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THE DYNAMICS OF PTSD: A positive approach to coping with trauma
PART 2: As the trauma unfolds
Your child is ill and you must decide on treatment. You have witnessed
something terrible and the police need your help. Your husband has
announced he wants a divorce and you need to take action immediately
to protect your position. How do you deal with your feelings when
circumstances call for you to function rationally?
- Go on short-term autopilot - If there is a crisis that
you must deal with, you may need to shut off your feelings to do
what must be done. If your child is ill and you must make quick
decisions, you will need to focus on the problem at hand. But never
forget that this is only a short-term strategy.
- Promise yourself a time to deal with the situation (and then
live up to the promise) - Going on auto-pilot can be seductive.
We want to believe that we have dealt with the trauma and can continue
to keep it at bay. Yet for many of us, refusing to deal with our feelings
about painful incidents ends up getting us into even more trouble.
The best idea may be to set a date-certain - Friday at 4 p.m. I will
devote an hour to working through my feeling about what happened.
The other half of that equation, of course, is to live up to that
promise when the time comes.
- Take mini-breaks - Whenever and wherever you can, try to
take a moment to lift up your head and see the bigger picture. Take
a 10-minute walk outdoors, literally taking the time to smell the
roses. You may not be able to appreciate it at the moment, but you
need to see for yourself that the beauty of life will be waiting
there for you when you can honor it fully again.
- Don't beat yourself up - We have a tendency to put unrealistic
burdens on ourselves. We cannot take a momemt away from the hospital.
We need to make a flurry of phone calls right now - and if we forget
just one, terrible things will happen. This is a good time to take
a deep breath and remember that all we can do is our best. We are
not indestructible super-heroes and super-heroines.
Bonnie Bucqueroux, who works with her sister Tina
Sarkey to produce The Healers website, has spent the past 30 years
working to reduce violence and trauma in our society, through her teaching,
writing and training.

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