Keeping yourself safe
The first rule of recovery is ensuring you are safe. Then it is possible to begin to stabilise your life.
Things that can help you begin to stabilise your life
- Education.
- Supportive relationships.
- Learning to manage strong emotions.
- Building a life worth living.
Increasing understanding has two main purposes
It teaches us about the symptoms of trauma:
- How to recognise them.
- How to anticipate them.
- What they mean.
- How to manage them.
It can help to decrease shame, guilt and confusion and a sense of feeling ‘crazy’.
We learn to manage our emotions with support from others. We can benefit from the fact that we can learn new ways to manage horrible feelings. Having something useful or meaningful to do can be a big help.
These aspects give us the skills to use whenever we feel distressed:
In particular when we feel:
- Overwhelmed.
- Disconnected from ourselves.
- Anxious.
We can significantly reduce the intensity of these feelings by paying attention to the present moment. We do this by paying attention to, or creating a sensory experience in the present moment, that is not consistent with the traumatic event. This fosters hope and gives us control over the experience, rather than the experience controlling us.
Consider more:
u003colu003ern tu003cliu003eHow do you think understanding more about the impact of trauma could help you?u003c/liu003ern tu003cliu003eAt this time, do you consider yourself a victim or a survivor?u003c/liu003ernu003c/olu003e