Working Through a Traumatic Incident
Traumatic or critical incidents as we sometimes call them can be nerve-racking. These unpredictable occurrences seem to delight in striking any time and place without warning. They frequently take the form of incidents like a severe illness, sudden death of a loved one, rape, vehicular or workplace accident. Under normal circumstances, your mind can cope with the daily pressures of life and still function effectively with no major side effects. However, when a traumatic incident occurs, you may find it challenging to cope with the situation because within seconds of experiencing the emergency, your mind, emotions and body tend not to have the strength to stand up against the sudden powerful blows of the event. Initially, you may feel powerless because your stress level shoots up unusually high and inhibits you from fighting back successfully. I recall the harrowing experience of a wife when her youthful husband suddenly died. She was so distraught that she screamed, wailed and went into a frenzy. No one could console her. Days after, she was still in shock and denial. It took quite a long time for her to work her way through the complexity of the trauma to a place of peace.
The Effect of a Trauma
Gliding through a terrifying stressful calamity and emerging as a much stronger individual appears impossible because traumatic incidents viciously attack the mind, emotions and body leaving you sometimes unable to counterattack. Consider what may occur in the mind, emotions and body:
Your mind may display symptoms such as confusion, denial, forgetfulness, lack of concentration, thoughts of suicide and insanity, self-blame and other negative thoughts that would not have been present before the trauma took place. These are all normal responses to the shocking event.
Emotionally, you may experience feelings such as anxiety, depression, fear, anger, hatred, guilt, and numbness. These reactions are also consistent with the traumatic incident.
Your body may initially exhibit signs such as decreased sleep, headaches, nervousness in the stomach, a rise in blood pressure, dryness of the mouth, weakness in the feet, stiffness in the shoulders and frequent urination. Don’t be alarm, the body is just acting out what is normal when it is impacted by a crisis.
Managing a Trauma
There are a few steps you should consider that may help you sail through a traumatic incident.
Traumatic stress can be a horrific experience, but with time and a clear understanding of what has occurred, you can sail through this kind of stress and become sharper in your focus.
The Effect of a Trauma
Gliding through a terrifying stressful calamity and emerging as a much stronger individual appears impossible because traumatic incidents viciously attack the mind, emotions and body leaving you sometimes unable to counterattack. Consider what may occur in the mind, emotions and body:
Your mind may display symptoms such as confusion, denial, forgetfulness, lack of concentration, thoughts of suicide and insanity, self-blame and other negative thoughts that would not have been present before the trauma took place. These are all normal responses to the shocking event.
Emotionally, you may experience feelings such as anxiety, depression, fear, anger, hatred, guilt, and numbness. These reactions are also consistent with the traumatic incident.
Your body may initially exhibit signs such as decreased sleep, headaches, nervousness in the stomach, a rise in blood pressure, dryness of the mouth, weakness in the feet, stiffness in the shoulders and frequent urination. Don’t be alarm, the body is just acting out what is normal when it is impacted by a crisis.
Managing a Trauma
There are a few steps you should consider that may help you sail through a traumatic incident.
- Understanding what is happening to you because of the incident is crucial. Critical incidents traumatize many people and may sometimes make them feel that something terrible is about to happen to them mentally, emotionally and physically. The chances of such occurring are usually very slim. The critical incident creates those upheavals, and over time they will gradually settle.
- Seek a healthcare provider trained in critical incidents and stress management to prevent you from going toward a more advanced stressful condition. You should take this action one to seven days immediately following the incident. Unless there is a preexisting physical or mental health issue, your stress levels, under normal circumstances, should gradually settle within about four to six weeks. If your discomfort is going beyond that period, you may need to see a professional counsellor because there may be a previous unresolved issue that the critical incident may have brought to the fore.
- Understand how your body handles stress. The all-wise, all-knowing Creator designed the human body with a top-of-the-line self-preservation internal system that goes into red alert when a critical incident occurs. This God-designed hi-tech internal system quickly evaluates the situation, and responds to the crisis with great efficiency. Organs like the brain and heart work assertively to bring the chaotic situation back to a place of harmony within the quickest time. There are also important chemicals responsible for maintaining an internal balance which quickly rush into the bloodstream to ease the increased pressure threatening your mental, emotional and physical health. God is amazing!
Traumatic stress can be a horrific experience, but with time and a clear understanding of what has occurred, you can sail through this kind of stress and become sharper in your focus.