How to Identify Trauma: Physical Effects

After a traumatic experience in the workplace, the fear and stress of returning to that workplace afterwards has effects deeper than the merely mental. As Whitney Marris outlines in her Trauma-Informed Workplace handbook, “Those with anxiety or depression reported missing, on
average, roughly six times more workdays per year than individuals without a mental health
condition.” This statistic is not entirely made up of mental health days: individuals carrying trauma can develop severe physical effects, from chronic illness to fatigue, that may necessitate taking more sick days. As much as treating the symptoms with doctor visits and ibuprofen may feel helpful, the problems will continue until the root cause of the problem, the trauma, is treated. Here are some physical effects of trauma that should alert you to a deeper underlying issue.

Chronic Illness and Trauma

Stress is a commonly identified cause of bodily shutdown, but what happens if a deeply embedded trauma causes continual stress throughout the body over time?

This can trigger the development of a chronic illness, a long term and recurring health issue that may remain longer than the trauma itself does. Chronic illness can refer to a number of issues, but with stress is often related to a breakdown of the immune system, unwarranted exhaustion after sustained periods of rest, and pain throughout the body. A person with an immune system breakdown may become sick more often, thus taking more time off for recovery.

There are a number of supplements and treatments that can help to rebuild the immune system. When chronic illness is triggered by trauma, however, these treatments may only serve as band-aid solutions. When trauma is healed and continual stressors removed, the immune system can begin to heal more effectively.

Somatic Distress

While not necessarily being indicative of a viral or chronic illness, somatic complaints, a common effect of trauma, can cause difficulties in the workplace. These include recurring headaches, stomachaches, and fatigue caused by bodily hypervigilance to threats; all leading to the repeated distraction of pain which can develop into further exhaustion.

Exhaustion, pain, and distraction in the workplace can put employees at risk, possibly causing further traumatic incidents. While somatic distress signs are often treated lightly, the long term effects of these can be disastrous if not taken seriously.

Solutions

• Be Aware of Available Resources: Your workplace likely has numerous resources for dealing with the physical effects of trauma, such as workplace counselors or doctor recommendations. Make use of them!
• Seek Peer Support: Forming peer support groups or finding safe coworkers to develop a safe dialogue with can cause vast improvements in personal comfort within a trauma impacted workplace.
• Seek Supervisor Support: Supervisors are knowledgeable on available resources and can help to personalize your work life to make the physical pains of trauma more manageable and less difficult in the workplace, but they can’t help if they don’t know!

If you would like to become a psychologically safe workplace, check out Barb Carr’s Psychology of Improvement Track at the 2025 TapRooT® Summit.

For more information about traumatic incidents in the workplace, check out our podcast video, How Near Misses Impact Workers Emotionally.

To know how to develop a more trauma-informed environment, visit Whitney Marris’ Workplace Toolkit.

To read more about how workplace incidents impact employee psychology, read our blog on The Psychological Impact of Near Misses.