Self-Care for Trauma Victims
People across the globe face traumas on a daily basis that leave long-lasting impacts. Some individuals rise above the occasion and overcome the travesties they’ve endured; however, some people are left not knowing how to properly cope. Trauma forever changes our brains. We face a devastating event, and our brains go into fight, flight, or freeze mode and some never leave those stages. This is where trauma and its negative consequences create problems in one’s day to day life. So, how do we move forward and past our traumas? How do we return to a state of homeostasis and mental stability to live a fulfilling life? Well, self-care is one of the most important practices one can utilize to help overcome their traumas.
Self-care is all about establishing practices to ensure one’s overall well-being, something trauma victims have difficulty achieving. There are many ways to accomplish this and there isn’t a “one size fits all” form of this. Many self-care practices are available as some work better than others depending on the person. Some common self-care methods are reading, taking a bath, watching your favorite TV show, spending time with friends and family, all things that would make you feel good (Hood, 2018). While important to remember to do things that make you happy, it is also important to remember to allow oneself to feel all emotions as they come (e.g., rage, sadness, defeat, grief).
One method of self-care found to be beneficial is journaling. Journaling allows oneself to express themselves and their emotions in a non-biased environment (van der Kolk, 2014). It creates a space for us to process our traumas and our feelings around it and further work through it. In fact, journaling has been shown to reduce rumination, the unhealthy practice of replaying painful events over and over again in your mind (LivingUpp, 2023). Using the pages of a journal give you a dumping ground for negative emotional energy creating some relief in the end. Journal also helps identify patterns; when you journal frequently about the same person, situation or worry, it clues us in to what need some further investigation (LivingUpp, 2023). This would further help us work through that specific problem area and move on with our healing.
Another helpful form of self-care is meditation. This is something we often see used in yoga, too. Meditation has been shown to not only calm someone, but also helps with anxiety and depression, cancer, chronic pain, asthma, heart disease and high blood pressure (Mental Health America, 2023). This self-care practice presents a state of peaceful mindfulness, allowing us to channel our energy into healthy lifestyle practices. This, again, is another tool that effectively allows trauma victims to work through their traumas and go on to live a happy and healthy life (van der Kolk, 2014). Meditation gives us the space to begin healing again.
Overall, there are several forms of self-care practices in which are effective and beneficial to those utilizing them. Those mentioned above just barely touch the surface. However, simple practices as those are a great way to begin the journey to healing. Trauma is a forever life-changing thing, and it takes a lot of work and time to heal from it. Starting the process with something as simple as reading your favorite book or treating yourself in another way, is just the beginning of the good to come when one practices self-care.
References
Hood, J. (2018, December 20). The importance of self-care after trauma. Highland Springs Clinic. https://highlandspringsclinic.org/the-importance-of-self-care-after-trauma/#:~:text=You%20can%20do%20this%20by,during%20the%20trauma%20healing%20process.
LivingUpp. (2023, December 10). Journaling as self-care. https://www.livingupp.com/blog/how-to-journal-for-self-care/#:~:text=Health%20Benefits%20of%20Journaling,-Journaling%20has%20many&text=Expressing%20your%20thoughts%2C%20fears%2C%20and,over%20again%20in%20your%20mind.
Mental Health America. (2023). Taking good care of yourself. https://mhanational.org/taking-good-care-yourself
Van der Kolk, B. A. (2014). The body keeps the score: Brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma. Penguin Books.