Recovering from a Traumatic Shock Event? Learn How To Resource Yourself
What is a Traumatic Shock Event?
A traumatic shock event refers to those situations, which are generally short-lived that overwhelm your nervous system. The shock is so intense that you are not able to “shake off” its effects easily. Some common responses of this kind of Post Traumatic Stress (PTSD) include: going over the event in your mind or retelling your story without feeling any better. Your sleep and ability to concentrate worsen or you lose interest in activities you once found enjoyable. Emotionally, you feel unusually depressed, anxious, fearful or angry.
Examples of traumatic shock events include: loss of employment or a loved one, automobile accident, a near-drowning, fall or other accident, assaults, exposure to combat or natural disasters. These kinds of traumatic events usually do not take long to occur in contrast to developmental traumatic events that happen over an extended period of time.
Traumatic shock traumas disturb the nervous system’s ability to regulate itself. Your nervous system temporarily losses its capacity to keep you acting and feeling like yourself. Using the analogy of a car, a regulated nervous system allows you to apply the gas when you need energy and the brake when you need to rest. After a traumatic shock event, your nervous system acts as though you are living with your foot always on the brake or the accelerator or both pedals are simultaneously jammed to the floor.
Subsequent minor events, like having to wait in a grocery line or drive to work, become a big deal and delay your healing. The physical pain you felt initially after the event just doesn’t seem to go away despite good medical attention. Relationships become difficult; you become angry at the least provocation or you just want to be alone too much. Danger seems to lurk around each corner.
While a traumatic shock trauma can happen in a split second its effects can last a lifetime. The memory of the event can stay lodged in the body for years, even when you think you have forgotten it. Long after the event you may begin to experience unpleasant symptoms such as physical pain; these can baffle you because you don’t realize that they are associated with the traumatic event and your attempts to address them years later may only be partially successful.
To minimize these unpleasant effects knowing how to care for yourself or “resource” yourself after a traumatic event can significantly reduce unnecessary pain.
Referring again to the analogy of the car, if your foot is on the brake, resourcing yourself can mean that you have energy to be engaged with family, friends and work. You feel less depressed.
If you live with your foot on the gas pedal, a resource helps you to relax or be more at ease.
If you keep both feet on the pedals, something that resources moves you out of what feels like a stuck or frozen place. You feel less physically and emotionally numb.
In general, resources inspire, keep you going during tough times, delight or soothe or reveal your wisdom, creativity or goodness.
If you are alive, you already have many ways you resource or regulate your nervous system. Intense and prolonged stress is often fatal. There is only so much your body can handle before you collapse. You can find resources inside yourself or within your environment.
Internal Resources
Internal resources refer to personality traits. These include:
· tenacity
· creativity
· Intelligence
· determination
· trust in yourself
· faith or spiritual beliefs
· sense of integrity and honesty
· capacity to ask for and receive help
· ability to be compassionate toward yourself and others
External Resources
External resources come from interacting with:
· pets or wild animals
· special places in nature
· activities that bring you pleasure or comfort
· helpful friends, family, co workers, or strangers
· professional counselors and health care providers
· home or other physical structures like museums or fountains
How Do You Make Use of Resources?
1. When you notice that you seem to be caught in a mood or behavior that is connected to the traumatic event, very intentionally refocus your attention on an external or internal resource. This can help settle your nervous system.
Pay particular attention to how your breath, heart rate or muscle tension change. Noticing how your body responds can increase your confidence that you are capable of getting through the traumatic event.
Even if the settling happens for just a brief period, it is a start. The more you focus on the resource the greater the possibility the brain will create new nerve pathways that make it less likely that you will be caught up in the traumatic event. You begin to have more moments of feeling like yourself.
2. When you notice that you seem to be reliving the traumatic event over an over, refocus your attention on what is happening right now.
Traumatic events can be like whirlpools that suck you into the past and leave you with the impression that there is no pleasant future. To counter this whirlpool effect, concentrate on an internal or external resource. Give it all your attention, as though your life depended on it. Note its details. If it’s an external resource, what do you like about it and how does it look, sound, feel, taste, smell? If it’s an internal resource, remember how you have expressed it in the past and think creatively about how it can help you now.
Mathew, not his real name, came to me after a serious car accident that left him unable to work for several weeks. His guilt and depression about having caused an accident kept him in bed for a couple of days. He frequently had memories of the accident and could hear the sound of breaking glass.
When we talked about resources, he named several. One was his love of being outdoors; others were his extensive knowledge of vegetable gardening and his fondness for his elderly father who lived nearby. During sessions, when Mathew described these resources we both noticed he visibly perked up. He voice became animated and he could recognize that maybe he was not always a bad person.
Significant change came when Mathew called his father to check on him. All his father could talk about was how his arthritis kept him from working in his garden. Hearing his distress, Mathew stepped out of his preoccupation with his own problems and offered to plant his father’s garden.
Several months later, Mathew’s symptoms had subsided significantly. Excited that his father gave him the freedom to create the garden however he wished, he spent hours focused on the soil and plants and less time replaying the accident. Nothing did more for Mathew’s depression and sense of worthlessness than hearing his father’s delight with how well his son had created a bountiful garden.
1. Traumatic shock refers to a time-limited event that overwhelms the nervous system.
2. There are two categories of resources: external and internal
3. Give attention to resources to help settle your nervous system.
4. Give attention to resources to help you move from thinking about the past and more about the present and future.
Depending on your situation, you may be able to move through the traumatic shock event on your own by focusing on external and internal resources.
If you are concerned that you are not able to handle the intensity or duration of the traumatic shock event, consider getting professional therapy from someone who understands how to work with resources and how the nervous system is affected by traumatic events.
If you are unsure if you need professional treatment and would like to discuss if this could be helpful, I can be reached at 720-635-7943 or Maggie@HealingAfterTrauma in Westminster, Colorado
