Two-thirds of Canadians have experienced traumatic events in their lives, StatsCan says

WARNING: This story contains discussion of suicide and traumatic events.

Firefighter Rob Leathen says he was haunted by the memory of a woman he was trying to save.

Leathen is one of the nearly two-thirds of Canadians to experience a traumatic event like a car crash, which is the most common type of traumatic event Canadians say they have been exposed to, according to the results of a new Statistics Canada survey.

Chances are, you or someone you know has been exposed to a traumatic event that leaves a lasting impact, based on the findings, which provide insight into the most common potentially traumatic events that adults living in Canada have experienced. 

In his 30-year career as a dispatcher and first responder, Leathen worked at a number of motor vehicle incidents. One involved resuscitating a woman who drove her vehicle off an embankment into a pond.

"I was responsible for looking after her airway," Leathen recalled. "The thing that really stuck with me with that one was … Well, her eyes were open and I'm looking into her eyes as I'm trying to ventilate her." 

The woman did not survive.

Statistics Canada calls stress a common experience. This week's report, based on its Survey on Mental Health and Stressful Events, looks at the connection stressful experiences that rise to the level of what they call "potentially traumatic events" have to symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). 

The vast majority of people who face a traumatic event do not develop symptoms of post-traumatic stress, thanks to resilience that protects us, according to psychiatrists.

Dr. Abraham Snaiderman treats and studies severe traumatic brain injury, and said the Statistics Canada finding that resonated with him was that about eight per cent of those surveyed reported moderate to severe symptoms of PTSD in the month before completing the survey. 

"A number of people when experiencing a trauma like a car accident will go on to develop extreme mood fluctuations, sleep disruption, reliving of the traumatic event in the forms of nightmares [or] in the forms of intrusive thoughts, what we call flashbacks," said Snaiderman, director of neuropsychiatry at the University Health Network's Toronto Rehabilitation Institute.

"The type, frequency and severity of traumatic events that a person has experienced can affect their likelihood of developing PTSD," according to the Statistics Canada report.

Snaiderman said he found that, with his patients, the more preserved someone's memory is of an event, the greater the likelihood of developing symptoms.

Repeated or severe trauma, such as rape or what soldiers experience in combat, can change how the brain is hardwired in areas encoding memory, Snaiderman said.