Tips on dealing with anxiety, loss
Experts offered the following tips for students, staff and other members of the NIU community in the aftermath of Thursday's shootings:
• Talk about it: Ask for support from people who care about you and who will listen to your concerns. It often helps to speak with others who have shared your experience so you don't feel so different or alone.
• Strive for balance: When a tragedy occurs, it's easy to become overwhelmed. Remind yourself of people and events that are meaningful and comforting, even encouraging.
• Turn it off and take a break: You may want to keep informed, but try to limit the amount of news you take in, whether it's from the Internet, television, newspapers, or magazines. Being overexposed to media can increase your stress. The images can be very powerful in reawakening feeling of distress.
• Honor your feelings: Remember that it is common to have a range of emotions after a traumatic incident. You might feel exhausted, sore or off-balance.
• Take care of yourself: Eat well-balanced meals, get plenty of rest, and build physical activity into your day. Avoid alcohol and drugs, because they can suppress your feelings rather than help you to manage and lessen your distress.
• If you have recently lost friends in this or other tragedies: Give yourself time to experience your feelings and to recover. For some, this might involve staying at home; for others it may mean getting back to school or work. Dealing with the shock and trauma of such an event will take time. It is typical to expect ups and downs, including "survivor guilt"-- feeling bad you escaped the tragedy while others did not.
Source: American Psychological Association
Help is available
NIU students, staff and their families coping with grief and anxiety related to Thursday's tragedy can contact any of the following agencies:
• Rainbow Hospice: For people who have lost loved one through any means. Groups for teens, families, general grief, parent loss, adult loss of siblings. Individual counseling available. Based in Park Ridge. (847) 692-8884 and online at www.rainbowhospice.com
• Hospice of the North Shore: (847) 467-7423
• Hospice of Northeastern Illinois. Based in Barrington. (847) 381-5599 and online at www.hospiceanswers.org/griefsupport.html
• Any hospital. Most major hospitals will have grief support help available, through groups and individual counseling.
• Hospice of DuPage. Based in Carol Stream. (630) 690-9000.
• Fox Valley Hospice: (630) 208-6754 • Heartland Counseling, Elburn: (630) 365-0899
• McHenry County Crisis Line: (800) 892-8900.
• Suicide Prevention Services, based in Batavia. (630) 482-9696.
• Crisis Line of the Fox Valley: (630) 966-9393
• Depression hotline: (800) SUICIDE
• National Crisis Help Line: (800) 273-TALK
• 24-hour crisis hotline, DuPage County: (630) 627-1700
• Information and advocacy: National Alliance on Mental Illness, DuPage. (630) 752-0066.