This article discusseshow to improve your symptoms of trauma.
What Is Trauma?
Traumais the result of a negative event.
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It triggers when you are physically, emotionally, or mentally hurt by something that has happened.
For more mental health resources, see ourNational Helpline Database.
Accept Support
Finding and welcoming support is a major part of dealing with many mental health issues.
That said, people with trauma histories might struggle to receive support due to their own histories of trauma.
Many people with trauma histories lack safe support or even access to support.
For them it might be more beneficial to understand the importance of building support networks.
Individual trauma-focused psychotherapy is recommended over all other approaches for PTSD and traumatic experiences in general.
Connect With Others
It’s important for trauma survivors to connect with other people.
Many trauma survivors either overshare, or don’t share anything about their trauma.
If you don’t love working out, that’s OK!
Anything that involves moving your body will help you heal.
Work With Your Feelings
Journalingis a common way to manage stress and move through complex events.
Give it a try if it feels like it might be beneficial for you.
If not, you’re free to work with other tools first.
Don’t pressure yourself to feel things that can trigger a flashback.
Feeling your feelings, and accepting them, is key to healing from trauma.
You may have some difficult feelings along the way, like anger, and that’s OK. ## Practice Self-Care
Self-carereduces stress.
Equally important, it feels good.
Practice self-care throughyour healing journeyby regularly taking action to do things that feel good and loving for yourself.
Self-care acts can be simple and free and might be as mundane as taking a bath.
You won’t be able towork through your feelingsif you’re actively avoiding them by taking substances.
During the healing process, it’s a good idea to reassess your relationship with substances.
Take Breaks
When moving through healing, you might find that you’re more tired than usual.
Or, you might feel like you have physical energy, but your mind doesn’t work as well.
Healing from trauma takes a lot of energy.
Practice Mindfulness or Meditation
One practice that has been shown to support mental health ismindfulness.
It’s a method of experiencing life where you make a point of paying attention to each moment.
You stay present for everything from your thoughts and feelings to how things are for you physically.
This can help you relieve stress.
These are all helpful for healing.
Engage in Creativity
Lastly, having fun is a great healing tool.
Getting creative, for you, might mean making music or just listening to it.
It might mean writing poetry, journaling, or even just reading a fiction book.
Engaging your brain in creative and artistic endeavors has been proven to improve physiological and psychological outcomes in people.
What matters is that you engage with anything creative that feels positive for you.
Healing from traumamight feel overwhelming.
2010;100(2):254-263. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2008.156497
