Tips For Dealing With Mental Stress After An Emergency
Much of the attention after a medical emergency gets focused on the physical, and rightly so, but after the stitches have been placed or the fracture reset, it’s not always easy to jump back into life as you once knew it. There is a significant mental and emotional toll that a traumatic incident takes on an individual. We know this first hand, because emergency medical personnel work in a high stress field and situations don’t always have a great outcome, so our team needs to be able to find healthy ways to cope with this stress.
With that in mind, we wanted to use today’s blog to share some of the ways EMS professionals cope with the mental stress of an emergency situation, and provide some tips for how you can overcome the mental and emotional burden that can develop in the wake of an emergency.
Managing Stress After An Emergency
Witnessing a traumatic event or dealing with a family emergency can lead to a lot of mental stress that can take much longer to shake than any physical scars from the accident. Here are some ways EMS personnel and individuals who have experienced a traumatic emergency can work to alleviate some of this mental anguish and stress.
Take Some Time – Don’t just try to push on with life like nothing happened. While you may want a distraction to help keep your mind busy, you need to take some time to regroup after a traumatic experience. Take a little time to calm down after the event to help get your mind to a healthier place.
Talk About Your Experience – Research has shown that talking about your experience, whether it be with a close family member, a professional or a support group can help you overcome some of the mental hurdles left behind by the incident. It can also help to identify some of the underlying ways the accident has affected you, which can make it easier to work through these obstacles.
Practice Self Care – You need to take some time after a traumatic event, but don’t just lay in bed all day. Practice healthy self care habits, as this can help with your mental and emotional state. Get out of bed, shower, put on clean clothes, get some fresh air and talk with others. Even if you have to force yourself to do it, self care is very important when you’re in a fragile mental state.
Ask For Help – Perhaps the hardest tip on this list is to ask for help if you’re feeling overwhelmed by stress or emotions. People shy away from asking for help for a myriad of reasons. Your friends, family and healthcare providers want to help you in your time of need, but they may not be able to if they aren’t aware that you’re struggling. Please don’t be afraid to ask for help if you’re carrying a heavy mental burden.
Don’t Turn To Alcohol Or Drugs To Cope – Alcohol or drugs may give the appearance of helping eliminate stress, but they won’t do anything to cope with your mental or emotional state in the long term, and in fact reliance on these substances can actually lead to more anxiety and stress. Turn to healthy outlets for stress relief, which we’ll touch on below.
Find Your Healthy Outlet – You can’t always eliminate stress, but you can find healthy ways to manage it. Find a healthy stress management outlet for you. Whether that’s going for a run, swimming laps at the pool, practicing breathing techniques, taking yoga classes with a friend or just talking to a relative on the phone, it’s important to identify personal ways to help manage stress when it develops.
Real World Interactions – Finally, strive to have some positive real-world interactions with others each and every day. Reading stories or comments about the incident on social media can be isolating and have you reliving the incident all over again in your head. Reduce your screen time and have conversations in person or over the phone with loved ones, and you’ll find that you have more control over your mental health.
This is far from a comprehensive list, but it speaks to the importance of caring for your mental health after a traumatic experience. These invisible scars can last much longer than the physical trauma after an emergency, so take care of yourself. And if you ever find yourself struggling to deal with the mental burden of a traumatic experience, know that there are countless professional resources available. The team at Gold Cross is always here to help, and here are some other resources in the Fox Valley:
For more information, or for help in the event of a medical emergency, reach out to the team at Gold Cross Ambulance today.
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