Topic Tuesday // How do you cope with trauma? // 16 Aug, 7pm AEST

[Former-Member]

Hi @Former-Member

I also isolate and withdraw.. i guess the major depression that just doesnt ever go away could aslo be a response to trauma? i'm not sure, sometimes i worry that I just blame everything for the trauma instead of really taking responsibility for it.

I need to put my kids to bed, but if i can settle them i'll be back, hope the discussion is good tonight 

lj

[AussieGirl]

Hi @Former-Member. I am the same.

[1stepup61]

Hi, my experience has been similar as @Former-Member. It has helped to face the memories in counselling but its hard work.Has anyone done DBT? I have done CBT but thats difficult. Does DBT help? What is it please? @1stepup61

[Former-Member]

Why does the brain rerun images, replay a traumatic event, even in our sleep, nightmares that wake us. This has happened to me twice this week. I hate seeing my girls lifeless body again and ...

[greenspace]

So sorry about your 13 y.o.'s death, @Former-Member

A psychologist told me that any loss or traumacan bring up the grief and distress of past losses and traumas, so we feel all of it at once. 

I think a major loss like the death of a child would be huge in itself, plus trigger past distress, and so you would probably need lots of support, strategies, and time to grieve, to get through it all

[Former-Member]

Hate the word death

[Bonny]

I would have to say my response to trauma is dissociation it's almost a sureal out of body experience. It's like I can put the experienced truma outside of my being in able to continue to function. . . Sort of like a detachment from th realism.

[greenspace]

Sorry for using that word

[Former-Member]

Sorry, don't mean to snap. Thanks. I've heard its part of a process, and getting there, I don't have much support but counselling techniques have helped which I guess we'll do later. Again, thanks.

[Former-Member]

Hi @Former-Member,

Thanks for sharing your experience of trauma with us all. These are all such common responses to a traumatic experience and can be really difficult to cope with day-to-day. I'm sorry to hear about the loss of your daughter, I cant imagine how painful that would have been and still is.  Understandable that this brought up past experiences for you. It would be hard on your own. What support do you have in place?

Hi @Mystic1658, welcome

@Former-Member, @AussieGirl raise a good point here that they experience similar effects following trauma. Although we havent discussed what traumatic experience everyone has had, the responses to trauma are simialr despite the traumatic event experienced. 

Given that these responses are somewhat universal, what sorts of strategies have been used to cope with these effects? They can be either helpful or unhelpful