Every day, even at work, we may be faced by the prospect of trauma or tragedy. If a person we know or work with dies or is injured, or a member of the family is hurt, we can often find ourselves affected by this unexpected blow of fate.

People react differently as individuals to tragedy. It does not mean that one of us is stronger or weaker than the other - only that the incident had a different effect on us. Often we don't know why!

You may find yourself experiencing strong feelings that you don't normally have, or behaving differently - 'not like you at all'. This can be frightening if you don't understand what is happening. This is part of a normal recovery process which will pass.

You may at times wonder if you will get worse, or how long it will take for you to feel okay again.  

Meanwhile, this may affect your ability to do your work, and also the way you relate to your colleagues and family. At times you may want to be left alone.  Other times, you may feel the need for people around you just to be there for support - even though you may not want to tell them how you feel, and they don't seem to be able to guess anyway.  You may find it difficult to sleep, your eating patterns may change, making decisions may be hard.  You may get headaches, feel restless or nauseous.

Take heart - all these are normal reactions to an event which came unexpected and uninvited into your life. You are not going crazy. It will just take time to recover and adjust back to your everyday routine of work and relationships.  

For some, this will be soon. For others of us, the incident could 'pop up' in our mind every now and then over the next few days, weeks or months and re-awaken some of those thoughts and feelings. It is hard because you often don't expect it. But it does fade with time - there just is no exact way to predict how this will happen for you. Only very few people remain still 'troubled' after this natural fading process, and there are special procedures to help them. So there is no cause for alarm. Now you know this is a natural process, you can face it, and realise you are quite normal even if you 'don't feel OK'. You are just recovering at your own place and you can get back to your usual performance.  

We now know that being able to talk about your experience and share your feelings and thoughts about what happened will help. This needs to be with someone you feel comfortable with and believe you can trust. And then only when you are ready!

To begin with, your mind may want to 'blot' certain things out for a while - and that's okay as long as you can still function normally at home and at work.  If not, take notice of those who are around you and care for you, and seek someone to talk to who can help.

If you find yourself in a traumatic incident, or even affected by hearing about it after it happened, or know of someone who is not coping, there are a number of ways to get help. If a tragedy has occurred in your workplace, there may be a special Crisis Incident team of professionals who have the skills and resources to help you.  

If you are a staff member affected by a crisis or tragedy, you can contact one of the Employee Assistance Program psychologists.  (Contact information available through Occupational Health and Safety).  If you are a student, you can contact the Counselling Service (Student Centre, Level 3, phone 8201 2117).  These contacts will be treated in confidence and are free.

This information sheet is to help you understand the process of what happens to you in trauma.  Share it with the people you are involved with at work and with whom you live.  In this way, your recovery (and perhaps that of others) will be quicker - because when you understand, you take away fear.

When fear fades, our body and mind heal more rapidly.

Further information 

Other available resources include online information and lists of services available in Adelaide:

• Flinders University Posttraumatic Stress Research Unit: (08) 8201 5995
• Grieflink
  
• Alfred James Bereavement Educational Services: (08) 8371 1009
• Solace Association (SA) Inc. phone service 7 days: (08) 8272 4334
• Bereaved through suicide support group Inc.: (08) 8332 2696
• Victim Support Service: (08) 8231 5626