Coping With Trauma
These are tips for self-help. If your symptoms are so distressing that you are in danger of harming yourself or others, or if you have an existing psychological problem, please seek medical help immediately.
REMEMBER THE 'BE FIT & Phys' coping reminder:
BELIEVE that you can find a way to deal with your reactions. You are not alone and most reactions show your body is responding as it should to a shocking experience. But even common reactions are distressing and you don't have to suffer alone.
EMOTIONS are better out than in - find ways of expressing them safely, watch for emotions you find hard to admit to such as guilt and anger. Write them down, draw or scribble them out, use physical activity or talk them through with someone who can handle the horror of your story. Draw or write about vivid images stuck in your head, turn them into something different.
FRIENDS and FAMILY, Social Role Let people you can trust know what is going on for you and how you want them to help you. Don't expect them to guess. Ask them for ideas if you are stuck. Find a purpose - a simple task at home, joining a support group, writing your story down.
IMAGINATION Use your imagination to change the images in your head - if you are ready to remove them, pretend they are on a TV screen and adjust the volume or colour controls. Try turning the images off and replacing them with pleasant images. Turn the images into a different story. (The images may be your link to the reality of the event, so you may not be ready to remove them yet.)
THINKING Plan a strategy for self-help of different kinds. Get information about post-trauma reactions. Images from what you saw, smelt, touched, heard and tasted at the time of the trauma easily get 'stuck' in the brain. It is the normal way humans react to stress so that they can survive. Self-help may not be enough to deal with these but try reading Overcoming Traumatic Stress by Claudia Herbert and Ann Wetmore (Robinson, 1999).
PHYSICAL Rest, relax, exercise, eat and drink healthily. Hugs help too - beware 'skin hunger' (skin is our biggest organ). Exercise, hugs, stroking pets all raise endorphin levels (endorphins make you feel good). If you are physically sound you can cope better emotionally and the images won't bother you so much.
SELF-HELP
If the images are not too vivid or have been passed on to you by others, you may be able to deal with them yourself. This is how I dealt with some images stuck in my head after being told stories about people's injuries.
- I didn't feel like telling them to someone else as I didn't want to pass them on or make them stronger in my head.
- First I found a friend to be with me. He suggested we sat in a nice place.
- We found a grassy bank in the sun by a fountain. All he did was sit there and make encouraging comments when needed.
- I told him how I felt guilty about getting rid of the images. It felt unfair to the people who suffered them. I had an idea.
- I lay back and closed my eyes. I pictured each image and held it up in the sunshine. I said a few words to myself to show that I honoured what that image represented about someone's suffering. I told myself that I did not have to keep that image in my head - it didn't help me and it wouldn't help them. I offered a hope for the person that they would find a way through their suffering.
- I used my imagination to let the image slip away out of my head. The sound of trickling water helped. I filled the gap with a beautiful image for the person who suffered.
- I can still see the image but it is no longer distressing - more like a photo in an album.
- Another time, I kept hearing about a badly injured person lying on the pavement in agony. I asked my colleague, who had worked in hospitals, how they would begin to treat such profound injuries. As soon as she began telling me, I noticed how the image that had been stuck began to move until I saw the person safe and being cared for in hospital. I realised how information can help shift an image. I also did things to move other images - like imagining it was just one frame in a film and I created what the next frames might be. Changing anything in an image, even its colour, can begin to unfreeze it and store it properly in the memory.