Different Ways to Heal From Trauma
It is natural to be worried about being happy again especially if you recently went through a traumatic situation. However, there are many steps you can take to heal from trauma. Keep reading as I share with you different ways to heal from trauma.
What is Trauma?
Trauma is what happens after a negative experience or event. Trauma happens during or after you have gone through anything that makes you hurt emotionally or mentally, and this leads to post-traumatic stress disorder, commonly known as PTSD.
Hurtful experiences like losing a loved one, going through abuse or suffering from difficulties like a breakup from a romantic relationship could lead to trauma.
That is because you could suffer from shock or get overwhelmed by either one of these experiences.
The incident or experience itself is not what causes the trauma; rather, it is how your body and mind react to it. The brain is affected by traumatic stress,
It makes it essential to take the necessary actions below toward recovery and minimise its adverse consequences and implications.
Accept Support
Trauma can make you shy away from getting help. Getting past trauma requires you to seek support. You can heal on your own or with the help of others but your best chance of recovering from trauma is to accept support.
Support can come in various forms, support groups, therapy or friends and coworkers.
Having the mindset that someone can help you heal is the most important thing. The question is, are you willing to take the help?
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Find the Right Type of Help.
If you chose therapy as a form of help then you have to find a well-trained trauma-informed therapist whom you are sure will provide you with the best possible service.
It might feel even better to join a support group filled with people with the same traumatic experiences as you. This too can really be helpful.
Exercise
Physical movement provides your body with chemicals like endorphins, which make you feel good. You mustn’t do strenuous exercises.
You can take a walk or do something fun like riding a bicycle or skating. Exercise improves symptoms of PTSD and can help you heal more quickly.
Connect With Others
Whether or not you participate in a support group for healing, it will help you make friends.
If it doesn’t seem right for you, you don’t have to share your experience with the group or even necessarily talk to other people about your trauma.
Human happiness depends on our ability to connect with others, and isolating yourself while suffering from trauma can have detrimental effects like sadness.
When you feel like it, spend time with your peers and talk about your experiences.
Practice Self-Care
Never underestimate the power of self-care. Selfcare reduces stress and makes you feel good. Take steps towards making yourself happy and show love to yourself by doing the things you love and the things that make you happy.
You might think that this requires you to spend money or break the bank, but no.
Self-care can be something as mundane as taking a bath or eating your favourite food. The most important thing is that you do things that make sense to you and make you feel loved.
Work With Your Feelings
Accepting how you feel is one way you can heal from trauma. It’s very natural to have a variety of emotions. What’s important is that you feel them and understand them.
Writing is a common way in which you can manage stress and move through complicated situations. Allow yourself to feel. Sit alone and observe your emotions and watch how they come and how they go.
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Avoid Recreational Substances
The state of healing from trauma could be really tempting. You might find yourself wanting to do drugs or take alcohol.
But alcohol and drugs are addictive and can help your brain to stop thinking and feeling, but this happens temporarily.
If you’re purposefully ignoring your feelings by using drugs or alcohol, you won’t be able to deal with them.
Keep in mind that this is only temporary, and once you have given yourself time to recover from your trauma, you can resume activities like social drinking.
Finally, having fun is a fantastic way to heal. You may find that being creative involves making music or simply listening to it.
It could entail keeping a journal, writing poetry, or simply just reading fiction. It has been found that using your brain for creative and artistic activities improves physiological and psychological consequences in people.
You can experiment with art therapy or just use your creativity casually on your own. What important is that you express yourself creatively in any way that makes you feel good.