Patrick McGee & Associates
Psychologists, Counselling Sydney

TRAUMA

When something happens that seriously threatens someone's life or the life of friends or family, a person may experience extreme distress in the period immediately after the stressful event. This distress is a natural response to traumatic events, and most people recover from it with the support of family and friends. However sometimes the distress can last for a very long time and the person may need professional help to regain a sense of calmness and confidence in their life.

Traumatic events

The sort of events that can cause serious distress can include:

personal trauma, such as violence, rape, involvement in a car or workplace accident, childhood abuse or being in combat.
suicide, severe injury, sudden death (by accident, murder or 'natural causes') of family or friends.
events that happen to the person's community, such as earthquake, bushfire, terrorism or war

The same event may have little impact on one person, but cause severe distress to another person – such differences in response may be related to different past experiences, different levels of current support from family or friends, or particular mental and physical health issues that the person is dealing with.

Immediate reactions to trauma

When something happens that threatens our safety, our body reacts automatically so that we can either escape from the danger or fight it to protect ourselves. The body reactions include an increased heart rate and breathing rate, and muscle tension.
If the event is very traumatic, the reaction will be very strong. Some of the feelings people have are extreme fear, disbelief, numbness, anger, confusion, pounding heart, trembling or shaking, fast breathing, nausea and sweating.

After the trauma

It is common after serious trauma for people to continue to have reactions for some days, weeks or months. The sorts of feelings and reactions people experience include:

anxiety or fear of being alone
fear of other situations that might be dangerous
heightened fear of danger to others
avoiding places which remind them of the trauma
being easily startled by loud noises or sudden movements
flashbacks, where pictures of the event come into their mind suddenly for no obvious reason, during the day or at night, disturbing sleep
loss of interest in normal activities
problems thinking and concentrating
guilt about not having prevented the event
irritability or anger which can be directed at family or friends.

People also may experience physical symptoms, such as tight muscles, being very tired, and loss of appetite or headaches.

What to do

For most people, feelings of anxiety after traumatic events will lessen over time. Sometimes the person will feel a lot better later that day or sometimes the next week. However, for a few people the distress lasts a lot longer.
Immediately after the event:

Stay with other people – try to avoid going home if there will be no-one to talk to or help you at home.
Talk about what happened with someone who is prepared to listen and be sympathetic – someone who will accept your fears, tears and anger. Some talking is usually helpful, but in-depth talking over and over about it is usually not.
If the stressful event is now over, remind yourself that it is over and that you are safe or the person you care about is safe.
Try to get some physical exercise to 'burn off' the tension and anxiety.
Avoid medications which 'dull' your feelings (such as alcohol or sleeping tablets), or which can make you feel more agitated (such as caffeine in coffee or cola drinks).
Try to eat regular meals, even if you don't feel like eating.
If you can't sleep, get up and do something relaxing and go back to bed only when you feel you are ready to sleep.

Many people don’t need trauma counselling immediately after a horrible event. Talking to friends or family will be valuable for most people, but some people might need professional help starting very soon after the event.

The following few days:

Remind yourself that feeling distressed is a normal reaction to trauma, that the event is over and that the feelings will pass with time.
Try to get back to your normal routine as soon as possible. Go back to school, study, work, sport. Resist attempts by others to get you to take time off. You need time doing normal things, not thinking about what happened over and over by yourself.
If bad feelings overwhelm you now and then, do things like try to slow your breathing, consciously relax tight muscles, go for a brisk walk and remind yourself you are safe.
Work on your general stress levels by eating well, exercising and relaxing.
There may be some aspects of what happened that are difficult to forget. If it was a car accident for example, going driving for the first few times might be hard – take someone with you if possible.

Do not believe that you should be fully back to normal in a day or two. It can take longer and you may have some flashbacks or sudden anxious or irritable feelings for quite a while after a serious event.

If you find these feelings are not getting better, it could be a good idea to talk to a trauma counsellor, as it may be possible to avoid ongoing distress, which could affect your life for a long time.

About Counselling Solutions | Suite 5, 198 St Johns Rd Glebe 2037 | Mobile 0414 323 923 | Phone 9571 6611 | Email: patrick@aboutcounselling.com.au