PTSD & Self-Care

Trauma survivors who develop Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) find themselves feeling a wide range of emotions. Some common expressions I?ve heard verbalized at times are ?I?m going crazy.? ?I can?t make it all stop.? ?It?s never going to end.? The truth is, it does feel very crazy and confusing, and it does feel like it?s never going to end, but survivors experiencing these symptoms are NOT crazy and as the symptoms are learned to be dealt with and the trauma is dealt with, the symptoms will get better and for many they may even subside to the point where they rarely occur.

Let?s look at the classic symptoms of PTSD, because they seem to be the biggest problems for many survivors. The National Center for PTSD reports four types of symptoms that occur that are not due to medication, substance abuse or other illness.

1. Reliving/re-experiencing the event. This may include nightmares, flashbacks, or triggers that are commonly caused by sight, smell or something heard or brought on by another sense, with intense or prolonged distress after remembering.

2. Avoidance of situations that remind the survivor of the event. This may include avoiding people, places and things, as well as talking about the event. This impacts many times the fear that leads survivors to resist getting help because there is a fear of talking about the trauma.

3. Negative changes in beliefs and feelings. A survivor may feel or think the world is now dangerous and no one can be trusted. There may be an avoidance of relationships, and even forgetting parts of the trauma (dissociation). There may be distorted blame of self for the trauma or resulting consequences, feeling alienated, and/or persistent inability to experience positive emotions.

4. Hyperarousal (Feeling worked up). This may include survivors having difficulty sleeping, being easily startled by noises or movements, being careful to always sit or stand with their back toward a wall, difficulty concentrating, being angry, irritable, and/or beginning or worsening of self-destructive or reckless behavior(s).

So this begs the question, what do we as survivors do? This feels totally overwhelming and sounds very hopeless! I?m glad you asked, because there are many things we can do as survivors.

Here are some things I've learned along my travels personally and working with other survivors.

First, as frightening as it may be, seek professional help as soon as possible. Avoidance may already make it our natural response to avoid sharing what happened with anyone, but we need to ask someone for help ? someone who has the skills to help us. The longer we go without help in dealing with the trauma, the longer we are likely to experience the negative symptoms of the problems from the trauma such as the PTSD.

Seek out your support system ? these may be individuals who know about your trauma to some extent, but you do not have to talk to them about the trauma every time. Just have them available to go to lunch or to a movie with on a bad day.

Download the Flashbacks: Coping ? Here and Now .wav file to help you to briefly walk through some of the things you can do when having a flashback that have helped many survivors. You may need to pause it as you go to allow time to do the various activities on the recording.

Use relaxation such as: Deep Breathing, Muscle Relaxation. Meditation/Prayer, Quiet Music, and/or Stretching

Find Positive Activities

Practice the Positive Coping Skills you have daily when you aren?t having flashbacks and nightmares so that when you are having difficulties, you are better equipped to utilize them and remember them when going through these times.

Find projects to utilize your time and distract your energy from you. Volunteering in person or online is a great avenue to do this, as it also increases your feelings about your self-worth and being needed.

Use some Grounding Exercises when necessary.

Keep a small container of play-doh available to smell and manipulate

Pray

Remind yourself this will pass?it?s a memory

Replace negative statements that you identify with some positive ones

Smell perfume or a candle or another scented object

Snuggle a stuffed animal

Suck on a piece of hard candy

Take a shower (hot or cold)

Try to move your arms and legs instead of staying dissociated and stuck

Use positive affirmations

For more grounding techniques see Grounding When Triggered ? Things to Do.

Try not to blame yourself for the things you did or did not do to survive. You did what you had to do. Sometimes people may have told you that had you done x, y, or z, that things would have been different, but you did what you knew to do. Trauma happened in an instant. The brain reacted ? flight, fight or freeze. We don?t get a choice. The brain decides for us. Doing one action could get us killed, so our brain instantly decides what is in our best interest. Be gentle with you as you look at blame, and place it where it belongs ? squarely on the shoulders of the one who perpetrated it if yours was a trauma of crime. If if was an accident, then perhaps there was no one to blame. It was what it was.

No matter what you are going through right now, you are not alone. PTSD is a struggle that many survivors face, and it?s important that we gather together to join in and support each other in self-care and encouragement. While one thing might not work for me, that thing might work for you. Or what works for me, might not work for you. Sometimes even, what works for us one day, might not work the next day. So it can be there and added to our coping list, but it might be something we use sometimes rather than regularly.

Hold on. You can get through this. While it?s a rough road of recovery, it gets easier with practice each day. Don?t give up on yourself. PM listeners who specialize in trauma recovery if you need to talk to someone 1:1. You can do this ? you?re not crazy, and feelings through all of this can be pretty overwhelming at time. Just hold on and seek out the held you can find ? support here, your support system offline, and your professionals.

To Browse Listeners in the Traumatic Experiences area, you can select the category Traumatic Experiences and search then and a list of listeners will come up.

As a survivor myself, I've found many of these activities helpful and used them a lot. Not everyone worked for me every time. But I still practiced as many as I could when I could because I needed all the help I could get. Don't give up on you - you are worth this fight for wholeness and healing. You can do it too... I'll never forget what was done to me, but I will never feel the pain like I did before either. Reach out - reach up... hold on! You can do this! I believe in you!