In medical terminology, a trauma is simply a wound or injury that happens suddenly or violently. Similarly, psychological trauma results when stress overwhelms a person and causes lasting psychological effects.

A traumatic event – whether a natural disaster such as an earthquake, flood or fire, or an accident, such as a car crash – can happen to anyone.

Fortunately, most people have a support system that allows for an intuitive, commonsense way of adapting to the trauma, namely sharing stories and emotional experiences with someone. In fact, talking about the event allows a person to “get a handle on it” and so helps it eventually to slip into place alongside other life experiences.

However, some trauma is not as easy to cope with and sufferers need professional help. It is also important to note that whereas an event may cause trauma in one person, the next person may be unaffected by the same event. Therefore, it is not the objective event or facts surrounding an event that cause that trauma, but a person’s subjective emotional experience of the event.

Tips for coping with trauma

The best coping strategy is to talk about the event with family, friends, counsellors or co-workers. Other positive coping strategies after a traumatic event include the following:

    • Maintaining a regular routine of eating, sleeping and working
    • Taking extra time to accomplish ordinary tasks
    • Acquiring the training, knowledge, tools, materials, etc. that would have made things easier if you had been able to use them during the event
    • Mentally rehearsing the positive acts you would perform if there were a next time
    • Getting quiet recreational exercise in nature, such as walking or hiking
    • Interpreting physical symptoms (e.g. shoulder pain could be telling you that you’re trying to carry too heavy a burden)
    • Asking yourself what emotions you are actually experiencing. Fear and anger are not the only emotions in life
    • Getting a therapeutic massage to release pent-up bodily tension
    • Writing about your experiences (in a journal, diary or personal letters)
    • Being careful not to make the event into an obsession by reading everything about it in newspapers or magazines, or following reports and discussions of it on the radio and TV
    • Realising that different people need different amounts of time to recover from trauma
    • Learning a relaxation technique such as progressive muscle relaxation or autogenics
    • Joining a support group.

Be careful to watch out for the following maladaptive coping strategies:

    • Increased use (or abuse) of alcohol, coffee, drugs, gambling, tobacco, etc.
    • A compulsion to work more than usual
    • A temptation to make hasty major life decisions (e.g. job change or divorce)
    • A tendency to avoid any feelings or thoughts about the event completely.

You should seek professional counselling for trauma when you have trouble functioning at home or work, suffer from severe fear, anxiety, or depression or have terrifying memories, nightmares, or flashbacks, if you can’t “come over” the event that caused the trauma or if you find that your relationships with others are not what they should be.

 

Sources

Dealing with the effects of trauma – a self-help guide. Retrieved from https://www.unh.edu/counseling-center/dealing-effects-trauma-%E2%80%93-self-help-guide.
Emotional and psychological trauma. Retrieved from http://www.helpguide.org/articles/ptsd-trauma/emotional-and-psychological-trauma.htm
Post traumatic stress/trauma.  http://www.goodtherapy.org/learn-about-therapy/issues/ptsd#Resilience%20and%20Growth

(Revised by M van Deventer)