UNDERSTANDING HOW WE’RE FEELING We know that events like this canpeople feel a range of emotions. These can include feeling angry, irritable, guilty, helpless, sad, fearful or overwhelmed. These emotions seem to swing around and change over the course of the day.
You may find yourself having repeated thoughts about the event, and be worrying about what could have happened or what could have been done differently. It’s very common to feel overloaded, to feel on high alert and jumpy, to have problems concentrating and for sleep to be disturbed (with difficulty getting off to sleep, waking often and sometimes having nightmares). It’s also common to experience physical symptoms, such as fatigue and exhaustion, feeling on edge and jumpy, and feeling tense in our muscles. It's important to understand that although these are often new and unpleasant experiences, they are normal reactions to the very abnormal events we have been through. They will usually lessen and settle over the following weeks. But people react in different ways; there is no “right way” and no set time-frame for this. Find some practical things that can help over page.