1. Tips to Help You Overcome Childhood Trauma
March 21, 2013
| Last Updated on Friday, 03 May, 2013 13:00
Childhood trauma can lead to a number of problems in adulthood. It’s important that as adults, we are
able to manage our past experiences in a positive way that helps us to grow rather than a way that holds
us back in life. Our experiences affect us based on our perception, so if we are able to change our
perception we can move forward and live happy and productive lives. Controlling and managing your
perception is an important aspect to living a healthy life overall and growing to your full potential as an
adult.
Give yourself time, don’t be hard on yourself and try to relax.
However, in many cases where childhood trauma has negatively affected an individual, it may be very
hard to maintain any type of positive perspective. There are many different ways to help people who
have suffered from childhood trauma. If you have suffered from childhood trauma, here are some tips
to help you move on with your life and recover from traumatic experiences.
Don’t Isolate
Following a traumatic experience or the memory of a traumatic experience you may be tempted to
isolate from the world around you. Giving in to this temptation may seem like an easy solution but it
will actually end up making you feel a lot worse than you initially did. Although you may not feel like
being around people or being in a social situation, make sure that you push yourself to be social and
engage with others. Going on social outings and reaching out to others will help you step outside of
yourself.
The less time you spend “in your own head” the better you will feel and the greater chance you have at
recovering from the traumatic experiences that are holding you back. It will seem hard at first, and you
will most likely be uncomfortable, but the more often you hang out with others and be social the easier
it will become. The last place you want to be while you are trying to overcome trauma is alone with
your own thoughts.
Ask For Support
Don’t ever be afraid to reach out and ask for support. Talking about your feelings can be a tremendous
and much needed relief. You’ll be surprised to see how much better you feel if you just take the time to
share how your thoughts with a friend, a loved one, or if you feel more comfortable, with a mental
health professional. It’s important to keep talking about things until you have no need to talk about
them anymore.
Build a Comfortable Environment
Do whatever it takes to make yourself feel as comfortable as possible. If this means that you need to
sleep with a light on or meditate frequently, do it. Establishing a comforting routine can help you
achieve this goal. Listening to comforting music, yoga, meditation and even eating healthy-anything
that you can do to relax-will help you be able to move on from past traumatic experiences. The more
you are able to relax, the less likely you are to experience racing and harmful thought patterns.

2. Resume Normal Activities
Much like being social and resisting isolation, resuming the normal activities of your life can prevent
you from “living in” the trauma or feeling too overwhelmed by the negative experiences. If you are
having trouble completing daily tasks of resuming your life as it initially was, take “baby steps”. It’s
important to stay at your comfort level and not rush into anything that may make you feel unneeded
anxiety. Taking “baby steps”, as they say, is the best way to resume doing normal activities. Resuming
your life will help you build confidence and it will increase your self-esteem.
Triggers
Become aware of your emotional triggers and learn how to respond to them appropriately. Letting
yourself live in an emotional state will detach you further from reality and make it very difficult for you
to move on with your life. Coming up with an appropriate strategy to cope with your emotional triggers
will help ensure that you land on your feet each time these triggers arise.
It is unrealistic to think that you can go through life avoiding every and all of your emotional triggers.
Therefore, having the appropriate plan in place to deal with your triggers is the best way to make sure
that you don’t regress on your path of recovery. Also try to engage in positive self-talk as often as
possible. This is another way to help you boost your self-esteem.
Seek Out the Good
People who were victimized went through a terrible ordeal that they could not control. It may seem
absurd to try to find the good lessons that came from your traumatic experience but you CAN become a
survivor. Putting things into a different context and journaling about how the experience made you feel
and the possible things you could have learned from the experience can help you to move on with a
more positive outlook.
Journaling, talking to others, and seeking help from loved ones is a good way to start helping you seek
out the good that occurred as a result of the traumatic experience. This form of thinking will eventually
help you re-align your perspective on the entire event and thus, life. Remember, just because you were
victimized does not mean that you have to continue being a victim.
Be Patient
Just as if you were recovering from the flu or a cold, you need to rest, eat well and take good care of
yourself overall. Taking care of yourself is important to overall healing and will help you progress
faster. Give yourself time, don’t be hard on yourself and try to relax. Find comfort in knowing that the
worst is behind you and you can now move on with your life. Remember to help others, too. Helping
others will help you remember your strengths and it will also make you feel good about yourself. If you
are feeling rushed by your friends or family, take a step back and try your best to communicate with
them. Letting people know where you are at is the best way to let them help you.