Treating PTSD: Why Survivors Need to Practice Thought Monitoring

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So, this whole idea of perceptions…. what do you think of it? Are you noticing you have a lot of negative, fearful perceptions rattling around your head all day?

When I first began paying attention to the thoughts shooting across my mind I was surprised by how many looped around the same terrified perspective. Up until then I’d just let them bombard me. But then I began bombarding them back and you know what? It felt good!

The power of our minds (and the perceptions we create) is incredible. Coupled with therapy modalities such as information processing we can shed our neuro-responses to trauma at the same time as we shift our perceptions and, voila! We make solid healing progress. When we engage and participate we take control and move forward.

The slippery thing about perceptions is that they become so engrained and natural-feeling we don’t even notice they’re there. A major problem for us lies in the fact that we become so habituated to insomnia, hyperarousal, hypervigilance, flashbacks, etc. we ultimately see all of that as normal. BUT IT ISN’T NORMAL and we need to be really diligent about recognizing which of our peceptions are skewed and impacting us day to day. The mental symptoms we don’t notice have just as enormous an impact as the physical symptoms we do. 

Why do we need to become aware of our thoughts and their impact? Because we need to:

1. Actively engage in our healing by taking responsibility for what goes on in our minds.
2. Participate in the process of healing, which includes reframing experience.
3. Choose what we think, feel and believe instead of letting trauma decide for us.
4. Create the reality we desire and eliminate the trauma we abhor.
5. Design the world in which we live so that we move forward on our own terms.

Are you up for the challenge? Are you noticing your thoughts and taking back a little bit of your power today?

BTG Exercise

In the last exercise your goal was just to begin becoming aware of your negative perceptions relating to the outside world – not to list them but to recognize them. Today, carry a pen and paper with you: Continue to monitor your thoughts and write down every negative perception of the outside world. Put this list somewhere you will be able to find it again; we’ll need it later….

(Photo: {Karen})

Tags: Changing Unhealthy Perceptions, heal, perception, posttraumatic stress, ptsd, symptoms, thought monitoring