Reflections on Trauma from a Psychiatrist

The System Is Failing Trauma Survivors

One of the greatest disservices our system can do to a traumatized child is to label them as the problem and commit them to a lifetime of psychiatric treatment. After enduring some of the worst horrors in our world, these children deserve far more than what our current approach provides.

It’s well known that trauma rewires the brain. You will never be exactly the same person as before the trauma—and that’s normal. Healing doesn’t mean returning to who you were; it means learning to live safely and meaningfully with who you are now.

Yet our medical system often treats trauma as an illness to be “fixed.” When medications fail to bring someone back to their “old self,” we tell patients they’re treatment-resistant—as if their inability to become who they once were is a personal failure, not a limitation of our tools.

As a young trainee, I remember watching patients—from teens to Vietnam veterans in their eighties—remain frozen, living on long lists of medications without improvement. It was obvious something wasn’t working. I wondered why no one seemed to be questioning it. Why weren’t we, as a profession, listening to what these outcomes were telling us?

You Are Not the Problem

If you’ve experienced trauma, I want you to know this: you are not the problem. The symptoms you live with are natural reactions to profoundly unnatural experiences. To some degree, they’ve become part of you.

With time—lots of time—they can soften. Medications can sometimes help mask symptoms that interfere with functioning, like severe insomnia or panic. But they cannot erase trauma, nor can they undo the imprint it leaves.

It breaks my heart to meet older patients who’ve been in the system for decades, still cycling through experimental medication combinations, their hope worn thin. You deserve more. You deserve real care after what happened to you. And our medical system is falling short.

When Medication Becomes the Only Language

Many of my patients share a similar story: they were started on medication in their teens after a trauma or major loss, and decades later, they’re still on those same drugs—often with more added over time.

I’ll hear things like, “I was started on Prozac when my mom died at 15.” Now at 35, no one can quite explain why the medication continues. No one ever discussed stopping it, checking in, or seeing whether it was still needed. Somewhere along the way, the message became, “You’re defective—you can’t function without this.”

If I could accomplish one thing as a prescriber, it would be to empower those who’ve already had so much taken by trauma. You are not broken. You are not dependent on us to exist. Yes, sometimes medication can play a role—but you also deserve the chance to recover, to feel, to grow stronger through your own resilience.

I worry that the numbing effect of these medications can sometimes block the natural recovery process—depriving patients of the pride, the strength, and the inner healing that can only come from walking through pain and coming out the other side.

Healing Means Realism and Compassion

At Project Humanity, we want to offer another perspective for those who’ve experienced trauma. There are ways to heal beyond what mainstream medicine offers—approaches rooted in connection, time, and truth rather than chemical quick fixes.

After treating hundreds of patients with trauma, from toddlers to people in their nineties, I want to acknowledge your pain and say this clearly: you were not the failure. Our system was.

Real treatment begins with acceptance—that trauma changes us in lasting ways. Yes, some changes make life harder. But that doesn’t mean you’re “broken.” It means you’re human.

When I talk with patients about trauma, I try to divide the changes into two categories:

• What can I live with, even if life looks different now?

• What feels unbearable, and how can we help with that?

You may have to compromise—live within the limits of your new nervous system—but that’s not defeat. That’s wisdom.

You Are Stronger Than You Think

You are unbelievably strong. Life may look different now, but it can still hold purpose and connection. Lean on us when things feel unbearable.

At Project Humanity, we believe true healing begins when people are seen, heard, and supported—not labeled or medicated into silence. If this message resonates with you, join us as we work to bring truth, compassion, and education to families and youth—free from pharmaceutical influence and full of humanity.

Dr. Marissa Witt-Doerring is a board-certified psychiatrist and co-founder of TaperClinic, specializing in psychiatric withdrawal and safe, individualized tapering.