trauma, fear and helplessness, the helpfulness of doing

Trauma
We think of trauma as being caused by some huge act of violence. And that
certainly can be true. But there are other things that are just as traumatic, even
though they seem slight or small - and perhaps even unnoticeable to others.

PTSD
info

The Helpfulness of Doing
I am reminded that the military, in times of professional or personal
difficulty, seems to have a rule about keeping everybody busy. For many
years I thought that was bone-headed thinking, for which I now apologize. If
you are doing something, your difficulty will become somewhat smaller. It's
not a cure for trauma, but it is a practical help for trauma and other troubles.

Helping Others
This brings us to the healing process later on. One of the later steps in
recovery is having something to offer - a knowledge that you can be
useful to others on the same path. And so help comes full circle.

There are two main ingredients keys to trauma.
One is fear. The other is helplessness.
We can't do much about fear - there's no point to pretending it's not there.
But helplessness is something we can try to address. They say that to the
extent that we can fight or resist the traumatic event while it's happening,
we are minimizing the trauma that we will have to deal with. Fight like a
wildcat, scream and yell, any attempt to help yourself will indeed be helpful.