Family Anxiety

Following up on my previous post, trauma leaves a mark on a family that will go away after a very long time. The fear of another traumatic event lingers in the back of everyone's mind. Much like Post-Traumatic-Stress-Disorder, the family's anxiety can be triggered by relatively innocuous events which result is over reacting. Parents can become over protective and children can become hyper-sensitive to any disruptions in their world.
While the immediacy of the loss recedes it is replaced with a constant discomfort and unease as background noise to the daily tasks of life. Happiness becomes brief and anger becomes the norm. To connect these experiences with the trauma is to subject yourself to the pain again. It is easier to find blame in the people or the events of today.
Taking care of ourselves is so important. When families can accept and understand their struggles they find ways to comfort and reassure each other without judgement or resentment.