so today we're going to talk about what actually happens to our brains and our bodies after a traumatic event and why people so often blame themselves even when they did nothing wrong and what employers and managers and co-workers can do to help rather than make things harder our guest today is dr melissa kramer she's a trauma treatment director at idaho neuro physi uh physiology i want to thank you so much for joining us today thank you so much for having me on And Dr. Kremer, when we hear the phrase workplace trauma, what does that actually include? I mean, because I think a lot of people might picture, you know, one specific kind of event, but is it broader than that? It

is.

I would say that one of the biggest misconceptions is that if somebody isn't physically injured, that there's not trauma for them.

We know that if someone is witnessing trauma, narrowly escaping injury, performed CPR, your brain can interpret all of those things as overwhelming threats.

And what happens when that occurs for us is that our brain kind of goes into survival mode after that.

And people often experience poor sleep, hypervigilance, that means they're on guard and really kind of agitated all the time.

They have intrusive memories of what might have happened at the workplace, irritability, difficulty concentrating, even increased muscle tension and pain because their body is feeling that it has to be on guard or on edge all the time.

But no, I do believe the intentionality is good.

I'm gonna ask you about that in a moment, but yeah, Melissa, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I would say I've always been uncomfortable with the term.

It really implies that someone is overreacting, and for people with UTI who are constantly told in medical appointments that they're imagining things or they're overreacting, the, the term catastrophizing is just a really poor choice.

I also think in research it has its applications.

We do a lot of work around that space.

But when you're experiencing something like UTI, it's not unrealistic that that could lead to a kidney infection or sepsis.

And when you're peeing blood, it is actually serious.

Mm