking help due to hindrances in accessing mental assistance [8]. The fear of being labeled as “crazy” by healthcare providers exacerbate black men’s willingness to discuss their trauma. Participants reported that conversations alone can evoke disturbing memories which complicated efforts in building conversations and raising awareness in the black community. Due to the lack of professional mental help, black men found spiritual support from their church members, leaders considerably helpful in alleviating the hardship of their trauma. Spirituality’s effectiveness in black men’s recovery demonstrated the importance of circumstances in determining how social support can best shape an individual’s growth.
In episode seventh, Aimee disclosed her incident to her friends and her fear to sit on the bus, which was met with similar stories from her peers [9]. They concurred that they should travel on the bus together to ensure Aimee’s safety, which was an empowering moment because it illustrated not only the necessity but also the sincerity of social support. The context is crucial for individuals to identify suitable social support groups and forms of support because social support is a complex psychological factor with numerous aspects. The availability of social support is also indispensable because victims of trauma must be aware of a space where they can cope with memories from life’s inevitable negative experiences. With the presence of mental facility, social support bridge individuals that are limited by social stigma regarding their gender and race.
References
[1] “Episode 2.2”. 2021. Sex Education Wiki. https://sexeducation.fandom.com/wiki/Episode_2.2.
[2] Growth after trauma. (2016). Retrieved 23 January 2021, from https://www.apa.org/monitor/2016/11/growth-trauma
[3] NIMH » Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Retrieved 14 January 2021, from https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml
[4] Brooks, M., Graham-Kevan, N., Robinson, S., & Lowe, M. (2019). Trauma characteristics and posttraumatic growth: The mediating role of avoidance coping, intrusive thoughts, and social support. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 11(2), 232.
[5] Swanson, C. S., & Szymanski, D. M. (2020). Anti-Sexual Assault Activism and Positive Psychological Functioning among Survivors. Sex Roles, 1–14.
[6] Nickerson, A., Creamer, M., Forbes, D., McFarlane, A. C., O’donnell, M. L., Silove, D., … & Bryant, R. A. (2017). The longitudinal relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder and perceived social support in survivors of traumatic injury. Psychological Medicine, 47(1), 115.
[7] Monteith, L. L., Gerber, H. R., Brownstone, L. M., Soberay, K. A., & Bahraini, N. H. (2019). The phenomenology of military sexual trauma among male veterans. Psychology of Men & Masculinities, 20(1), 115.]
[8] Jacoby, S. F., Rich, J. A., Webster, J. L., & Richmond, T. S. (2020). ‘Sharing things with people that I don’t even know’: help-seeking for psychological symptoms in injured Black men in Philadelphia. Ethnicity & health, 25(6), 777–795.
[9] “Episode 2.7”. 2021. Sex Education Wiki. https://sexeducation.fandom.com/wiki/Episode_2.7