When Should I Get Professional Help
Everyone deals with traumatic experiences differently. Many people will be able to recover after a traumatic event with support from family, friends and their workplace.
Even when you have recovered from a traumatic event, you probably wont forget about it. You might still feel negative emotions about it or find it upsetting to think about from time to time. However, these feelings shouldnt be overwhelming or stop you from enjoying life.
You should ask your GP for help if:
- your symptoms are very bad and
- they dont seem to be getting better
If your symptoms are very bad and are having a significant impact on your life after one month, you should speak to your GP.
If your symptoms arent as bad but have been going on for more than three months, you should speak to your GP.
Communication Pitfalls To Avoid
- Give easy answers or blithely tell your loved one everything is going to be okay.
- Stop your loved one from talking about their feelings or fears.
- Offer unsolicited advice or tell your loved one what they should do.
- Blame all of your relationship or family problems on your loved one’s PTSD.
- Invalidate, minimize, or deny your loved one’s traumatic experience
- Give ultimatums or make threats or demands.
- Make your loved one feel weak because they aren’t coping as well as others.
- Tell your loved one they were lucky it wasn’t worse.
- Take over with your own personal experiences or feelings.
Daily Tips If You Live With Ptsd
Are you struggling with PTSD? Have you endured a traumatic event that has caused difficulties in your life? Looking for effective coping strategies to help you work through?
If the answer is yes, you wouldnt be alone. While the numbers are somewhat scattered, current estimates suggest approximately thirteen million Americans live with this anxiety disorder.
If you have been diagnosed with PTSD, you already know about its debilitating effects. What follows are twelve small things you can do each day to encourage wellness.
Some of these may sound silly. Others might cause you to pause and think. Thats OK. Read them all to get the most from the experience.
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Things I Learned From Dating Someone With Ptsd
How we see the world shapes who we choose to be and sharing compelling experiences can frame the way we treat each other, for the better. This is a powerful perspective.
Theres nothing that can make you feel as powerless as living with a partner with post-traumatic stress disorder .
For three years, I was in a relationship with a man who experienced PTSD symptoms daily. My ex, D., was a decorated combat veteran who served in Afghanistan three times. The toll it took on his soul was heartbreaking.
His flashbacks and dreams of the past drove him to be hypervigilant, fear strangers, and fend off sleep to avoid nightmares.
Being the partner of someone who has PTSD can be challenging and frustrating for many reasons. You want to take away their pain, but youre also dealing with your own guilt at needing to care for yourself, too.
You want to have all the answers, but you often have to come to grips with the reality that this is a condition that cant be loved out of someone.
That said, understanding the disorder can help make it easier for both you and your partner to communicate and set healthy boundaries.
I spent years trying to understand how PTSD affected my partner, and, ultimately, had to walk away from our relationship. Heres what I learned.
How To Deal With Ptsd: 6 Effective Strategies To Cope
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a mental health condition that can occur after a person has experienced serious trauma. Most commonly, PTSD is caused by exposure to a dangerous situation in which the persons life is in danger. This can be anything from combat exposure to sexual assault, physical attack, and overexposure to the media . People with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder often re-experience the traumatic event through memories, flashbacks, or nightmares. They may even feel the event was happening in the present, causing them to fear for their own life and safety.
Dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can be difficult, especially if you are trying to do it without knowledge of self-help resources that can help. We understand your frustration and confusion during this time. Therefore, we provide research-based information that will allow you to understand what you are experiencing if you have this condition. The more you know about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, the more you can take control of your life. You can make informed decisions on handling the symptoms and help yourself improve.
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Common Internal Ptsd Triggers
- Physical discomfort, such as hunger, thirst, fatigue, sickness, and sexual frustration.
- Any bodily sensation that recalls the trauma, including pain, old wounds and scars, or a similar injury.
- Strong emotions, especially feeling helpless, out of control, or trapped.
- Feelings toward family members, including mixed feelings of love, vulnerability, and resentment.
What To Do When You Don’t Know How To Treat Ptsd By Yourself
Taking an action is always the first step. Here’s a simple plan to build your healing intention:
Creating a healing intention is not so tough a project, is it? As with everything in learning how to treat PTSD by yourself, each step is about slowing down, gaining clarity, being deliberate and committing to the next decision.
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What Professional Help Is Available
If you have experienced a traumatic event, and have persistent difficulties, your GP might refer you to a professional who specialises in helping people cope with traumas.
There are a number of different treatments to help treat PTSD. These include psychotherapy, trauma-focused cognitive behavioural therapy and Eye movement Desensitisation & Reprocessing . You might also be offered antidepressants if you have found other treatments arent working.
You can find out more about all of these treatments in our PTSD resource.
Medication can sometimes be helpful following a trauma, but it is still important to see your doctor regularly to check how you are doing.
Ptsd Symptoms: Difficult But Totally Normal
Maybe you experience nightmares or flashbacks. The anxiety they bring can show up without warning, like the worst kind of surprise houseguest. And you might find yourself sucked into quicksand-like swamps of anger or guilt.
The good news: All of those symptoms are normal. You might be thinking, Thats supposed to be good news? But understanding where your symptoms are coming from is the first step toward healing. And you can heal and recover from PTSD it will just take some time, says psychiatrist Molly Wimbiscus, MD.
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Practice Progressive Muscle Relaxation
One of the best ways to promote inner-calmness is to engage in progressive muscle relaxation . By doing so, you train your body to cope with anxiety in healthy, meaningful ways.
PMR doesnt take long just five or ten minutes. You can learn more about this relaxation technique by visiting this body scan article.
Be Honest About Your Needs
Take time to help your loved ones understand what you are experiencing and be honest about how they can help. Ask them to be patient with you and remember to be patient with yourself as well. Setting and maintaining healthy boundaries around time or personal space can be important in relationships. Learning how to trust people and asking for help can be significant obstacles, but are very importantespecially with those who care for us most.
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Tip : Be A Good Listener
While you shouldn’t push a person with PTSD to talk, if they do choose to share, try to listen without expectations or judgments. Make it clear that you’re interested and that you care, but don’t worry about giving advice. It’s the act of listening attentively that is helpful to your loved one, not what you say.
A person with PTSD may need to talk about the traumatic event over and over again. This is part of the healing process, so avoid the temptation to tell your loved one to stop rehashing the past and move on. Instead, offer to talk as many times as they need.
Some of the things your loved one tells you might be very hard to listen to. Its okay to dislike what you hear, but its important to respect their feelings and reactions. If you come across as disapproving, horrified, or judgmental, they are unlikely to open up to you again.
Ptsd And Isolation In Veterans
Veterans are among the most likely to develop PTSD and, unfortunately, are at the highest risk for serious side effects. Self-isolation is extremely common after returning from a war zone men and women who return home will push friends, family and even their spouses away, ruining relationships and exacerbating the issue. Being around other people after coming out of the service can be overwhelming and uncomfortable without PTSD, but those who have seen awful things while deployed will have a more difficult time in a way that the average civilian cant understand. This leads to even higher incidences of isolation in these populations.
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Common External Ptsd Triggers
- Sights, sounds, or smells associated with the trauma.
- People, locations, or things that recall the trauma.
- Significant dates or times, such as anniversaries or a specific time of day.
- Conversations or media coverage about trauma or negative news events.
- Situations that feel confining .
- Relationship, family, school, work, or money pressures or arguments.
- Funerals, hospitals, or medical treatment.
How To Deal With Ptsd
A common question people ask themselves after experiencing a traumatic event is: how to deal with PTSD symptoms?. The answer to this question is not as difficult as it seems.Post-traumatic stress disorder has a disruptive effect on the daily lives of its victims. If left untreated, people continue to suffer from PTSD symptoms , and have low Quality of Life scores years after the traumatic experience. Also, untreated PTSD has a negative effect on social and occupational functioning . Despite the worldwide attention to PTSD and its effects, most people still do not receive PTSD treatment . How to deal with PTSD myself, therefore, is a common question these days.PTSD treatment reduces the severity of the PTSD symptoms ,,,, and improves the Quality of Life . Focusing on each of the PTSD symptoms, this page aims to answer the question: How to deal with PTSD? The tips and strategies on this page are more effective for those people who suffer from moderate to mild PTSD symptoms. People suffering from complex PTSD or more traumatic events benefit much more from professional help. If you want to know how much you are suffering from PTSD symptoms, please take the PTSD quiz.
At Barends Psychology Practice, we treat post-traumatic stress disorder online and in person. Book your first, free of charge, session now. Go to Contact us. .
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Helping Someone With Ptsd Tip : Provide Social Support
Its common for people with PTSD to withdraw from family and friends. They may feel ashamed, not want to burden others, or believe that other people wont understand what theyre going through. While its important to respect your loved ones boundaries, your comfort and support can help them overcome feelings of helplessness, grief, and despair. In fact, trauma experts believe that face-to-face support from others is the most important factor in PTSD recovery.
Knowing how to best demonstrate your love and support for someone with PTSD isn’t always easy. You can’t force your loved one to get better, but you can play a major role in the healing process by simply spending time together.
Don’t pressure your loved one into talking. It can be very difficult for people with PTSD to talk about their traumatic experiences. For some, it can even make them feel worse. Instead, let them know you’re willing to listen when they want to talk, or just hang out when they don’t. Comfort for someone with PTSD comes from feeling engaged and accepted by you, not necessarily from talking.
Do normal things with your loved one, things that have nothing to do with PTSD or the traumatic experience. Encourage your loved one to seek out friends, pursue hobbies that bring them pleasure, and participate in rhythmic exercise such as walking, running, swimming, or rock climbing. Take a fitness class together, go dancing, or set a regular lunch date with friends and family.
Reduce Or Avoid Alcohol Intake
Lets be real. Alcohol can have a calming effect. The reason is simple its a central nervous system depressant. But did you know that too much alcohol can ramp up your anxiety? Yep, its true and over the course of time, it can make you feel worse.
If you are having more than a few drinks a week, consider cutting back. Doing so may help you stay calmer over the long run and de-intensify panic when it rears its ugly head.
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What Happens During A Ptsd Episode
A PTSD episode is characterized by feelings of fear and panic, along with flashbacks and sudden, vivid memories of an intense, traumatic event in your past. These memories are often accompanied by sensory experiences visions, sounds, and even smells from the incident may return, as if they are happening in the present moment. Perceiving imminent danger, your brain will go into a state of alarm: your heart races, you sweat profusely, and your breath speeds up. The feeling is all-consuming, intense, and often debilitating.
Moving My Body In Whatever Way Felt Good
Eating well and meditating regularly can make a huge difference, but our bodies also crave exercise. We were designed to move, and when we dont, we cant fully heal. Any kind of exercise helps do what you most love, whether its swimming, working out at the gym, or simply walking in your neighborhood, but incorporate yoga into your weekly routine as well.
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You Must Care For Yourself
Caretakers in relationships with people with PTSD often forget to take care of themselves.
I developed guilt associated with personal fulfillment or enjoyment, because its easy to get sucked into an unhealthy cycle.
When I wanted to hang out with friends without having to spend an hour talking D. down or not check in consistently while I was traveling for work to let him know I was safe, I felt guilty.
The partner of someone with PTSD will have to be strong a lot of the time. To do this, you must take care of your own mental health.
Wen agrees. When youre in a caretaker role, you have to put the mask on yourself first, she says. It must be a conscious effort to carve out time for yourself. The caretaker has to stay strong if they are to become a support system, and they need to have support and healthy outlets to maintain that.
After years of baby steps forward and monumental steps back, I ultimately made the decision to end the relationship.
It wasnt because I dont love D. I love him and miss him every moment.
But the issues surrounding PTSD that needed to be addressed called for dedicated commitment, time, and the help of a professional things he didnt say he was opposed to. Still, he never made the choices to show he was ready.
The guilt, sadness, and feeling of defeat were all encompassing. For two months I barely left my apartment. I felt like I failed him.
We Can Be The Change We Wish To See In The World
We can direct or energies to making our world a safer place in both physical and emotional terms for those we love, and even perfect strangers.
The symptoms of PTSD are often devastating and crippling. We most likely need professional help to overcome them.
If we could gain command over intrusive, painful thoughts, the other symptoms would dissipate. We could calm our hyper-vigilance. We could sleep without our psyche being hijacked by senseless terrors. We could boldly step out of our homes to run errands or socialize. We would have lots of patience to be supportive of our friends and families. We could happily dream and plan for our futures and look forward to a fulfilling life of work and leisure.
How do we gain command of our thoughts? The evolving field of metacognition, or noticing what youre noticing, guides us on this path. To gain mastery over our minds, we must become aware of the specific sorts of thoughts and thought patterns that tend to take up residence in our brains. Very often, they are strong enough to dictate how we live our very lives.
It can be useful to take a step back and become a witness to our exact thoughts, as a passive observer. With a detached curiosity, we can inspect what notions our troubled psyches are thrusting in the forefront of our awareness, without attaching any emotion or reacting to them. This is the practice of mindfulness and it does take practice.
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