General feelings
Re-experiencing the trauma
Wanting to avoid certain situations
Feeling cut off and numb
Feeling jumpy and on edge
Feeling miserable and blue

General feelings

You may feel stressed, unhappy, unsettled, shaken, shocked, numb, lost, or disorientated. You may feel that the world that was known and trusted is now turned upside down. You may feel that "I am going crazy" or that "the world has gone crazy."

It is very important for you to know that these general reactions are often quite normal. What you or other survivors have been through has been intense, very unusual, very unsettling and maybe even 'crazy' when compared with normal life. As a result, feeling unsettled in all the general ways described above is a natural human reaction.

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Re-experiencing the traumatic event afterwards

It is quite common that you or other survivors of traumatic events may re-live what has happened to you in many ways:

• bad dreams about the event often involving feelings of threat, dread, fear and helplessness
• thoughts about how things could have been different or thoughts about what else you could have done in that scary situation
• very clear memories of parts of what happened—sounds, images, pictures, tastes and smells
• intense worry about the events happening again
• anxiety when you get into any situation which reminds you of what has happened—this can be in the form of strong emotional worry, or in the form of sweating, rapid heart beat, butterflies in the tummy, and hot flushes.

It is very important for you to know that all of these ways of re-living what happened are common, normal reactions to a very abnormal and frightening event. When you relive these events in these ways your mind may be trying hard to make sense of something that has been very hard to understand.

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Wanting to avoid certain situations

It is very common after being in a traumatic situation for you to be afraid of any situation which may remind you of that trauma.

So, wanting to avoid certain thoughts, situations, people and places is quite common.

Simply put, if a big dog bites you, it is logical that you may want to avoid big dogs for a period of time.

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Feeling cut off from the world and normal life

Traumatic events can disrupt and affect your sense that the world is a safe and trustworthy place.

When a trauma is experienced, different people react in different and varied ways.

You may need lots of affection and want to be close to loved ones, friends and family to reassure you and them that the world is still more or less as you and they know it.

You may go through periods of time where you feel cut off from the world—where you feel that privacy and sticking to yourself is the safest response. Common reactions linked to this response are:

• not wanting to go out, socialise and relate to others
• preferring quiet situations
• preferring 'alone' time
• feeling 'dead' inside
• feeling prickly and unapproachable where others are concerned, even loved ones
• feeling that the future holds less than it did before
• feeling that there is no longer any point to plan for the future and that 'living from day to day' is best
• feeling like the warm and loving feelings have got lost
• feeling sentimental about little things.

You should know that these reactions, or combinations of them, are also normal given what you have been though. What has happened often involved the feeling, at the time, that life would never be the same again and that you might have died. As a result it is often hard to feel vibrant, lively, a people's person, and a person who wants to plan for the future after a trauma.

It is going to take time to feel like your old self again.

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Feeling jumpy and on edge

You may be finding it very hard to settle down or focus. This can take any of these forms:

• finding it hard to fall or stay asleep
• finding it hard to concentrate or focus
• feeling irritable and angry
• feeling tired but also restless
• feeling jumpy and that you can startle easily
• feeling anxious nervous and panicky.

These reactions are normal after a trauma. The sudden and unexpected nature of the trauma gave your mind and body a huge fright. And these reactions show that the mind and body are taking time to relax or calm down again.

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Feeling miserable and blue

When something terrible has happened it is normal to feel miserable, often intensely so, afterwards. Signs of this can include:

• changes in eating habits—eating more or less than before
• problems sleeping or sleeping too much
• feeling less interested in sex or life's pleasures
• negative thoughts
• loss of motivation
• feelings of tiredness and lethargy
• feeling as if nothing good is happening
• worry about the future
• feeling that life is not worth living.

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See getting help and monitoring yourself for more information