Over the last several weeks, we’ve explored what trauma and secondary trauma/compassion fatigue can do to your brain and how it can affect the ability to process or interact with others. Now let’s talk about the signs and symptoms we can look out for that may give some explanation to behaviors we see in the class.

It is essential to remember that trauma in schools comes from both sides of the classroom. But often it easiest for us to think of the student first, the young person who comes in the class who we know has suffered intense traumatic experiences, and we witness the triggered behaviors in our day to day work. However trauma responses can appear in many ways: a history of trauma or toxic stress may be present in the lives of your quiet and disengaged student, your fidgety and disruptive student, even your people-pleasing engaged student who is easy to be around. If we remember that all behavior serves a purpose, and trauma threatens our safety and security, each of these students we are describing above could be enacting behaviors that are meant to keep them safe and secure. In many circumstances, experiencing trauma can result in behaviors like:

• Dysregulated moods, sometimes with increases in irritability, anger and agitation, crankiness, or argumentativeness, defensiveness
• Easily distracted, sometimes with excessive fidgeting, looking around, hypervigilance, and poor concentration and memory, impulsiveness or behaviors that seem attention seeking
• Struggling with relationships, having a hard time making or maintaining friends, might shut down or have more problems with peers & adults, or struggle with peer pressure and feeling comfortable around others
• Higher frequency of sad or depressed moods, anxiety, worry, perfectionist behavior and high amounts of stress

As you read this list, you may realize that these behaviors and symptoms sound like a lot of students in your classroom. Maybe even in a lot of adults you know! This is not to say that every person you know showing any of these symptoms has experienced trauma. These symptoms can also explain struggles with Anxiety, Depression, ADHD, and other mood disorders. These symptoms can also be a normal and learned reaction to the changes in life through things like puberty and hormone fluctuations, grief and loss, or just having a bad day.

The important part to remember is that no matter the reason for the symptoms – every brain, every body, is in need of safety and security. Your reaction to the child showing these behaviors as a symptom of ADHD and the child showing the same behaviors as a symptom of trauma, should be both focused on building/maintaining safety and security first.

Over the last several weeks, we’ve explored what trauma and secondary trauma/compassion fatigue can do to your brain and how it can affect the ability to process or interact with others. Now let’s talk about the signs and symptoms we can look out for that may give some explanation to behaviors we see in the class.

What about on the other side of the class, the teacher. What do symptoms of secondary trauma or compassion fatigue tend to look like? Remember secondary trauma, also called compassion fatigue, is the effects of experiencing someone else’s trauma vicariously and the burnout of toxic stress. Signs of this could include:

• Dysregulated moods, sometimes with an increase in irritability, anger, reactivity
• Feeling apathetic, no longer caring about the things you used to, not getting involved or engaging with others like you normally would, feeling numb to things, shutting down
• Changes in sleeping patterns, eating patterns, and your normal behaviors – maybe being more withdrawn and isolative, or engaging in behaviors that you may have deemed risky before
• Harder time concentrating, being hyper vigilant, quicker startle response, feeling more anxious or worrying about doing things correctly

Again, these symptoms could be signs of Trauma or Secondary Trauma, Anxiety, Depression, or ADHD. These could also be symptoms of a medical issue, body changes, or just temporary learned reactions to a really terrible day. Having some of these symptoms does not mean that your brain is responding to secondary trauma. But the frequency, the amount, and the way these symptoms affect you matters. Your brain and your body also need safety and security; just like your students. If you are in a state of compassion fatigue you will not be able to maintain the unconditional positive regard your students need without getting the care you need for yourself first.