Great Minds: Hamish and Kyle - On lockdowns and trauma

In this web series, psychotherapist Kyle MacDonald and Nutters Club co-host Hamish Williams look at mental health and how to navigate some of the more challenging parts of modern life. Today they talk about trauma.

It was about this time last year that the topic of lockdowns came up again in conversation. If you remember back then, Aucklanders had only had a couple of short ones earlier in the year and unbeknown to us, a 4 month stint was about to come.

A colleague remarked to me, "You know I could do a bit of lockdown right about now, just a good 3 or 4 weeks would be fine by me".

I couldn't have disagreed more. The prospect of another lockdown filled me with dread. But come it did and as for me and my immediate family, we endured. It would turn out that for many people it was a horrific experience. I've heard stories that are absolutely shocking with some people classifying the lockdowns as traumatising.

It got me thinking on what is trauma? I've always thought of it as something people have after surviving extreme events in life, usually connected, but not limited to, abuse of some description. Being asked to stay home for four months might have been a challenge, decently an inconvenience, but could it have been considered traumatic?

"A pretty good rule of thumb for trauma is that you feel that you can't escape," explains psychotherapist Kyle MacDonald. "Trauma manifests itself as a failure of memory, we can't process the experience because the emotions it produces are too intense that we are revisited by the experience."

This manifests itself in feelings of hyper vigilance, nightmares or intrusive memories. So when I felt that bit of dread enter my thoughts at the mention of another lockdown, was that in fact trauma?

"Lockdowns were without doubt distressing for many, but that's different to trauma. If you're finding leaving your house difficult, or feeling constant fear about catching Covid its okay to describe it by whatever words you want to use," says MacDonald.

Words such as anxiety, avoidance or detachment might more accurately describe and help communicate what you're feeling. Regardless it's important to find the words that work for you.

If in looking at your own situation, it feels like you can't escape recurring thoughts related to lockdown, then know that you deserve help with that and a good first step is talking it over with a friend or family member. And if you need it, remember that the national mental health helpline is available to free call or text on 1737.