Trauma
How the Symptoms of Trauma Can Affect Daily Life
Nov 18, 2008 Kathy Schlossmacher
Traumatic experiences can run the gambit from car accidents to invasive medical procedures to the more serious natural disasters or sexual assault. Trauma occurs when some life event happens that is out of the ordinary experience of the person to whom it is happening. These experiences can result in actions on the part of the traumatized person that are totally out of character for them. These symptoms can often begin to interfere with daily functioning to a serious and debilitating rate.
Symptoms of Trauma
Often those who experience a traumatic event will show specific symptoms in their daily life. These symptoms can include hypoarousal, constriction which narrows perception, denial and more seriously disassociation. The symptoms can also include feelings of helplessness, nightmares, mood swings, exaggerated startle response and even unexplained moments of panic. If left untreated these symptoms can lead to depression and suicidal ideation and even action.
Hope for those Who Suffer from Trauma
Those who suffer from these symptoms are not destined to a life of dread and depression. There are ways to heal from trauma and lead normal fulfilling lives despite the seriousness of the trauma endured. The key lies in integrating the experience. This requires that at some point the sufferer is able to look back at the experience and accept its existence in his or her life as part of that life. This involves being able to see the difference between when it happened and the fact that it is not happening over and over in flashbacks and nightmares. The person needs to integrate the memory into their store of memories as something that happened to them, but does not determine the future of their lives.
How to Relieve the Symptoms of Trauma
First and foremost the person must be willing to discuss and explore the actual event and the meaning they attach to it. Sometimes this requires that the person relate the experience over and over in order to come to terms with it. Healing also requires that one make some meaning out of the traumatic experience, even if that meaning is as simple as acknowledging that the sufferer had no control over the event and why it happened to that person.
Coping While Healing
The process of healing can take quite a bit of time and sometimes require professional help. Medications prescribed by a psychiatrist and talk therapy can help take the edge off the processing of the event.
Other activities can also help the traumatized person to cope with the symptoms in daily life. Daily meditation practice can help clear the mind of disturbing images and offer relief to the person in the coping stages. Body work and massage can also allow the person to become more in touch with their bodies if the trauma seriously impacted bodily function. Such work can also help negate the serious aversion to their own bodies that trauma sufferers often feel. Relaxation and self soothing techniques can be taught that allow the person to distract themselves from the often disturbing memories and images they may still feel.
While these activities may not lead to the healing of the symptoms, they can help the person cope with the often painful process of healing that can involve living and re-living the event while it is processed into the image of self that the person possesses. While no one is suggesting that the memory is going to go away, it can be changed into an acceptable memory that is part of the person's storehouse of memory and thus relieving the symptoms that make daily functioning difficult.
The Experience is Not the End
Many who suffer from trauma feel that they will never be the same. They fear that they will be defined by that experience as their whole persona. While sufferers may not be the same, while they may feel different about themselves and the world around them, different does not have to be bad. The difference can be merely new feelings of meaning and process that can open new doors to self awareness and mental health.
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