To understand about Trauma and its treatment

1. A P P L I C A T I O N N U M B E R :
E 5 E 4 C C F A E 7 3 E 1 1 E 9 8 0 D 4 1 B 4 4 4 9 A 8 B 4 E 0
N A M E O F C A N D I D A T E : P O O N A M P A T E L
A F F I L I A T I O N : B A N A R A S H I N D U U N I V E R S I T Y
Crisis First Aid for Traumatic
events

2. What is trauma?
 Trauma or psychological trauma refers to a highly
distressing event which causes significant disturbances in
individual’s life.
 The key aspect of any trauma is that encounter of
extreme stress that overwhelms an individual’s ability to
cope or resolve.
 Trauma refers to the individual’s subjective experience of
an event or condition in which he/she can have
overwhelmed emotional experiences and threat to life
and bodily integrity

3. What is Trauma?

4.  Trauma also referred as a psychological trauma as it
is the subjective feeling to the stressful events that
produces a sense of insecurity, helpless feeling and
emotional responses.
 In trauma, an individual may or may not have a
physical injury, but he/she can have physiological
upheaval.
 The more frightened and helpless an individual feels
the more intense emotional and psychological
distress he/she experiences.

5.  Most people experience a traumatic event at some
point in their lives, such as witnessing a motor
accident, domestic violence, physical or psychological
abuse, sudden death of a loved one, a violent criminal
act, exposure to the violence of war, or a natural
disaster.
 Trauma is primarily categorized into two types:
Primary trauma and Secondary trauma.

6.  Many people generally recover from trauma with time
and through the support of family and friends.
 However, for some people traumatic experiences can
be long lasting, causing significant emotional and
psychological disturbances and fear or post-traumatic
stress.
 These people may benefit from seeking help from
mental health professionals, including consulting with
psychologists.

7.  The primary trauma refers to when an individual
directly experienced or witnessed a traumatic event
and responds with intense emotional and
psychological distress.
 While, secondary trauma refers to an indirect
exposure to trauma through a first-hand account or
narrative of a traumatic event.
 Secondary trauma also refers to when an individual
feels undue stress while helping a traumatized or
suffering person.

8.  Hence, secondary trauma is indirect exposure of
traumatic events to the individuals through someone
who is a victim of a trauma.

9. Warning signs and symptoms
 A person can have several types of physiological,
psychological and emotional responses to a
traumatic event. Most people display intense
responses aftermath of a traumatic incident, which
may continue for several weeks or even months.

10. Physical responses
-Disturbances in biological functioning such as eating
disturbances (more or less than usual), sleep
disturbances (more or less than usual), stomach
upset
-Feeling tired or low energy most of the time or almost
-Feeling of continuous and unexplained pain,
headache and numbness
-Sweating
- Heart racing, rapid breathing
- Sexual dysfunction

11. Emotional responses
 Feeling low/sad for a longer period or almost every
time
 -Feeling of overwhelmed
 -Feeling tense and anxious
 -Frequent Crying spells
 -Feeling of hopelessness and helplessness
 Fearfulness
 -Feeling out of control

12. Emotional responses
 Irritability, angry and resentment
 -Emotional numbness
 -Feeling shocked
 -Inability to feel pleasure in activities in which earlier
they used to do
 -Easily and frequently getting upset or agitated
 -Withdrawal from normal routine and relationships
 -Feeling of rejection or abandoned
 Blaming to self or others and having negative views

13. Cognitive responses
 Difficulty in paying attention and concentration
 -Inability to be focused on the task for longer periods
of time
 -Having disturbed memories or flashbacks about the
traumatic event
 -Feeling of hopelessness about the future
 -Feeling guard and constantly alert

14.  Re-experiencing the Trauma
-Intrusive thoughts
-Flashbacks or nightmares
-Sudden floods of emotions or images related to the
traumatic event
 Amnesia particularly related to traumatic event
-Avoidance of situations that resemble the traumatic
event

15. -Detachment
-Guilt feelings
-Grief reactions
-Hyper-vigilance or an extreme sense of being "on
guard"
-Overreactions, including sudden unprovoked anger
-Insomnia
-Obsessions with death
-Self-destructive and impulsive behavior
-Dissociative symptoms

16. Most probable responses after a trauma
 Use of substances
 Expression of anger or aggressive behavior
 Suicidal thoughts
 Self-blame and guilt feeling

17. Normalization
 With time most of the people return back in
normalization and able to do the work as they used
to do. This may take from several days to weeks and
disturbances lessen with time.
 However, some people may feel no reduction in
distress or an increased severity and they find
himself/herself unable to overcome and returning
back to the normalcy.
 They continue to have feelings of helplessness,
hopelessness and emotional disturbances which
affect their everyday functioning and occupation.

18. Therapeutic steps
 Ventilating feelings
 Relaxation exercises
 Cut the isolation time period
 Engagement in
activities/exercise/hobbies/work
 Reconnecting with others
 Expressing feeling
 Volunteering
 Acceptance of feeling and reality

19. What is Crisis?

20. What is crisis?
 Crisis is an overwhelming reaction to a threatening
situation in which a person’s usual problem solving
strategies fail to resolve the situation resulting in a
state of disequilibrium.
 Crisis- occurs in response to a sudden unexpected
event in a person’s life. The critical life events revolve
around experiences of grief and loss. For example
loss of a job, divorce, death of a love one, severe
physical or mental illness, etc.

21.  Goal is to stabilize the family situation and restore to their
pre-crisis level of functioning.
 Opportunity to develop new ways of perceiving, coping, and
problem-solving.
 The intervention is time limited and fast paced.
 Worker must take an active and directive approach.

22. References
 Allen, J. G. (1995). Coping with trauma: A guide to self-
understanding. Washington, DC: American Psychiatry
Press
 Herman J. (1992). Trauma and recovery, New York,
Basic Books.
 Herman, J.L. (2002). Recovery from psychological
trauma. Psychiatry and clinical neurosciences, 52(S5),
s145-150
 Maercker, A. & Hecker, T. (2016). Broadening
perspectives on trauma and recovery: a socio-
interpersonal view of PTSD. European Journal of
Psychotraumatology, 7.

23. Feedback about Academic writing course
 Academic Writing course which is organized by
SWAYAM, Govt. of India has given me an opportunity
ton learn about preparation of research protocol,
article/research writing, and seminar/conference
presentation.
 Dr Ajay Semalty, H.N.B. Garhwal University (A Central
University) taught the topic very nicely in easy manner so
that persons can understand without any difficulty.
 I must say that all post graduate students and PhD
scholars of any stream will be benefited from this
course. Also, young scientists and faculty members
would benefit from this course for their career growth.