The Role Of Trauma In Movies

Trauma is something that comes in all different forms. Many people deal with trauma in their own ways and different people cope differently. I have found this to be true in real life and in fiction movies and books. While scrolling through Netflix one night, I came across the Netflix Original Movie, “The Fundamentals of Caring”. At a first glance it didn 't seem like it would be something that would interest me, but decided to watch it. You could easily say I was judging a book by its cover because I ended up thoroughly enjoying the movie from start to finish. With is comedic aspects, it brought real everyday struggles to life but lightened them up in a positive way. Prior to taking a trauma class, I was never aware of all of the post traumatic growth which movies are based on. I always saw it as conflict and resolution but never looked beyond that. I never put more thought into why a person acted a certain way or why they did what they did post trauma until now. The movie is based around the character Ben, a middle aged man, who decides he is going to become a caregiver for an 18 year old boy, Trevor, who struggles from Muscular Dystrophy. Trevor is an anxious and cynical boy who has a fascination with landmarks but has never been able to travel due to

It was not all just about the happy parts of life but also was an accurate depiction of how everyone in some way or another is dealing with trauma. I love how this movie was able to show the stages of both Metahab and the 5 Domains throughout the whole film. A majority of the film focused on acceptance and adaptation but did cover each step. Being able to apply these concepts of post traumatic growth within a movie helped to me really gain an understanding of how it is not always an easy process, and it is not something that will always come quickly, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel and through hardship can come happiness, change, and