10 Healthy Tips To Deal With Trauma
Trauma can be big, small, prolonging, or stressful… it does not come with a timeline. And that’s why I think most people ignore it until and unless it starts impacting mental health as well as physical health. The emotional response toward any stressful event can be a trauma.
Denial and shock come in handy with any traumatic situation. Initial responses to trauma can be confusion, anxiety, agitation, numbness, physical arousal, dissociation, and blunted affect. Later on, such unresolved trauma can lead to physical symptoms, flashbacks, intense emotions, problems with relationships, and more! The idea of writing this blog is to start dealing with trauma from the initial phase so that it does not lead to long-term effects.
If you think you or your loved one is dealing with trauma, this blog is specially written to deal with trauma based on self-help techniques. In this blog, I have enlisted 10 healthy ways to deal with trauma.
10 Healthy Ways to Deal with Trauma
1. Learn to process feelings
The best way to process your feelings is to start journaling, talk to your partner, seek social support, or consult with a therapist. The goal is to bring out your emotional response through words so that you can learn how to diminish your traumatic response. You will have to ignore the fear and stop being stuck, this will allow you to move through your trauma and let it go slowly.
2. Practice acceptance
Difficult emotions are scary and hard to tolerate. By accepting the feelings, you will be able to learn how to reduce the stress and anxiety related to the trauma or emotional response. Despite denying, suppressing, or rejecting, you must allow the stressors to come out so that they can stop harming your inner peace.
3. Explore the creative side
Creative expression is one of the best ways to deal with trauma. The idea is to let your artistic side come out so that you can promote soothing and can foster better overall wellbeing.
art therapy is proven to be helpful for treating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Therefore, you can try drawing, finger painting, coloring, photographing, sculpting, or anything that puts light on your artistic side.
4. Take the help of deep breathing techniques
Deep breathing techniques are highly effective as they help in vanishing negative thoughts, stress, and anxiety, and help in establishing peace within. Whenever you try deep breathing techniques, don’t take rapid and shallow breaths as they will increase anxiety and stress. Try to take them slowly and deeply so that you can induce a sense of peacefulness and relaxation within.
5. Stick with a healthy routine
Keeping a healthy routine is effective because it not only protects your physical health but also takes care of your mental health. A healthy routine helps in maintaining focus and control of our mind, thoughts, and whole body. Try to eat healthy, sleep well, and focus on the positive but more importantly try to stick to a routine so that you can learn to overcome challenges more easily.
6. Focus on what’s important and controllable
We often feel helpless or powerless while dealing with trauma and this often results in feeling frightened or overwhelmed. The only way to combat such feelings is to focus on what’s more important and controllable. Generally, when we shift our attention from the negative things, such negative feelings begin to lose any power over us, and in return, we start becoming better at focusing our energy on the things that help in improving the situation.
7. Concentrate on senses
Whenever you start feeling overwhelmed, stressed, or anxious, try to ground yourself in the present moment so that you can gain power over your senses.
Try to be present at the moment and try to gain the strength to overcome the trauma. Grounding is a technique that will help you distract yourself from difficult emotions, flashbacks, and intrusive memories.
Try the most effective grounding technique: 5-4-3-2-1 Grounding Technique
8. Try self-care techniques
In order to stay away from intrusive thinking, the best thing you can do is to try self-care. It will help you in comforting yourself, provide you with mental strength, and will boost your resilience. You can try self-care techniques like walking, meditation, exercise, and more.
9. Try to reduce the stress response
Whenever you will feel stressed or anxious, your body’s responses toward stress will be triggered and are going to stay triggered until and unless you will learn how to deal with them. In such situations, try to feel more relaxed so that you can reduce the intensity of such stress responses.
Try these 7 stress relief techniques to deal with trauma: 7 Easy-To-Do Stress Relief Tips
10. Seek help when required
If you are not able to process your feelings or let those intrusive feelings and thoughts go away, it is suggested to seek professional help so that you can gain the power to overcome such a negative situation.
It is always a good idea to talk with a professional so that you can gain insight into your unresolved trauma, therefore, try connecting with a professional mental health advisor.
I hope this blog helps you with 10 healthy ways or tips to deal with trauma based on self-help techniques. Comment down and share your views on the initial phase of trauma. For more such content, connect with us on all social media platforms.
Thanks for reading!