What Happens When You Have Faced A Trauma or Loss?

What Happens When You Have Faced A Trauma or Loss?

Dr. Linda Hancock

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dr. Hancock has written a regular weekly column entitled “All Psyched Up” for newspapers in two Canadian provinces for more than a dozen years. Over the years, her readers and clients have said that they have benefited from her common-sense solutions, wisdom, and sense of humour. Dr. Linda Hancock, the author of “Life is An Adventure…every step of the way” and “Open for Business Success” is a Registered Psychologist who has a private practice in Medicine Hat. She can be reached at 403-529-6877 or through email office@drlindahancock.com

Published

February 15 2011

Everyone reacts differently to situations and you therefore cannot expect to be the same as the other people who have had the same experience that you just went through. You might think that you are "going crazy" or "unable to cope with things" the way that you might expect or hope. There is no "normal" in life - we all tend to think there is and that can be confusing.

Sometimes people who have experienced a crisis also experience the following:

1. Strong Emotions - Shock, denial or disbelief, fear, feeling angry, irritable, or having mood swings, helplessness or overwhelmed, anxiety, numbness, sadness or depression, guilt or shame. This list is long and emotions may either be experienced together or in a rapidly changing manner.

2. Physical Ailments Headaches, Pains, sore muscles or tension, lack of appetite, lethargy or fatigue

Change in sleep patterns (trouble falling or staying asleep, nightmares), disinterest or inability sexually as well as symptoms that might be similar to heart attack (sweating, pounding in chest) can cause an individual to think that their health is failing.

3. Mental issues - Lack of Focus, temporary memory problems, difficulty concentrating, repeated thoughts about what happened, feeling strange and alone even when surrounded by others, losing trust, re-experiencing images over and over - while trying to make sense of them

4. Relationship/Social Change - Even the life that you once thought was healthy can be at risk after a traumatic event. Symptoms of problems include lack of desire to talk or be with others, avoidance of places or people who remind you of what happened, losing interest in activities that you usually enjoy, isolating yourself from others, acting defensive when it is not necessary, or being vengeful - wanting "someone" to do "something" to resolve things.

5. Behavioural Changes can become negative if you are turning to alcohol, drugs or other habits to escape, becoming argumentative or aggressive, lacking confidence, being unsure how to move back into routine, over-reacting or trying to do more than necessary to prevent future problems as well has exaggerated startle response.

6. Spiritual - Your whole being can be shaken if you lose faith in God or life, trying to figure out things that don't have explanation or resort to blaming because of the situation.

Yes, you may be experiencing a combination of the things above while the person who experienced exactly the same situation is experiencing a totally different combination of symptoms.