Dealing With Trauma

Those who suffer from trauma will often wrestle with strong emotions, memories and an overwhelming sense of impending danger that they just cannot shake:

• Never feeling safe – Traumatic events can imprint themselves onto their victims so they feel in constant danger, jumpy or fearful of anything that may remind them of the event.
• Feeling disconnected/numb – The human mind is a wondrous thing. When faced with something so horrific or frightening that it does not want to face it, then it simply will not. It switches off emotions and in some cases will blank out the conscious memories of the event.
• Frightening memories and dreams – Even if the conscious mind does not remember, the subconscious mind does and you may find that you are forced to relive the traumatic event in your sleep or through flashbacks.
• Difficulty establishing relationships – The numbness and disconnection from emotions that attempts to prevent our minds from harm can flow over into every other aspect of our lives. Thereafter, hobbies, interests, partnerships, work, and life itself seems to hold less interest.
• Guilt and relief – It is normal for survivors of a traumatic event to alternate between feelings of relief that they survived and guilt for having done so when others did not.
• Depression – It is common for sufferers of trauma to retreat inside themselves and cut themselves off from their friends, family and the world at large. To isolate yourself after such an event can leave you at the mercy of depression.
• Grief – Grief for anyone caught in the trauma, for the loss of innocence, for the loss of safety and security, are all common.