Anxiety Panic - Article Anxiety & Trauma continued



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Anxiety : A Normal Response to Trauma Part Two

The following is an extract taken from a newsletter by Mental Help Net. This extract discusses the stages of grief that people experience following a life threatening event, in this instance a terrorist attack.

'People reacting to losses and traumas tend to go through a set of 'stages of grief' which are usually listed as denial, outrage/anger, working through, and resolution. Although these 'stages' don't always occur in this order, they are experiences that many people will go through as they come to terms with the event. Although a verbal description is not the same as experience, it is nevertheless a good idea to know what you and others are likely to feel.

Denial

You can't believe that this is happening, has happened. It seems unreal, like a dream. The world may even seem unreal and you may go about your day in a sort of fog. In the more serious scenarios, true dissociation can occur where there is distorted memory for the event.

Outrage/Anger

You are angry, furious, outraged at the event, at being victimized, at the scope of the tragedy, at the death toll, at the vulnerability that has been forcibly brought to your attention, at your own vulnerability. You are hurt, you may even find yourself crying. You are both sad and angry.

You may want revenge. If you feel you want revenge, please do not act it. Feel it talk about it, but do not act on it. The people you as an individual could harm are not to blame for the tragedy. They were not the perpetrators. Instead, they are as much victims as you are.

Working Through

Working through happens over time. It is the process through which one ends up sorting all the many feelings out and weaving them into the fabric of ones life so that, as it were, things return to 'normal'. Many different feelings may be felt during this sorting out process: anger and outrage may alternate with periods of relative detachment, fatigue, sadness, bursts of tears, even numbness at times. You may find yourself not wanting to feel anything, and then later find yourself overwhelmed by feeling. It is as though you have swallowed an emotional meal that your body and soul are not quite able to digest all at once. Eventually, over time, most will find a way to digest it all, and life will return to 'normal'

Resolution

Resolution is a relative term. Mostly what it means is that the acute emotional mess of working through is resolved enough so that life has returned to a regular rhythm, and once again, worry about keeping a job, and/or keeping your relationships on an even track become the day to day concerns.

Some people will resist resolution in the belief that to resolve and be over the tragedy means that the horror has been forgotten and that the meaning of the attack has been forgotten. Others will find solace in spiritual teachings of forgiveness and confidence in the ultimate ability for eternal judgment to sort out things better than any human being could.

Those people most directly impacted by violence and death are at heightened risk for experiencing trauma disorders. A trauma disorder occurs (in the broadest sense) when a person is not able to follow a normal process of grief through to resolution, and instead gets stuck in it, reliving the emotions and memories associated with the trauma over and over.

There are two forms of trauma disorders: Acute Stress Disorder and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Trauma disorders are characterized by

	Heightened startle responses
	Anxiety reactions
	Avoidance of trauma related places, people, things and memories
	Intrusive re-experiencing of the trauma in the form of nightmares, waking dreams and
	Memories, and sometimes even hallucinations.

See also Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Combating Feelings of Helplessness

See Your Doctor

If you have been traumatised, it isn't a bad idea to see your doctor, or even better, a psychiatrist with an understanding of trauma. Doctors may be able to prescribe a treatment plan for you that will help address and help you work through your traumatic circumstances. Such a plan will likely include medication and psychotherapy.

Encourage But 'Do Not Force' Talking

It is most important that people exposed to a trauma be encouraged, 'but not forced' to talk about what they have experienced. Traumatized persons are very vulnerable to being flooded with the emotion of what they have experienced, it is quite important that they be able to speak about what they have witnessed in a safe environment in front of people who will have the strength to witness what they have to say and feel, without themselves becoming overwhelmed, angry, etc

Many lay people will have a difficult time doing this and so, in many cases the task of encouraging traumatized people to talk will be best left to trained mental health professionals. If you are a traumatized person, consider seeking psychotherapy at this time. If you know of people who have been traumatized, encourage them to participate in psychotherapy sessions. Both individual psychotherapy and group psychotherapy sessions with other persons who have experienced similar or the same traumas can be very helpful to trauma victims. In some cases, therapy may be the thing that prevents trauma victims from crossing the line from Acute Stress Disorder into Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

International referral pages for Cognitive Behavioural Therapists

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