"If you have ever experienced “blanking out”, trouble staying focused in the present, extensive forgetting, gaps in memory, not feeling real, or/and feeling as if you were watching yourself from outside of your own body, chances are you have experienced disassociation. This reaction allows you to mentally escape from or block out the wretchedness from the offending trauma."
"A number of factors tend to affect the length of time required for recovery, including the degree of intensity and loss sustained from the occurrence. Events that last longer pose a greater threat. When there has been a loss of life or a substantial loss of property is involved, it will often take longer to resolve. A person's coping skills and thinking processes with emotionally challenging situations determine their perception of the trauma. People who have experienced and handled other extreme stressful circumstances may find it easier to cope. Those who are faced with other emotionally challenging situations, such as serious health problems or family-related difficulties, may have more intense reactions to the new stressful event and require more time to recover."
"The most common reactions to trauma include:
- Denial which allows you to function while the threat is occurring
- Your feelings become intense and sometimes are unpredictable. You might be especially anxious or nervous, or even become depressed.
- Mentally you may find difficulty with concentration; solving problems; making decisions, memory disturbance; flashbacks. Inability to attach importance to anything other than the incident.
You may disassociate. Dissociation is a feeling of detachment from the experience, feeling “outside your own body” as if watching someone else experience the event. - Physically, you may experience fatigue, insomnia, under activity, headaches, nightmares, hyperactivity, startle reactions, exhaustion, and diarrhea.
- You experience a change in how you perceive your surroundings, resulting in a feeling of numbness, detachment, and of being cut off from their immediate surroundings. You can make a distinction between what is and what is not real, yet; you feel removed from the immediate situation.
- Your thoughts and behavior patterns are affected by the trauma. You might experience vivid memories of the event. These flashbacks may occur for no apparent reason and may lead to physical reactions such as rapid heartbeat, sweating, or feeling you can't breathe.
- You may experience an overall feeling of fear, guilt, emotional numbing, over sensitivity, anger, irritability, anxiety, depression, violent fantasies, feelings of helplessness, forgetfulness of details.
- Recurring emotional reactions are common. Anniversaries of the event, such as at one month or one year, as well as reminders such as aftershocks from earthquakes or the sounds of sirens, can trigger upsetting memories of the traumatic experience. These 'triggers' may be accompanied by fears that the stressful event will be repeated.
- Relationships with family and friends may become tense. You may have more frequent arguments with family members and coworkers due to a higher level of irritability.
- You may become withdrawn and isolate yourself from others.
- Reactions may change over time. Some who have suffered from trauma are energized initially by the event to help them with the challenge of coping, only to later become discouraged or depressed by generalized anxiety or panic. All of the above conditions may deplete essential energy reserves through chronic sleep deprivation, which, in turn, could degrade coping capacity."
1 comment:
bg's little sis said it so much better than I could have.
*hugs*
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