Coping strategies
- Talk to colleagues, friends and family about the event and your feelings. 
- Allow yourself time to rest and wind down. 
- Return to your normal activities, even if at first you are not motivated. 
- Exercise to help your system return to normal. 
- Do whatever helps you to feel that you are back in control of your life. Even making small decisions or following a normal routine will help. 
- Seek counselling if you are at all concerned about your reactions. It often helps to talk to someone who is outside the situation. 

Things to avoid
- Refusing help from people around you. You may need additional support at this time. 
- Getting frustrated with yourself or having unrealistic expectations about how long it will take to feel normal again. 
- Making big decisions until you have had time to regain your perspective. 
- Drinking alcohol to excess or taking drugs to help you cope with your symptoms. This can create more problems. 

For family and friends
- Listen carefully when the person wants to talk (they may need to talk about it a number of times to help them come to terms with the event). 
- Reassure them that they are safe. 
- Be patient over the next few weeks. If the person is acting differently, try not to take this personally - it may be a -symptom of the trauma. 
- Take care of yourself. Sometimes even hearing about traumatic events can cause concern or strong reactions. 
- Let them know that you are sorry the incident happened and you want to understand and support them. 
- Give practical help as well - with household jobs, child-minding, transport, etc. 
- Don't push the person to talk - sometimes just spending time with them is enough. 
- Don't say "You're lucky, it could have been worse". This rarely consoles traumatised people.