TRAUMA

Trauma can come as a single incident, such as an auto or industrial accident, being wounded or crippled by a stray bullet, or being raped. It can also come in a long-term form, such as an extended wartime, neglect or abuse experience. While the effects of single incident trauma are generally more reversible than those of extended trauma, modern advances in the understanding and treatment of traumatic effects offer hope to all. If, however, the trauma's effects are left unprocessed, or the trauma sufferer does not seek necessary help and support, the aftershocks of trauma can last a lifetime.

You definitely need professional help and stand a good chance of benefiting from it if you answer "Yes" to either of the Qualifier Questions below and you then answer "Yes" to three or more of the remaining questions.

A.  Have you experienced, witnessed or been confronted with an event or events that involved the actual occurrence or the threat of death, serious injury or loss of physical integrity, to yourself or to others?

B. Did your response to the event or events involve intense fear, helplessness or horror?

1.  Have you persistently re-experienced the traumatic event(s) through recurring and distressing intrusive (uncontrolled and unwanted) recollections or recurring dreams of the event(s)?
2.  Have you had the experience of acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were happening all over again, through a vivid sense of reliving it?
3.  Since the trauma, have you avoided situations associated with the trauma, in such ways as avoiding thoughts, feelings, conversations, activities, places or people that arouse recollections of the trauma?
4.  Since the trauma, have you experienced “numbing” in such forms as diminished interest or participation in significant activities, feelings of estrangement or detachment from others, or restriction in your range of emotion?
5.  Since the trauma, have you experienced an inability to recall some important aspect of the event, or have you experienced a sense of a foreshortened future (e.g., not expecting to have a career, marriage, a family, or a normal life span)?
6.  Since the trauma, have you experienced symptoms of increased arousal, such as inability to fall or remain asleep, irritability or temper outbursts, poor concentration, hyper-vigilance (overactive scanning for signs of danger), or an exaggerated startle response?
7.  Since the trauma, have you experienced a reduction in awareness of your surroundings (“being in a daze or a fog”), feelings of yourself or the world around you not being real (“de-realization”), or feelings of losing your sense of who you are (“depersonalization”)?
8.  Do you find yourself believing that the world is less safe than it used to be?
9.  Do you find yourself thinking that you are not really worthy of feeling good again or that you somehow caused the trauma?

COPYRIGHT PEAK OF SUCCESS 2004

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