Treating PTSD: Healing Is Not For Sissies

Change doesn’t happen just because you think about it, will it, want it or hope for it really, really hard. Change happens because you ACT on it.

Change happens because you do some thing or many things that cause it to occur. Change requires effort.

Change requires effort even when you feel horrible, powerless, helpless, hopeless and just downright crappy. That’s the deal. That is what PTSD is. It will hold you down forever unless you rise up against it.

The ultimate goal here is to become a person no longer traumatized. Do you remember how to act like that sort of person? Did you ever know how to act like that person?

The truth is, it doesn’t matter. Healing means faking it until you master what life as an untraumatised person is.

Your post-identity challenge for the day: Begin changing who you are.

Healing PTSD is all about changing your mind. Changing your attitudes, beliefs, behaviors and fears. There are aspects of the PTSD personality that don’t serve you well. Hyperarousal, hypervigilance, emotional numbing, anger, rage… These things are detrimental to non-trauma health. It’s time to practice letting them go.

Healing PTSD is not a passive passtime. You won’t heal if you sit around waiting for your fairy godmother to spontaneouly appear, sprinkle some fairy dust and turn you into a prince or princess. Healing will come because you accept nothing less. Because you demand it, go for it and take it.

Healing is not for sissies. It’s for survivors. It’s for YOU.

BRIDGE THE GAP Exercise

A couple of weeks ago in the BTG Exercise you made a list of personality traits, qualities and characteristics you wanted to keep, and those you wanted to get rid of. Take out that list. Look it over. Starting with number 1, number the qualities in both columns in their order of importance to you.

This exercise is a little like a Chinese menu: Choosing the number 1 quality that you want to keep, and the number 1 quality you want to eliminate, here is your goal today:

Find a way to amplify the good quality so it feels larger than usual. Act more that way as often as you can. For example, if you like your generous streak, find 5 ways you can be generous today. Play with how you behave and/or exhibit the trait you choose. Be bold with it!

Conversely, find actions you can take to shrink the number 1 quality, trait or behavior you don’t like. For example, maybe you want to get rid of your rage. Today, when you feel anrgy: Make a conscious effort to take a step back. Pause. Take a deep breath. Clera your mind to a blank screen. Alleviate the rush of emotion by standing still and letting it course through and right out of you. Imagine the emotion bursting out the top of your head or flowing out through your toes.

Practice these new behaviors for the next 3 days, or until you reach a natural comfort level with them. When you feel you’ve accomplished a good degree of proficiency in them, move on to the second item on the list. And then the third, and so on.

Take your time. You’re modeling new behavior. Craft it. Fake until you naturally make it.

(Photo: mtso fan)

Tags: Constructing Post-Trauma Identity