Treating PTSD: How Do You See Yourself?

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It’s tough to heal if the way you imagine yourself is as someone with PTSD to the nth degree. If you perceive yourself as ‘damaged forever’ it would be near to impossible to approach healing with any degree of success.

The brain learns by patterning. It learns by seeing images. The images in your mind impact everything you do. See yourself as irretrievably broken and that’s what you will be.

It’s old news that successful athletes use visualization to attain their achievements. Legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus once said, “I never hit a shot, in practice or competition, until I had a clear, in-focus picture of it in my head.” I think we should do the same in healing.

When I began my own journey to heal myself the first thing I did was to imagine who I wanted to become. I stopped envisioning and trying to get back to who I was before my trauma. I stopped dwelling on the dysfunctional image of who I was. I began building and designing the image of the woman I would be if PTSD was no longer my reality.

Sure, the picture was a little fuzzy; I didn’t really know who that woman would be. But I did have a clear idea of what I would look like healthy, of how strong my body would be, how happy my face would shine, how focused on some meaningful path I would become, how much joy I might feel if only I had the stamina, concentration and creativity to live a life without PTSD symptoms.

If the brain learns by patterning it’s up to us to create the right pictures, and then show them often enough for the brain to get the gist of what it should be seeing. Like any skill, this takes practice. But if you flex your imaginative muscle enough it will warm up and take over and then, watch out! You’ll be envisioning things you never let yourself think of.

Be bold! PTSD is a state of mind created by experience; if we create new pictures and new experiences we can change our state of mind and then healing is within our grasp.

BRIDGE THE GAP EXERCISE:

A simple visualization technique:

Find some quiet place. Close your eyes. Now, slowly let an image of yourself appear. What do you see?

When the picture is clear let your imagination loose. You are an artist, you are creating your future self. That self can be and do and look any thing and way you wish. Think BIG and out of the PTSD box.

If you had no symptoms what would you look like? If you slept at night how would your eyes and face look? If you didn’t cry how would you look? If you smiled more what would you look like? If you weren’t haunted by the past, if your body didn’t ache, if you weren’t always on edge….  If you achieved something you always secretly wanted….

Strip away the PTSD symtpoms and replace them with the self you want to be. Think into the future. Be intentional. Choose the qualities and characteristics you will have when you are healed; solidify them in your mind’s eye.

Then, take a deep breath. Inhale through your nose, hold it when your lungs are full, slowly let it out through your mouth.

And then for the rest of the day walk around recalling that picture. Summon the future you.

For further reading:

Elite Performance – This site focuses on sports but this page gives a great overview of the success of visualization, plus a how-to.

Envision Success – A terrific blog post showing the envisioning process and how it works through the example of Tom Watson, Sr., founder of IBM.

(Photo: Carrie Always)

Tags: Changing Unhealthy Perceptions, heal, ptsd, see yourself, symptoms