Last edit of this page 07/04/08
Bearable experiences become unbearable if you feel helpless and alone.
Traumatic experiences can produce feelings of anxiety, depression, despair, hopelessness, re-occurring anger, self-blame, guilt, and shame, as well as sexual dysfunction, compulsive or aggressive behaviours, sleep disorders, concentration problems, disconnection from others, loss of interest in outside activities, and psychosomatic complaints. The severity of the symptoms depends on the perceived severity of the traumatic event, your trauma history, the level of stress in your life, and the quality of support available to you from family, friends, and professionals. Jeanne Segal
First aid links - Australia
REACH OUT! for youth helping themselves and their fact sheets to sort stuff out
Suicide Prevention Australia and their list of national help lines
Victoria's suicide help line and their understanding self-harm article
NSW make a noise youth portal and their suicide page
If you get a suicide call or are concerned about someone at risk
First aid for emotional and psychological trauma [if link broken go here]
Principles of psychological first aid from the Claremont School District
Australian Government community crisis links page and their suicide resources page
Australian Institute for Suicide Prevention and Research
Suicide bereavement support organisation 1300 767 022
Men's Help Line: 1300 78 99 78, resource room and service directory
Dads in distress 1300 853 437
SANE help line 1800 18 SANE (7263) and web counseling and fact sheets
Poisons Information Centre - 13 11 26
Australian community resource for depression
Translations of Mental Health Information - extensive
Victorian Transcultural Psychiatry Unit
Multicultural mental health and the Centre for International Mental Health with links to local services
Kids Help Line: 1800 55 1800 and web counseling and service search
Parent Line - 13 20 55 or 1300 30 1300 and links to parentline worldwide
Child Sex Abuse Hotline 1800 646 53
Sexual Assault - (australia) 1800 806 292 and of young men
Child protection and family crisis service 1800 656 463
Cybersafety - parenting your online child
Australian law stuff for under 18's
Australian Parents for Megan's Law sex assault links
Victims of Crime
Trauma Web Australia
Disaster handouts and manuals and a tip sheet for managing strong emotions for people first on the scene
Fact sheet for mental health professionals dealing with acute traumatic stress
If you have been exploited or emotionally abused by a professional or fear that you may be
Therapy Ethics and dual relationships
The Good Therapy and Psychotherapy Australia web sites - both have choose a therapist resources
First aid links - Canada & USA
Government emergency portal with links to other services including suicide assistance in each Province
Befrienders suicide help lines by country and international self-harm help lines
Suicide Hotline USA and Canada dial: 1-800-SUICIDE
First aid links - UK
Netdoctor is a good staring place
Youthnet UK run thesite.org also includes link to local services finder
Mental Health Resource Centre whose goal is to provide the most comprehensive collection of inter-linked web site pages listing NHS organizations with social care and user/carer support groups.
The Guardian's most useful websites on Mental Health - links to mental health directories, law-related links and links to mental health charities and journals.
Self - help
Without good sleep everything else is so much more overwhelming. More than 1.2 million Australians (6% of the population) experience some form of sleep disorder.
2. Get information and validation
Validation is that felt sense 'I'm understood, I'm okay, I have a right to feel, to exist, to be this way in the world'. It comes from being truly heard and having that reflected back to you congruently by another. It is a small miracle that someone else, even a stranger or your self, can make sense of a crazy time in you life and can locate its implicit meaning. Here are some useful resources toward this making the latent, manifest.
Accumulative impact of life events on mental health. Questions to ask yourself.
Extensive mental health information from Canada. Also the NIMH and an internet based mental health source including these two articles on how to choose a therapist, and one on avoiding exploitation.
An alternative health, mental health source.
Try the Mental health association of NSW detailed information kits.
Go to this site for trauma information, a note about trauma resolution and a scholarly traumatology journal on line. What exactly is amnesia? This self help site for anxiety and these two for conflict.
Those who can, do. Those who can't, bully.' An excellent, well resourced site about school, family and work place bullying.
This for step-families and for boundaries in remarried relationships
Two Shame ~ links and two healthy ~ boundary links.
Focusing can help in self-validation and in spiritual renewal.
Extra marital affairs on this site, and other issues in the psychology of marriage.
3. Observe your thoughts
'We are what we think. All that we are arises with our thoughts. With our thoughts, we make the world.' Some thoughts about Buddhist psychotherapy. Try this self-help book on line. Write it down for 15 minutes a day for four or five days.
4. Release yourself from your mistakes with forgiving
Go to a well thought out program on my site, and a thorough forgiveness program on another site.
5. Invite healing in to your inner child
Consider this generous inner child work site for comprehensive self-help ideas on self-healing and parenting.
My old friend Sanyas, an Aikido teacher, does this with the simplicity and authority of an elder. Take three long, slow deep breaths in your abdomen, with each out breath sigh deeply and let it all go, let it all out , let it sing and then, breathing gently, just smile and smile and smile to your belly as it moves up and down with the breath. Then, smile to your hands, to your arms and shoulders. Take the smile further and further into your neck, head, face, down into your body, legs and feet. Smile and smile and smile to the cells and tissues and body fluids. Smile and smile to your breath and heart beat and to the air caressing your skin. Smile to all those around you, near and far.
It might help to do the exercise I've developed here to get a sense of the aikido smile he's talking about. Once you have learned this, with practice you can do it very quickly when you need it. Better than frowning to yourself.
Becoming an activist against harm and exploitation
1. Australian National Child Protection clearing house and advocacy
4. Research resource, disturbing content
Disclaimer
The information in this web site is provided as a free service. Accessing this site does not create any form of legal or professional relationship and neither this web site, its host or its contributors accept any liability or responsibility for any action taken or avoided on the basis of information provided. It is dangerous to rely on generalized information or guidance. You should ALWAYS seek independent professional advice in order that it can be tailored to your own individual circumstances.
Inclusion of other sites on this site in no way implies endorsement by me of these sites or any services offered by these sites. These links are provided as a service only and as when purchasing any service or product, consumers should satisfy themselves as to the validity and credentials of those who offer a service. Terms & Conditions
