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Aid workers in Iraq and throughout the world
experience Secondary Trauma or Vicarious
Trauma. This is a
phenomena that occurs to people who
listen to victims of trauma, and start to
experience feelings of depression,
anxiety, guilt, shame, and other emotions and
behaviors, almost as if they themselves have
experienced the trauma first hand.
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Secondary Trauma
A group of aid workers in Iraq asked me to
develop a video on ways to help themselves if
suffering from Secondary Trauma.
The
video can be seen via
YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAxCgv80N6E
Secondary Trauma is a phenomena that occurs
to people who listen to victims of
trauma like friends,
family, aid workers, first responders, and
psychotherapists.
The phenomena is
characterized by feelings of depression,
anxiety, guilt, shame and other emotions and
behaviors. These same emotions and behaviors
are expected in people who experience the
trauma first hand.
Helpers should be aware that at one time or
another in their careers it is normal to
experience a certain type of Secondary Trauma or
Vicarious Trauma. It is inevitable, as
we listen to traumatic events regularly.
It is very important to identify secondary
trauma. Some of the
common symptoms are feelings of sadness,
anxiety, guilt, or shame, self destructive
behaviors like alcohol abuse, drug abuse,
reckless
driving, promiscuous sex, cutting and suicide
thoughts.
Once
identified, you want to help
yourself using Cognitive - Behavioral -
Emotive methods.
Below, I discuss the
fundamental behaviors of health (eat well, sleep
well, exercise, and socialize). These are
fundamental to any self help program, which
include:
Emotive - Notice when you are
experiencing an unhealthy negative emotion
and allow yourself to experience the emotion.
You may even want to do an imagery exercise
where you imagine yourself experiencing the
emotion and performing behavioral and
cognitive exercises discussed
below.
Behavioral - You want to force
yourself to do things that bring you
pleasure. Make a list of things that brought
you pleasures in the past and do
them. Also, work hard at avoiding
self-destructive behaviors. Finally, distract
yourself with some of the fundamental
behaviors of health discussed
below.
Cognitive (thinking) - You want
to identify the thoughts that are causing the
emotion. The thoughts can be "I am not good
enough to help," "What if that happens to me,
I won't be able to survive," or "Why do these
things happen to others and not me." Once
you identify the
thoughts, replace them with thoughts that are
healthier.
The Jove Institute
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Lots of love, health, and happiness!
Sincerely,
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