 Have you ever had a traumatic experience in your life? Even if you've never been in an accident, had your life threatened, or have been in serious physical danger, the answer can still be yes. A traumatic experience can refer to any situation that evokes an intense, overwhelming, and long-lasting sense of fear, anxiety, and stress. Emotional and psychological trauma is something, unfortunately, a lot of people go through. If left unresolved, trauma in any form can manifest in negative, cognitive, behavioral, or even physiological ways. Here are seven signs that you're not broken, but may be struggling with some unhealed trauma. Number one, you are in a toxic relationship. Many people are uncomfortable with seeking help or reaching out about toxic relationships. This is most likely because while it may be easy to spot toxic relationships from afar, it's a lot harder to do up close and personal, especially with our own feelings clouding our judgment. And living with the emotional baggage a toxic relationship brings can lead to a lot of problematic behaviors that make it more difficult for us to connect with other people in a healthy, meaningful, and emotionally intimate way. Number two, you suffered a significant loss. Another reason why a lot of people may suffer from psychological trauma is if they have recently experienced a significant loss in their lives that they don't know how to deal with. Grief, if left unresolved, can lead us to become more detached and isolate ourselves from those around us. It may make it more difficult to sleep, concentrate, or think clearly. And it could lead us to become moodier and emotionally volatile, prone to lashing out or breaking down over seemingly nothing. Number three, you have certain triggers. Even if you feel that you already moved on from your difficult past, unresolved trauma may still linger in your subconscious and form triggers. Triggers are defined as provocative content, images or speech that evokes an immediate emotional or psychological response, such as panic, anxiety, stress, tension, dissociation, or extreme discomfort. So when you feel triggered by things that you may or may not associate with a traumatic event in your life, then there's most likely still some unhealed trauma blocking your path towards mental, physical, and emotional well-being. Number four, you have unexplained symptoms. Similar to the last point, unexplained somatic symptoms are our mind's way of telling us while we might think nothing's wrong. We might still be harboring some psychological wounds that need tending to. So if you've been having symptoms lately that you or your doctor just can't explain, such as migraines, muscle tension, body aches, insomnia, loss of appetite, memory loss, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, low energy, and depressive effect, you might be better off speaking to a therapist about it than a physician. All these are common in patients suffering from PTSD. Number five, you struggle with emotional intimacy. Do you find it difficult to open up and trust even your closest friends and family members? Do you struggle to maintain close long-term relationships in your life or feel uncomfortable expressing your true feelings to others? This fear of emotional intimacy and vulnerability may stem from a previous traumatic experience in your life that you've not yet come to terms with. After all, trauma has the power to impact not only how we feel about ourselves, but also how we relate to other people. Number six, you suffer from feelings of depression. Although many people might not be aware of it, there's a difference between feeling depressed and being depressed. In certain situations, such as following the death of a loved one, a major event, illness, injury, and so on, it's perfectly normal to wrestle with such feelings. So if you find yourself feeling depressed after having experienced a traumatic event, no matter how long ago it may have been, then it might be your mind's way of telling you that something's not right and that there are still some issues you've left unresolved. And number seven, you have unhealthy coping mechanisms. Last, but certainly not least, even if you feel that none of the things we've talked about so far apply to you. If you have any unhealthy coping mechanisms for your personal problems, then it's a good sign that you're still struggling with some unhealed trauma. Alcoholism, substance abuse, gambling, overspending, over-eating, withdrawing socially, and self-harming are just a few of the most common examples. Oftentimes, we turn to these problematic coping mechanisms when we don't want to acknowledge or don't know how to process what it is we're feeling and what to do about it. So do you relate to any of the things we've mentioned here? Please don't hesitate to reach out to a mental health care professional so you can better understand your trauma and how it's affecting your life. Healing from trauma takes time, but seeking help is the first step towards recovery.