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They can help both children and their parents understand how to cope with the emotional impact of a traumatic event. Psychologists and mental health professionals can work with people to help find ways to cope with stress. Experts do not know why some people experience PTSD after a traumatic event, while others do not. If you’re having symptoms for too long—or that are too intense—talk with your health care provider or a mental health professional. It’s important for anyone with PTSD-like symptoms to be treated by a mental health professional who is trained in trauma-focused therapy.

PTSD can develop immediately after someone experiences a disturbing event or it can occur weeks, months or even years later. People can initially feel shocked, numb, or confused but also experience fear and agitation. Though this may feel like a helpful short-term coping strategy, it’s important to recognise in the long run it may have an impact on your recovery. Though these feelings may feel overwhelming and frightening, it’s important to be aware that they are a very normal response to a highly stressful situation.

The results revealed that the resilience of the teenagers at Samalanga Boarding School was high, reaching 99% (298 people). The study aimed to investigate the teenagers’ responses who, at the time of the disaster, lived separately from the family. To deal with this, measures should be taken to bring the teenagers’ mental condition back to normal with an effort known as resilience. After the earthquake and tsunami in 2004, Aceh Province experienced another earthquake of 6.5 Richter scale hitting Bireuen, Pidie Jaya, and Pidie Districts in December 2016. The psychological impact were assessed using the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales-21 (DASS-21) and Way of Coping questionnaire was used to measure the coping strategies.

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• When we are feeling overwhelmed it can be easy to get caught up in our thoughts and feelings and lose sight of the present moment.
• You may find it comforting to read stories about other people who experienced similar traumatic events.
• Moving past the initial shock usually takes 4–6 weeks from the event.

Referring to what happens during and after earthquakes, they were asked to list children’s (a) expected emotions, and (b) coping strategies for diminishing fear and sadness. Recently, the study of children’s earthquake-related emotions and coping strategies has gathered attention. Natural disasters such as earthquakes have a highly traumatic impact on psychological functioning. Longitudinally, Time 1 CSE predicted Time 2 PTSD symptoms, but not general distress. Gender was significant for Time 2 PTSD symptoms, but not for Time 2 global distress. The mediating effect of coping self-efficacy (CSE) perceptions between acute stress responses (ASR) and 1-year distress following two disasters was tested.

How to cope with trauma after a distressing event

A traumatic event is one which causes a lot of distress or makes us feel fearful for our own or someone else’s safety. As mentioned previously, some jobs make people more likely to experience a traumatic event. An important minority of people who experience a traumatic event will go on to develop PTSD. Many people will be able to recover after a traumatic event with support from family, friends and their workplace.

If you experienced the traumatic event outside of work, you may want to let your employer know so that they can support you. If you experienced the traumatic event as part of your job, your workplace might have support systems in place to help you. For the first few months following a traumatic event, you might want to pay attention to how you are feeling over time. Seeking support from friends, family or other people that you trust can help you to cope better after a traumatic event.