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28 January 2012

Christians Recovering from Trauma

We have wrapped up our Susan May Warren week. In her interview, Susan shared how she and her family survived assault and robbery while serving the Lord in Russia. Why does this traumatic stuff happen? I don't know. We can only trust God and let Him work it out for us. But what can we do to cooperate with that process? As Christians we need to turn to God, pray, search His word, and follow His directions. One of my favorite resources is Blackaby's book - Experiencing God. Christian Book Distributors list of Henry Blackaby resources also includes other great titles.


Recovering from trauma is much like dealing with death. There are many stages you have to go through to get to a healing point or even a "living with it" point. I highly recommend that people find a Christian psychologist to help them talk about their experiences. Be sure whatever therapist you see has a background treating survivors. While God can certainly use anybody to deliver a message, we do well to to seek out a fellow believer for counseling. 


A newer and promising treatment, particularly with our wounded warrior veterans, is the use of neurobiofeedback or neurotherapy.  EEGInfo is a great online resource that explains about neurobiofeedback and also has links to providers.


Psychiatrists can also prescribe medications to help deal with the initial severe emotional reactions such as depression and anxiety.  The need for medications for reaction to trauma typically is short term.  There are antidepressants, for instance, that are more suited to briefer periods of use (such as bereavement). 


Mindfulness - being aware of what situations triggers PTSD reactions is important. God can heal the broken-hearted and He can make these hurtful memories and images lessen. For some it is almost instantaneous but for most it takes time. Hypervigilance is another issue that resolves with God's help, in time.


Bibliotherapy - Look for Christian books that have a hero or heroine who are addressing their recovery from trauma.  This is one reason I include this element in my reviews.  


We will be discussing PTSD again in future posts. 


Our winner this week will be announced later this evening.


What about you? Have you survived trauma and how has God pulled you through?



1 comment:

  1. Thank you, Carrie, for this very helpful, compassionate, and thought provoking post. So many Christians I know are carrying around the burden of past traumas (as I did for many years, b/c of child abuse), and just wishing it away. Thank you for informing people of what they can do to get the help that they need to overcome this.

    Prayer is key and God will lead one down the pathway to inner healing and peace. As you so aptly put it, Carrie, sometimes it's immediate and other times it's a process, but He came to heal the brokenhearted and bind up their wounds. Psalm 147:3. What a mighty God we serve!

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