|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Sign up for our FREE newsletter
|
THE DYNAMICS OF PTSD: A positive approach to coping with traumaWhen life throws us a curve
Bad things inevitably happen in life. Our parents die, as do others we love. Maybe we witness violence or suffer injury ourselves. All of us watched in horror on 9/11 as the World Trade Center towers collapsed. What positive steps can we take to deal with trauma? The mental health professionals at the National Center for PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders) say that your goal should be to adopt short-term and long-term strategies to cope. Remember that it is normal to react to pain and trauma with bouts of crying, as well as intense feelings of loss and anxiety. Many people will also experience nightmares or insomnia. Some will lose their appetite, while others will eat everything in sight. The challenge is to do whatever we can so that today's trauma does not become tomorrow's PTSD - post-traumatic stress disorder. This constellation of symptoms can be normal immediately following a trauma, but if the problems persist for more than six months, we call it PTSD. Hallmarks include intrusive recollection (flashbacks) and heightened arousal (you jump sky-high at the slightest provocation). Sadly as well, PTSD sufferers also lose a sense of joy in life - their world turns gray, as if eliminating the high-highs offers protection against the low-lows. One in 10 people in the United States suffers PTSD. When bad things happen, your goal should be to do all you can to prevent future problems with PTSD. (Click on part 2 for short-term strategies and part 3 for long-term advice.)
Bonnie Bucqueroux, webmaster for The Healers website, has spent the past 30 years working to reduce violence and trauma in our society, through her teaching, writing and training. 
|
RETURN TO: Opening page of Articles section
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
