Sorry if this is the wrong place. So my partner and I ended up in the ER for 16 hours before anyone saw him, 1 in the afternoon till whatever 16 hours later is. He was apparently extremely low priority because dozens of people were seen before him. There was also a lack of water (no fountains in waiting area, 4 outside that only I could get to that were not working), food (not even any vending machines, everything inside plus outside closed for the night, not even a nearby 24 market or fast food place), places to sit comfortably (the chairs were metal, slick, and extremely painful to sit in). There were only about 2 outlets. There was constant noise and light, no way to sleep or rest, plus the constant fear of what might be hapoening, obviously we were in the ER for a fucking reason. I am terrified at the thought of having to go back, which we might. Physically shaking, having nausea, cold sweats, even faster heart rate. My brain just gets fuzzy and panicky at the thought. I just want to cry (but don't so as not to make the situation worse). But I feel like I'm overreacting because nothing terrible happened, it's not like anyone died while we were there or that my partner died or got hurt or anything, so I feel stupid for being so scared now and I feel bad because I have to be strong if we do have to go back and I'm terrified I won't be. I guess I'm just asking if it can do it as traumatic enough to warrant this kind of reaction, because then at least I won't feel as guilty about feeling this way. And if not, how to just get over it, I guess.
I think trauma is about how you personally perceive it. of course thats gonne be upsetting. i dont know when this was or if it was recent but i understand being reluctant to go back, i still feel gross going back to doctors even in less stressful scenarios i think that having that reaction is understandable, as returning to somewhere you experienced a lot of stress and ambigiouity is not gonna be easy on the phsyche a lot of the time
i asked my therapist this Q a few weeks back and she said that "an event that causes you to have anxiety" counts as trauma. and what she meant was if you didnt have that reaction to the ER before the event, but you have that reaction now, then the event was traumatic. and like the caused-anxiety can be super severe or more mild but she said even a mild anxiety reaction still technically counts. (if you want it to)
Thanks for the replies, I really appreciate them and your opinions and insights. Sorry it took so long to say "thanks", stuff is still pretty hectic for us.
