Trauma comes in different forms and affects people differently. But there is a side of trauma that is usually overlooked: This type of trauma does not affect individuals, but groups, people who have experienced the same traumatizing event. This type of trauma is called COLLECTIVE TRAUMA because it affects a large number of people who share the same traumatic experience.
Examples of traumatic experiences that affect large groups are natural disasters, poverty, wars, raids by bandits. In such situations, not only is one person or family harmed, but the entire community becomes involved in a cycle of pain and discomfort, usually triggered by feelings and thoughts about the events that led to the trauma. When this happens, people get stuck in a state of helplessness and compulsive behavior patterns.
It is difficult for survivors of collective trauma to return to the life they had before the bond, and so they live in constant anxiety and fear from which they never fully recover.
Communities suffering from collective trauma suffer from economic stagnation and an inability to grow out of their current situation. This is unhealthy because it affects the younger generation who grow up in such adverse conditions and learn to adapt to the narrative they grew up with.
The best way to help people in such a situation is to offer solutions that will help them heal and free them from the shackles of their traumatic experiences. These methods should be constructive enough to change their destructive behaviors.
Psychological counseling is one of the most important services for trauma victims, it helps to alleviate their worries and suppress the voice of fear that perpetuates the cycle of trauma experience.
This can take the form of group counseling and individual therapy.
There are non-governmental organizations whose only goal is to help victims overcome such situations, and you need to help them get in touch with groups that have experienced trauma.