Feeling Better, Moving Forward

Last week's events may seem like a distant, bizarre nightmare now. Or, they might seem all too fresh and returning to quotidian life might seem daunting. It may seem completely natural to throw yourself back into that Stat 104 p-set or nearly impossible to transition back from days that played out like an episode of 24.

No matter how you're feeling, know that pretty much anything falls into the range of normal in the aftermath of traumatic events like those we've watched unfold over the past week.

We consulted with Dr. Katherine A. Lapierre, chief of student mental health services at Harvard University Health Services, who provided us with several guides to coping with abnormal events.

We at Flyby know that many Harvard students who were emotionally affected by the highly abnormal week may not have time to consult mental health professionals at UHS, or pick up these guides between office hours and club meetings. So we've compiled our own brief list of suggestions for feeling better and moving forward.

1. Try to get exercise and eat balanced meals. Perhaps, the stress of trying to simultaneously follow Twitter, the police scanner, and CNN induced compulsive junk food eating. Not only will hitting up the elliptical negate some of those excess calories, but it will also serve as a positive distraction. Better yet, exercising outside on a nice day (we're expecting a few of these this week) can lift your mood and remind you there's life beyond the MAC.

2. Get enough sleep. Or at least as much as possible.

3. These things can take much time to mull over, and there's no one recipe for expediting that process. In the meantime, talk to friends, family, and others.

4. Don’t be hard on yourself or play down the trauma. Last week was intense and unusual and no one would blame you for feeling weird about it, so you shouldn't blame yourself.