Coping with trauma
Trauma can present itself after a major incident, the loss of a loved one, a serious personal crisis or injury. When traumatic events arise in our lives we are often completely unprepared.
When a traumatic event occurs the first few days and weeks may seem unreal or surreal due to shock. Once this numb feeling passes it is common to experience an array of emotions, such as fear, anger, loss, shame, guilt, helplessness, and avoidance.
Feelings of fear can be associated with reexperiencing the traumatic event, through flashbacks, thoughts and dreams relating to the event.
Anger. People often question why they have experienced a traumatic event and feel angry that they have been subjected to a traumatic event by no fault of their own. Anger can be felt towards anyone within the proximity of the incident.
Loss. Often after a traumatic event you may feel as though you have lost something, and this could be a sense of loss you feel about yourself, your personality or your confidence.
Shame and guilt. After a traumatic event has occurred it is common for people to strongly criticise themselves for their thoughts and behaviour at the time of the incident. Often people go over the event and think about the things they did and didn’t do, and may feel negatively about their choices.
Helplessness and loss of control is commonly experienced during a traumatic event and can stay with you a while after.
Avoidance of things related to the event such as memories and feelings as well as discussing it with others.
There are also a variety of physical responses to trauma, including shaking, dizziness, nausea, headache, backache, palpitations, diarrhoea and sleeping difficulties. Women may also experience irregularities in their menstrual cycle and children may experience bed wetting as a physical response to trauma.
It is important to understand that these reactions to trauma are completely normal. Similarly, experiencing pain after trauma is also normal and to be expected as this contributes towards the healing process. There are some factors to consider in order to help you cope after experiencing a traumatic event. First of all, it is important to remember that the healing process takes time, and you should expect to experience an array of feelings and memories relating to the event. Secondly, sharing your experience with someone in order to express your feelings will help aid your recovery. This can be with a trusted friend or family member, a mental health professional, specialist organisation or support group. Finally, take care of your physical health. You can do this by keeping active and continuing your usual interests and reducing the amount of alcohol you consume, which can also help to reduce further problems.
You may need to seek professional support if you find that after implementing the above you are still struggling to cope with your feelings after a traumatic event. This includes if you continue to feel overwhelmed, experience disturbed sleep and nightmares, if your work/school becomes negatively impacted and if you begin smoking, drinking or taking medications excessively.