07/15/2024
With what feels like frequent scary/bad news, this reminder remains imperative to taking care of yourself. ⬇️
💥PROTECT YOURSELF! I made this mistake today. I opened up social media mindlessly, saw another video of the terrors from over the weekend, and experienced a vicarious trauma reaction. We are not immune to trauma reaction because we were not experiencing a scary/traumatic/unexpected event directly, we can still experience symptoms. These secondary trauma symptoms can look like increased fear, anxiety, sleep issues, sadness, flashbacks, nightmares, lack of motivation, among many other things.
Before you turn on your television or car radio, open that news app, or pull up your Instagram or any other social media, check-in on yourself. If you are already having a difficult day or feeling bad in one way or another, choose to wait to expose yourself to these mass media sources. If you choose to expose yourself now, be ready to check-in on yourself again. If you see something that has the *trigger warning* or looks like information that could be troubling, don’t let curiosity get the best of you. Close it out, or choose a way of exposure that is less overwhelming when trying to learn more about recent news.
You are the only one who can take care of you! Hang in there friends, we are in this together! ❤️🩹