Understanding And Dealing With Vicarious Trauma

You will be surprised to know that everything that happens during a day has a direct effect on how you think and feel, influencing your thoughts and sometimes your actions. Vicarious trauma also known as secondary trauma occurs when you see or hear of an incident happened to someone else and the effects can be as damaging.

The Cause Of Vicarious Trauma And Its Symptoms

Vicarious trauma can be caused by a large variety of happenings and here are some examples: graphic scenes on news, disasters such as hurricane Katrina or 9/11, violent and/or horror movies with graphic scenes, a neighbor's injury or death and the plight of some countries whose people die of hunger.

When experiencing vicarious trauma, you will have the following symptoms: anxiety and helplessness that you cannot do anything to change or improve the situation, anger, low self-esteem, fatigue and emotional exhaustion, change in sleeping pattern, change in eating patterns, nausea, headache and vomiting.

Treating Vicarious Trauma

It is important you realize that you are being affected by these events and then only you will accept the fact that you are suffering from vicarious trauma; many people don't live in denial that they are able to have a trauma from something that has happened to someone else and then a treatment would be impossible and therefore the possibility of a cure inexistent.

Secondary trauma left untreated can develop in serious disorders such as depression and even the trouble of focusing on anything for long periods of time, which will in turn affect your work, relationship, family and friends. Treatment of vicarious trauma includes therapy and some light drugs that will boost your immune system and provide you with energy and positive thinking to snap out of your state of mind.

Talking about the way you feel with a family member or friends can be of great help too and in fact can treat your trauma leaving you feeling yourself again. The most important step is to accept the fact that you are being affected and that something must be done about it as soon as possible.

Helpful Tips

If you are sensitive and you know what affects you try and keep away from them as much as possible, such as, if you know that violent or horror movies leave you feeling restless then don't watch them and if on the news they warn that there will be graphic scenes then move away for or turn off the television for that period of time. Protect yourself, as sometimes you cannot influence the way you feel and you will invariably end up suffering from vicarious trauma again.

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