This event is retraumatising on several counts.
Firstly, she experiences the same trauma her mother experienced, having her child stolen. Secondly, she re-lives her own trauma of being stolen as a child. She may then slip into further depression and hopelessness, and the cycle continues.
Re-traumatisation can also be subtle. It might be being asked by a white doctor to give a blood sample. Being in a clinical setting, feeling like she has no choice but to comply, feeling powerless over the doctor’s request. This could be a retraumatising event.
People respond to trauma with flight, flight, freeze or fawn. The trauma response is not coming from the prefrontal cortex where she is rational about her actions, it is coming from the amygdala in the core of the brain that activates the adrenaline and fight or flight response. In this situation she may appear to act completely irrationally. It IS irrational. It is biological. It is her biological trauma response being triggered.
Have you ever being re-traumatised and ‘over reacted’? If you have, know it was your biology keeping you safe. Know that trauma is stored in the body, and with a trauma informed therapist you CAN work through the triggers and honour the body.