Dealing With the Effects of Trauma
A Self-Help Guide
Introduction
This is a serious issue. This booklet is just an introduction—a starting point
that may give you the courage to take action. It is not meant to be a
treatment program. The ideas and strategies are not intended to replace
treatment you are currently receiving.
You may have had one or many very upsetting, frightening, or traumatic
things happen to you in your life, or that threatened or hurt something
you love—even your community. When these kinds of things happen, you may
not "get over" them quickly. In fact, you may feel the effects of these
traumas for many years, even for the rest of your life. Sometimes you
don't even notice effects right after the trauma happens. Years later
you may begin having thoughts, nightmares, and other disturbing symptoms.
You may develop these symptoms and not even remember the traumatic thing
or things that once happened to you.
For many years, the traumatic things that happened to people were overlooked
as a possible cause of frightening, distressing, and sometimes disabling
emotional symptoms such as depression, anxiety, phobias, delusions, flashbacks,
and being out of touch with reality. In recent years, many researchers
and health care providers have become convinced of the connection between
trauma and these symptoms. They are developing new treatment programs
and revising old ones to better meet the needs of people who have had
traumatic experiences.
This booklet can help you to know if traumatic experiences in your life
may be causing some or all of the difficult symptoms you are experiencing.
It may give you some guidance in working to relieve these symptoms and
share with you some simple and safe things you can do to help yourself
heal from the effects of trauma.
Some examples of traumatic experiences that may be causing your symptoms
include
- physical, emotional, or sexual abuse
- neglect
- war experiences
- outbursts of temper and rage
- alcoholism (your own or in your family)
- physical illnesses, surgeries, and disabilities
- sickness in your family
- loss of close family members and friends
- natural disasters
- accidents
Some things that may be very traumatic to one person hardly seem to bother
another person. If something bothers you a lot and it doesn't bother someone
else, it doesn't mean there is something wrong with you. People respond
to experiences differently.
Do you feel that traumatic things that happened to you may be causing some
or all of your distressing and disabling emotional symptoms? Examples
of symptoms that may be caused by trauma include
- anxiety
- insomnia
- agitation
- irritability
or rage
- flashbacks or intrusive memories
- feeling disconnected from the world
- unrest in certain situations
- being "shut down"
- being very passive
- feeling depressed
- eating problems
- needing to do certain things over and over
- unusual fears
- impatience
- always having to have things a certain way
- doing strange or risky things
- having a hard time concentrating
- wanting to hurt yourself
- being unable to trust anyone
- feeling unlikable
- feeling unsafe
- using harmful substances
- keeping to yourself
- overworking
Perhaps you have been told that you have a psychiatric or mental illness like
depression, bipolar disorder or manic depression, schizophrenia, borderline
personality disorder, obsessive—compulsive disorder, dissociative disorder,
an eating disorder, or an anxiety disorder. The ways you can help yourself
handle these symptoms and the things your health care providers suggest
as treatment may be helpful whether your symptoms are caused by trauma
or by a psychiatric illness.
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