When Care Becomes Harm: How The Healthcare Industry Fails Trauma Survivors

In a smedical industry built for efficiency rather than empathy, trauma survivors like me are left to fend for ourselves. Time and time again, I freeze or dissociate during appointments, and the doctor doesn’t notice.

They don’t record the signs of trauma, and there’s no recognition in my medical record of the neurophysiological condition that governs my entire life.

I need them to understand the basics of trauma and the toll it takes on my nervous system so I can trust them. I need them to see that my survival depends on the level of care they provide, and more importantly, on whether they choose to listen. Instead, I’m forced to explain my condition repeatedly, to educate the very people who are supposed to help me. But the system isn’t set up to accommodate this. It’s 20 years behind in understanding neuroscience and 30 years behind in integrating the findings of the Adverse Childhood Experiences study into practice.

This gap leaves no room for the complexity of my trauma in their records. There’s no acknowledgment of it among most providers, and when I try to explain, I’m met with resistance. The doctors don’t want to hear that I know more about my body than they do because it challenges their authority. But I can’t afford to wait for them to catch up—I need care that actually supports my healing, not care that re-traumatizes me by ignoring my lived experience.

And that’s where the real harm lies. Not being believed, not being heard. It’s the worst feeling, and it only deepens the trauma. When my experiences are dismissed, it tells me that my reality doesn’t matter, that my pain isn’t valid. It keeps me trapped in a cycle where I can’t heal because the very system meant to help me is the one keeping me stuck.

What I need is to be believed, to be heard, and to be cared for in a meaningful way. But I don’t see that happening within systems like the hospital conglomerate here in Upper Delaware. The system and structures were built in a way that makes it difficult for th to actually provide trauma-informed care. It’s not malicious intent but a flaw in the design—one driven by a domination culture that values efficiency and profit over people’s lives.

And who benefits most from that? The people with the most power and money. They tell us that it’s about efficiency and expect us to swallow it, but I won’t. I can’t. My survival demands more than what they offer.

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