The Impacts of the Human Trafficking Violence Trauma Experience

The Impacts of the Human Trafficking Violence Trauma Experienceby Bill Cottringer

I’m tired. I just want to go home. ~Anonymous survivor.

Helping survivors get past the violence trauma of a human trafficking experience is a challenging effort. It requires an informed understanding of the total impact this horrid experience uniquely has on each different person. Below are the various impacts of loss that each survivor goes through to some degree or another, which need attention by human trafficking service providers in their trauma informed care model.

• Personal safety and security. The loss of personal safety and security is just short of death with its impact on a person’s general well-being. This loss affects all the other ones below and is always a # 1 priority in safe houses for human trafficking survivors.

• Personal identity. When a person becomes a slave in human trafficking, all sense of a personal identity is lost. The central question becomes who am I? We all work hard to answer this question throughout our lives and when that can’t happen, we lose a critical sense of our humanity, which is extremely difficult to get back.

• General physical well-being. It is hard to be well mentally or emotionally when we are not physically well. The loss of all these other factors is worsened when our physical well-being is threatened or harmed in any way. Any form of motivation is on hold under these circumstances.

• General mental and emotional well-being. Mental and emotional well-being are always being challenged in today’s world of volatility, uncertainty, constant change and ambiguity. And the challenge becomes almost unmanageable during a human trafficking experience.

• Self-esteem and confidence. These things are stripped from a person immediately during a human trafficking experience and very difficult to get back. They are dependent on positive gains from many of these other losses in the recovery process.

• Noble meaning and purpose. Some of us search for a lifetime to find meaning and purpose to our lives. Those who are successful early on are usually the happiest. Human trafficking cancels these valuable things right off the survivor’s horizon.

• Sense of internal control. A person easily drifts into an overwhelming victim stance with zero sense of control over what happens during a human trafficking event. This can prompt complete withdrawal or extreme fighting, which often aggravates the situation.

• Independence. All sense of independence is lost during a human trafficking experience. Actually, independence is a half-way stop towards the ideal of interdependence, which can only be attained after many of these other losses are recovered.

• Hope. Without hope, living becomes drudgery. We need to at least have hope for a better day, when today isn’t so enjoyable. When we are miserable with too many of these other losses, life becomes unbearable. The lack of hope becomes pervasive, personal and permanent and any form of resilience is put to sleep.

• Support. The negative support given to human trafficking victims is the same as negative empathy. The lack of positive support and empathy can lead to an attitude of complete helplessness, which usually compounds hopelessness. Such a downward negative spiraling is very resistive to undoing.

• Personal freedom. The loss of physical and mental freedom in human trafficking is debilitating and can prompt very unhealthy responses and bizarre behavior. Being unfairly held hostage with no seeable way out, takes away all hope and greatly weakens any possible response.

• Personal interests. With the loss of such rights as freedom, independence, and internal control, there is no room to explore personal interests. And having personal interests and goals are a big part of happiness, but that may have to be taught in their absence.

• Positive emotions. The purpose of positive emotions are to let us know we are on the right path, whereas negative emotions are trying to tell us we may need a course correction or change in approaches. Without positive emotions, we can easily get lost.

• Good memories. If there are any remotely good memories from a human trafficking experience, they are washed away by a flood of bad memories. And undoing bad memories and replacing them with good ones can require much time and effort.

• Life skills. A human trafficking experience often interferes with the normal development of life skills. These are hard to develop in the midst of trying to rebuild all these other seemingly higher priority losses, but regardless they can’t be put on the back burner.

The bad news is that all these factors are very interrelated, meaning that they can each further compound the collective negative impact of the human trafficking experience. For example, the lack of positive emotions can take away hope, good memories, self-esteem, purpose and meaning. Fortunately, the good news is that the same effect can occur in a positive upward spiraling way. When support and life skills training are provided, then independence, internal control, confidence and mental and emotional well-being improve.