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Managing Stress and Recovering
from Trauma
A National Center For PTSD Fact Sheet
by Julian Ford, Ph.D., Executive Division, White River Junction
Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress
Have you ever
If so, this information is for you. Read on...
Everyone Experiences Stress
Stress is a normal response of the body and mind. Everyone feels stress when gearing up to deal with major life events (such as marriage, divorce, births, deaths, or starting or ending a job), or handling everyday hassles like arguments, financial headaches, deadlines, or traffic jams.
Physical signs of a stress response include:
Emotional signs of stress can be both positive:
and upsetting:
Stress Can Become a Problem
Repeated stress drains and wears down your body and mind. Stress is like starting a car engine or pushing the accelerator pedal to speed up. If you keep "revving" up the car you'll burn out the starter and wear out both the brakes and the engine.
Burnout occurs when repeated stress is not balanced by healthy time outs for genuine relaxation. Stress is not the problem, if you manage it by having an emotional "cruise control" so you can smoothly and calmly enter or leave life's fast lane.
Managing Stress
Stress Management means responding to major life events and everyday hassles by relaxing as well as tensing up. Relaxation actually is a part of the normal stress response. When faced with life's challenges, people not only get tensed up to be able to react rapidly and forcefully, but also become calm in order to think clearly and act with control.
Techniques for managing stress include:
Physical Benefits of managing stress include:
Emotional Benefits of managing stress include:
Can Stress Become Unmanageable?
Trauma can cause severe stress which may become unmanageable, despite the best efforts of good stress management. Let's look at why this happens, and what you can do about it.
Traumatic events cause severe stress reactions that are particularly hard to manage. Trauma involves a unique kind of physical/emotional shock that escalates the "fight-flight" stress response -- feeling angry or scared -- into "super-stress:" feeling terrified, stunned, horrified, like your life is passing before your eyes, or so overwhelmed you "blank out."
Trauma occurs when a person directly experiences or witnesses:
If you have ever experienced or witnessed war, disaster, a terrible accident, sexual or physical abuse or assault, kidnapping or hostage-taking, or life-threatening illnesses, you know the shock of trauma.
Nothing in life ever seems quite the same again, even if "everything works out for the best." Trauma leaves a lasting imprint of terror, horror, and helplessness on the body and the mind. The world no longer seems safe, manageable, or happy. People no longer seem trustworthy or dependable. Self-doubt and guilt eat away at your self-esteem. Faith and spirituality are shaken or lost.
Traumatic stress can be managed, but special steps are necessary.
Steps In Managing Traumatic Stress
Step One is recognizing the signs of post-traumatic stress. Trauma is so shocking that it causes memories which are impossible to forget yet sometimes also impossible to recall. Trauma memories often repeatedly come back when you aren't trying to think about them -- in unpleasant thoughts, nightmares, or a feeling as if you can't stop reliving the event. The shock of trauma also may create "blanks" in memory because it is too much for the mind to handle, and so the mind takes a "time out."
Traumatic stress reactions are normal responses to abnormal events. Most people experience post-traumatic stress reactions for days or even weeks after trauma. Usually these reactions become less severe over time, but they may persist and become a problem.
Step Two is recognizing the ways of coping with traumatic stress that are natural but don't work, because they actually prolong and worsen the normal post-traumatic stress reactions:
Trying to avoid bad memories, to shut out feelings people, or to stay always on alert seem reasonable -- but they don't work, because trauma controls your life if you run from it.
Step Three is to get help from a mental health professional for your traumatic stress reactions or "PTSD" (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). Trauma memories cannot be erased, but the stress they cause can become very manageable.
As a state employee, if you are experiencing traumatic stress reactions, you can seek confidential help from our EAP program. To contact our EAP program 24 hours a day, seven days a week, call 1-800-451-1834.