Because everyone reacts slightly differently to trauma, and when something out of the ordinary happens to you it’s natural to be out of sorts for a few days or even weeks. When it comes to ‘watchful waiting’, the most important thing is to consider what your version of normal usually looks like. Rather it’s about being informed about some of the warning signs to look out for and learning some of the steps you can take to limit the possibility of developing PTSD. Recent trauma: why watchful waiting is keyįor those of you who have experienced a more recent trauma, now is the time to take action - and the most important step you can take is to engage in what we call ‘watchful waiting’.Īt this stage, the recommendation is rarely to dive in with therapy and a million other interventions.
#SIGNS OF TRAUMA PROFESSIONAL#
Now, if you believe that you, or someone you know, is already at the stage where you’ve developed PTSD, or that you’ve already spent years grappling with trauma without having uncovered or dealt with the root cause, it’s absolutely worth seeking professional help. Īnd when trauma doesn’t naturally resolve itself, when we don’t take the necessary steps to care for ourselves after a traumatic experience, or if everyone around us is also encountering trauma, the effects can become more entrenched and can lead to things like post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
However, things don’t always play out in this way. In fact, if you take a moment to think about some of your own life experiences, I’m sure you’ll be able to think of several things that you wouldn’t necessarily have chosen that have, nonetheless, provided you with wisdom, insight, or a new perspective - even if it’s taken a few months, or even years, to realise it.Īnd that, of course, is the ideal scenario whenever we experience a traumatic event: upset, followed by recovery, new insight, and positive character development. In many cases, whatever lesson you learn from the experience will go on to influence the way you behave for the better, making you more compassionate, more empathetic, stronger, or more resilient. It’s a perfectly normal reaction and one that you tend to move on from once you’ve absorbed the experience into your everyday thought processes. Often when you experience these types of events, you might feel a little wobbly for a few days (or even weeks) afterwards as your brain tries to recalibrate. So even the most commonly-experienced events like a bereavement, historic childhood bullying, or a work presentation that went particularly badly can continue to reverberate in the here and now, affecting how you move through your life. Something that our brains struggle to come to terms with.
#SIGNS OF TRAUMA MOVIE#
Or even living through a global pandemic…īut trauma doesn’t have to be something worthy of a movie script really it can be anything that happens to us that doesn’t fall under the realm of our normal experience. Of course we can all think of the more extreme forms of trauma we might be subjected to: terrorist attacks, an assault, living in a war zone, a debilitating accident or car crash.
This is trauma and the first step to addressing it -and moving on effectively - is to recognise the signs, and to know when to ask for help. However, for many people, the natural healing process stalls and the effects of the experience begin to feel insurmountable.
Your brain needs time to process and to heal. When you experience a traumatic event, whether it’s something huge and unexpected like a terrorist attack or a sudden bereavement, or something ongoing like bullying at work, it’s natural to feel troubled and upset for some time afterwards.
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