By Willow and Jesse, and with thanks to Kara for their review. This article is not therapy, and Jesse is not yet a therapist.

Most people experience stress when responding to a disaster. Everyone copes with the stress, and some people recover without stress injury. But responding in the field and helping from afar can lead to trauma and stress injury like PTSD. Some of this has to do with going all in without taking a break to integrate what’s happening; not getting a feedback loop on if what you’re doing matters; or changes to how you care for yourself day to day. Sometimes you’ll cope well and still need a higher level of care. 

Here are some things you can embed into your practices (and your community’s practices) to alleviate traumatic stress.

1. Time off – take time away from the urgency of response to remember you have a life outside and to integrate what you’ve been witnessing. 
2. Rotate roles – learn about the rest of your system and how it all connects. Build gratitude towards others doing work in the same space.
3. Loop back – Consider returning to people who asked for your help to learn how they’re doing, even if the outcome isn’t what you were looking for.. The action of looping back should serve to support the people you helped, and it should support your wellness, too.
4. Talk about it – talk about what you’re going through with people outside of the response. They’re eager to hear and to support you. 
5. Focus on strengths – In general, how have you managed to survive past challenges? Who are the special people on whom you can depend? How is this work helping you move toward what you want out of life? What is it about yourself that gives you real pride? For example, you could write about strengths, or share aloud in a calm setting.
6. Practice what works – In everyday life, what social, exercise, learning, food, mindfulness, and sleep practices support you? Do you have a self-compassion practice? This may not be the time to start a new practice, but it is a great time to maintain existing practices.
7. Mental health first aid – Take a class like mentalhealthfirstaid.org that teaches common signs and symptoms of distress, and steps for rendering aid
8. Be aware of signs like: Re-experiencing the event in thoughts, memories, flashbacks, or dreams. Avoiding things that remind you of the event. Being in a persistently bad or irritable mood. Exaggerated negative beliefs, guilt, or shame about oneself or the causes or consequences of the event. Withdrawal. Isolation. Detachment. Loss of interest. Irritability. Recklessness. Hypervigilance. Startling easily. Trouble concentrating. Trouble sleeping. Feeling disconnected from your body (depersonalization). Feeling that the world is unreal (derealization).
9. Practice compassion and non-judgment at every opportunity, especially with yourself. Abnormal behavior can become normal in abnormal circumstances.