Many people are exposed to loss or potential traumatic events at some point in their lives, and yet they continue to have positive emotional experiences and show only minor and transient disruptions in their ability to function.
LIVING THROUGH AND SURVIVING TRAUMATIC EVENTS
Understanding Traumatic Events
A traumatic event is “an experience that causes physical, emotional, psychological distress, or harm, or event, or series of events, that causes moderate to severe stress reactions”. They are characterized by a sense of horror, helplessness, serious injury, or the threat of serious injury or death. A Traumatic event is perceived and experienced as a threat to one’s safety or stability. It may involve experiences such as: physical injury or illness, separation from parents, death of a friend, family member, violence of war, terrorism or mass disaster, divorce, loss of trust, a move to a new location, hospitalization, anxiety, fear or pain.
Devastating, natural trauma – hurricanes, earthquakes, fires and floods can significantly impact a person’s overall health and wellness. The effects of natural disaster can be long lasting. Traumatic events affect those who have been directly affected by suffering injuries or losses (primary survivors). They can also affect people indirectly, those who have witnessed the events either first-hand or on television (secondary survivors). Additionally rescue workers, emergency and medical personnel, counsellors, relief work volunteers, chaplains, friends and relatives of victims who have been involved may also be impacted by the traumatic event as secondary survivors.
Focusing on the Basics of Coping
When helping traumatic events survivors, their physical and safety needs must be addressed first. Surviving the first 72 hours can be difficult and chaotic. Survivors may need to be reminded to simply care for themselves and attend to the basic survival needs of the body. In coping with events that may be beyond anyone’s control, initially survivors need to:
- Take it one day at a time
- Eat a well-balanced diet
- Drink plenty of water
- Avoid using excess alcohol, medications or drugs to mask the pain
- Try to keep up basic hygiene
- Get enough sleep or enough rest
- Get some kind of exercise. Even walking can help relieve stress and tension
- If at all possible try and maintain some type of normal routine, such as sleeping and eating at regular times
- Talk to others, especially those who have lived through and survived similar experiences.
- Remember healthy coping strategies you have used to survive past challenges. Draw upon these inner strengths and skills again
Common Normal Responses Following a Traumatic Event
The stress reactions and grief responses that follow a traumatic event are normal and very common. Many survivors have lost loved ones, their homes and worldly possessions, experiencing multiple traumas and multiple losses. Some of the common reactions that occur include:
Common physical responses include nausea, diarrhoea, stomach-ache, headache, dizziness, rapid heart rate, light-headedness, and allergies, rashes, grinding of teeth, increased colds and flu-like symptoms.
It helps survivors to know that they are not “losing it” or “going crazy”, rather what they are experiencing are normal responses to abnormal event. Survivors need to take care of themselves and understand that these normal responses and feelings are their body’s way of coping with a major life-altering event. This knowledge can make physical and emotional responses less disturbing and overwhelming.
When to seek More Support
Most people who have been directly involved with a painful, extraordinary stressful or traumatic event will be affected in some way. Many will require some form of assistance, whether financial, environmental, physical, emotional or psychological. How a survivor reacts to a traumatic event depends on that person’s perception of the events, his previous experiences with prior challenges or traumas, his coping abilities and level of available existing support.
In general, the intense physical and emotional responses start to decrease within two weeks and often disappear within four to six weeks as life continues and the survivor’s attention becomes focused on other things.
Many people feel better within three months after the event, but others recover more slowly, and some do not recover without help. Much depends on the survivor’s coping skills. Any trauma survivor feeling or showing any of the following symptoms should seek professional help:
- Prolonged agitation or anxiety
- Depression or extreme hopelessness
- Impaired daily activities or job functioning
- Suicidal thoughts or ideas
- Prolonged, inhibited or absent grieving
- Extreme physiological or psychological reactions
- Substantial guilt
- Substance abuse – alcohol or drug use
- Psychotic states
- Uncontrolled rage
Various supportive resources that survivors may find helpful include:
Counsellors, social workers, physicians, nurses, health care professionals, therapists, support groups or other survivors.
On campus help available at:
Health & Wellness Centre (Social work office):
Student Counselling & Development:
Further reading:
- Lerner MD. 2005. 21 Things you can do while you’re living through a Traumatic Experience: http://www.aaets.org/column5.htm
- A, K. (2005). Living through and surviving traumatic events. Retrieved November 14, 2013, from medical wellness archives: http://www.medicalwellnessassociation.com/articles/traumaticevents.htm