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Health and Mental Health Resources

Trauma Information for Families 

Mental health tips

  1. Catch yourself when you are in the wrong time zone! Keep your thoughts in the here and now, solving the actual problems of today, rather than dwelling on mistakes of the past or on trying to plan against the catastrophic future.
  2. Routines! Eat and sleep according to what your body needs, not according to your mood.
  3. Test it out! What beliefs or assumptions are behind your fears or sadness? Are they accurate? You have to test them out to know.
  4. What went right? Don’t trivialize, ignore or discount the positive; it is as valid and noteworthy as the negative.
  5. Let it go! We cannot control what others do. When we accept (which doesn’t mean like or condone) and expect others’ poor behaviour we can act, rather than react.
  6. Don’t put all your emotional eggs in one basket! Having a variety of activities in our lives gives us more opportunity for mastery and pleasure; disappointment in one can be offset by success in others.
  7. Burn it off! Exercise is one of the most effective ways of regulating mood.
  8. Shut if off! Think and talk about stuff other than your problems; problems get bigger, not smaller, the more we dwell on them.
  9. Enjoy yourself! It’s okay to live and enjoy life, despite problems.
  10. Just do it! Nothing changes until something changes. If you keep waiting for your life to change, your life will never be different; but if you change what you do, your life will be different.