Psychological Self-Help: Chapter 5: Stress, Anxiety, Fears and Psychosomatic Disorders

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because insight therapies ask you to think and talk about upsetting

experiences and Cognitive-Behavioral therapies often involve

confronting or re-exposing yourself to disturbing situations. Many

traumatized persons remain fragile for years and easily triggered into

an unpleasant emotional state over which they have little control.

Thus, therapists are cautious and self-helpers must be too.

It is even possible that being capable and successful, being found

attractive, having intense pleasure and a lot of fun, or almost any

experience, even relaxation, can become a "trigger" which arouses

anxiety, guilt, depression, self-criticism, or other negative feeling. In

such cases, fun activities and achievements may need to be increased

gradually. Improving other ordinary activities, such as sleep, exercise,

relaxation, meditation, pleasant fantasies, breaking bad habits,

improving eating habits, working more effectively, etc., etc. will also

improve self-esteem and mood. Allen (1995) cautiously suggests that

even self-hypnosis and biofeedback can increase one's feeling of

being in self-control. Serious as reactions to trauma are, they are not

impossible to handle. However, professionals disagree on several

points, especially the degree helpers should probe to uncover

repressed memories and the importance of the victim forgiving the

abuser (see chapter 7). These are difficult decisions. Also, depending

on your symptoms and situation, it may be important to cope with

general anxiety and stress (see the rest of this chapter), shame

(chapter 6), anger (chapter 7), addictions (chapter 4), and other

problems common after a trauma.

The better general Web sites for understanding and coping with

trauma include Trauma Central

(http://home.earthlink.net/~hopefull/home.html), Enpsychlopedia

(http://enpsychlopedia.com) and search for Traumatic Stress, David

Baldwin's Trauma Information Pages (http://www.trauma-pages.com/

and http://www.trauma-pages.com/disaster.php), National Center for

PTSD (http://www.ncptsd.org/), APA Managing Traumatic Stress

(http://www.apa.org/practice/traumaticstress.html), Dissociative

Dis orders

(http://www.mentalhealth.about.com/library/weekly/aa071299.htm),

DID and “alters” (http://www.psycom.net/mchugh.html), Gentle

Touch Web (http://www.gentletouchsweb.com/) (includes messages,

stories, links for all kinds of survivors), Traumatic Stress Studies

(http://www.istss.org/), Mental Health Matters-DID

(http://www.mental-health-matters.com/), MHN-Trauma

(http://mentalhelp.net/poc/center_index.php/id/109), PTSD Resource

Center (http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/), The Re -Experiencing Experience

(http://twhj.com/), and MHN-DID

(http://mentalhelp.net/poc/center_index.php/id/41). There are a

growing number of specialized Web sites, such as Inpsyte Trauma

Psychology (http://www.inpsyte.ca/) (about childhood sexual abuse)

and Bully Online (http://www.bullyonline.org/stress/ptsd.htm). Other

very large Websites are available, such as Hope E. Morrow

(http://home.earthlink.net/~hopefull/), and Gift from Within

(http://www.giftfromwithin.org/), that cite national organizations and

have good articles on several kinds of trauma: 9/11/01, homicides,

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