Dealing with the Effects of Trauma: A Self-Help Guide. Recovering Your Mental Health Series.

Center for Mental Health Services, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 5600 Fishers Lane, Room 15-99, Rockville, MD 20857. Tel: 800-789-2647 (Toll Free); Web site: http://www.samhsa.gov.

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Anxiety; Depression (Psychology); Emotional Disturbances; Mental Health; Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; Self Help Programs; Stress Variables

For many years, the traumatic things that happened to people were overlooked as a possible cause of frightening, distressing, and sometimes disabling emotional symptoms such as depression, anxiety, phobias, delusions, flashbacks, and being out of touch with reality. In recent years, many researchers and health care providers have become convinced of the connection between trauma and these symptoms. They are developing new treatment programs and revising old ones to better meet the needs of people who have had traumatic experiences. This booklet can help you to know if traumatic experiences in your life may be causing some or all of the difficult symptoms you are experiencing. It may give you some guidance in working to relieve these symptoms and share with you some simple and safe things you can do to help yourself heal from the effects of trauma. This booklet contains information, ideas, and strategies that people from all over the country have found to be helpful in relieving and preventing troubling feelings and symptoms. The information in this booklet can be used safely along with other health care treatment. (GCP)

2003

ED470357