Cope with Acute Stress

It may be useful to take note of the followings to promote your psychological recovery:

Dos	Don’ts
Get adequate rest and give yourself time to process your emotions and thoughts	Use alcohol or drugs to cope
Maintain a healthy diet	Disrupt your normal eating patterns
Take breaks from things related to the incident	Overwhelm yourself with different tasks or information (e.g. from social media or the news)
Focus on something practical to manage the situation better	Do risky things
Use relaxation methods	Withdraw from pleasant activities
Spend time with others but allow yourself some private time as well	Extreme withdrawal from social contacts
Maintain your routines and keep your life normal as far as possible	Stop all your plans and work
Talk to people for support and express your emotions and needs	Engage in violent behaviours or conflicts

If you would like to have further emotional support, or if the stress responses persist and become difficult to manage, you can talk to our counsellors at CoPE. You can also refer to the below hotlines and services operated by organisations in the community.

Support Services in the community

Hong Kong Red Cross - Shall We Talk Psychological Support Service	Make an appointment: 5164 5040 (WhatsApp) or @hkrcshallwetalk (Telegram)
The Samaritans - 24-hour Multi-lingual Suicide Prevention Services	(852) 2896-0000
Youth Outreach - 24-hour hotline	(852) 9088 1023
Open Up - Jockey Club Online Youth Emotional Support	Facebook: www.facebook.com/hkopenup WhatsApp/SMS: (852) 9101-2012 WeChat: hkopenup