Life After Trauma: 5 Lifestyle Changes to Improve Well-Being

Trauma is an emotional and psychological response to a severely distressing event. Examples of incidents that could cause this are car accidents, rape, domestic violence, natural disasters, an illness, or witnessing a brutal crime. Usually, these situations are identified with feelings of helplessness, horror, or the danger of death or serious injury. People who go through such events will often exhibit fear, shock, confusion, disconnection, shame, guilt, anger, and insomnia. 

Besides the incidents mentioned above, harsh childhood experiences can also cause trauma. In most cases, abandonment, physical or sexual abuse, and domestic violence often cause trauma to kids. If untreated, children can carry the negative emotional and psychological effects caused into their adult life. The unresolved issues could lead to mental health problems like depression and anxiety disorders when they’re older. Apart from that, they can also make it hard for them to trust people and form new or lasting relationships as adults.

Lifestyle Changes to Manage Trauma

If you feel like the traumatic events you experienced in your childhood still affect your adult life, it’s essential to speak to a mental health professional. Usually, experienced, certified, and licensed specialists are preferable. It’s because they have sufficient knowledge and expertise in healing childhood trauma in adults and could offer the best solutions to you as a patient. 

If you’ve experienced an unsettling event recently, it’s also possible to recover. In some cases, trauma symptoms last only a few days, while in others, it could be months or years. Often, they slowly fade away, allowing healing from the unpleasant incident. However, it would also help to talk to a mental health professional about your situation. 

These specialists will allow you to fully express, explore, and process all feelings about your traumatic event. This is an efficient strategy they use to help patients cope with the unpleasant situation they’ve experienced.

Besides seeking help from a specialist, making positive lifestyle changes could also help you heal from trauma. Some of the adjustments you could consider are highlighted and explained below. 

1. Join a Support Group

In most regions, there are support groups where trauma survivors connect to share their experiences. In their gatherings, they advise, encourage, and comfort each other. Joining such groups can be quite helpful in ensuring proper healing for you. 

Since you’ll be around people who have gone through situations similar to yours, you’ll feel more understood and less alone in such spaces. However, you might also find it challenging to open up to other group members about your experience. In this case, you need not worry because many people do, too. With continued attendance, you might start building trust with the individuals in the group. This can help you open up about your unpleasant incident, which is vital for the recovery process. 

Besides that, you could also make new friends from the support team. These people could also help you heal because they’ll offer you the understanding and support you might need. As a result, this could help lessen your symptoms and could improve your well-being, too.

2. Exercise

Medical specialists believe that trauma makes an individual’s mind and body get stuck in constant tension. Even after the unpleasant situation has passed, it might still be difficult for patients to recover from the said state. As a result, this could cause irritability, paranoia, anxiety, and insomnia.

Professionals recommend physical activity to trauma patients, as it’s beneficial in several ways. Firstly, it helps the nervous system produce endorphins, which aid in reducing anxiety and stress. Secondly, it also assists the body to release chemicals that assist in regulating patients’ moods, like serotonin and dopamine. Thirdly, exercises also help by reducing the focus on disturbing thoughts. 

Physical activity may be quite helpful in managing trauma. For effective results, consider engaging in it regularly. This way, the exercises could offer lasting benefits, which could eventually help you heal and better your life quality. 

3. Move to Another Location

If you still live where the traumatic event happened, it might be wise to move to a secure area. This is because you could constantly feel like the location is unsafe and that the unpleasant situation that happened could still occur again. This could make you have heightened levels of anxiety, paranoia, and stress. As a result, this may delay or prevent healing. 

Relocating to a secure location could help. Even though it might take time to build trust with the people you find there, you’ll get to start your life all over again. The new environment could also help you form better memories of the place. As a result, this might help you heal, since you’ll concentrate less on the traumatic situation you experienced.

4. Rest More

Getting more rest is also recommended. If you feel you’ve not been sleeping enough, lay down whenever you can, or increase your slumber hours. This can be quite beneficial because it will increase relaxation and improve your emotional health by reducing anger and increasing happiness. For higher quality slumber, ensure you sleep where you feel secure. Listen to calming melodies or practice relaxation exercises to soothe your body before bedtime.

5. Engage In Hobbies

Engaging in activities you enjoy could also help improve your well-being after trauma. Consider watching television, reading books, gardening, cycling, writing, taking nature walks, or undertaking other tasks you love. These could be quite helpful in ensuring healing because they’ll keep your mind engaged, give you more fulfillment, provide relaxation, and offer more happiness. 

Endnote

Trauma can often cause a person to be overly anxious, afraid, and confused. It can also make individuals disconnect themselves from others, have difficulty concentrating, and cause them to be constantly stressed. 

If you’ve been through a traumatic event, this article offers some lifestyle changes that could help you improve your well-being. They include joining a support group, exercising, and moving to another location. In addition, engaging in hobbies and getting sufficient rest whenever necessary could also help you heal, as provided above. 

The recommendations in this write-up could be helpful if considered. However, if your symptoms persist, it’s essential to consult a mental health specialist. These professionals can offer other treatments that could be efficient for you.