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Posted April 24, 2016
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Losing a loved one, experiencing a traumatic event or witnessing others endure tragedy can be difficult and emotionally overwhelming. You may even feel like your feelings of sadness will never go away. Fortunately, there are manageable ways to process your emotions and move forward while honoring a loved one or tragic event.
You’ve likely heard about the common stages of grief – denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance. While those emotions are common while coping with trauma or loss, the grieving process can be complicated and often doesn’t happen in a predictable order.
When you’re dealing with grief, remember:
Psychological trauma is a person’s emotional response to a scary, shocking or horrific event or series of events. Traumatic events are unpredictable and can cause overwhelming amounts of stress beyond your capacity to cope. Experiencing trauma can often shake your assumptions about life, your sense of control, feeling safe and trust in others. Losing those fundamental feelings of safety and trust can lead to anxiety and fear. You may even feel like the world is unsafe and unpredictable or question your faith. The overwhelming stress can lead to long-term psychological trauma, and in more severe cases, post-traumatic stress disorder. Any form of psychological trauma can interfere with your ability to maintain relationships, perform day-to-day activities and enjoy your life.
Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms include:
Fortunately, most people overcome trauma with time and by making lifestyle changes. Finding the right treatment options is critical to your recovery.
How to deal with grief and trauma:
Trauma can affect people in different ways
The nature of an event or loss isn’t always the only source of trauma. Your grieving process and emotions may look and feel different than others. Two people can experience the same event and experience different levels of trauma.
Personal factors impacting the response to trauma include:
Feeling "numb" to tragedy
Regular tragedies can cause “compassion fatigue” and “psychic numbing,” where the mind separates emotions from thoughts causing grief. You may feel nothing at first, but days or even weeks later, a range of emotions could suddenly rush over you. Don’t feel guilty if you process loss differently or take longer than others to deal with traumatic events. Your grieving process and the emotions you’re experiencing are unique to you. The silver lining While enduring traumatic events and dealing with grief is difficult and exhausting, the experience can make you stronger and build your resiliency. You will get through this challenging time and support is available.
Disclaimer: This article is intended to be a source of information and is not a medical consultation.
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Learn morePosted April 24, 2016
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