• In groups or mentoring relationships, people who have dealt successfully with their own reactions to traumatic stress can tell you what has helped them, give you pointers, and coach you in using these resilience skills.
• The trauma research supports many kinds of skill-based therapies that train you in the resilience skills you’ll need to balance and regulate your stress system and operate in more effective ways.  These skills work, and many can be taught on shorter, time-limited schedules.
• There are also “somatosensory” approaches that work on building your awareness of body sensations, and using that awareness to teach you to balance your stress system.  Some of these approaches have helped many people, though they haven’t yet been researched fully.
• Many people find help from practitioners of alternative therapies such as acupuncture, acupressure, and massage therapy.  Any physical technique that helps you learn to balance and manage your stress system can be helpful.

Managing Post-trauma Reactions With Help From Medications

Many people with post-trauma injuries and effects receive short- or long-term prescriptions for medications.  The right medication can help you stabilize your stress chemicals more quickly—though it’s not a substitute for practicing resilience skills and learning to manage your stress system.  Here are notes on just a few of the many kinds of medications prescribed:

• The most common and best-researched medicines for traumatic stress reactions are the antidepressants that make the chemical serotonin more available (like Prozac and other drugs that work on serotonin).  You don’t have to be depressed for these to help you.
• There are alpha blockers and beta blockers (heart medications) that can help block the effects of the “fight or flight” chemical adrenaline on the body, without many side effects.
• If other medications aren’t working, some doctors may add drugs like anticonvulsants or “atypical antipsychotics” to increase their effects.  You don’t have to have a seizure disorder or a psychosis for these to help, but some of them have difficult side effects.
• To bring down extreme post-trauma stress reactions quickly, a doctor might prescribe the temporary use of a sedative in the benzodiazepine family.  Benzos are addictive, so if you have problems with alcohol or drugs, they’re not a good idea.  And used on a regular or long-term basis, these drugs are likely to make your stress reactions a lot worse.  So if your doctor insists on prescribing the ongoing use of benzos, it’s time for a second opinion.

• How Memory Works in Trauma
• Changing the Way the Body Handles Memory