Treating PTSD: Where Joy Fits in the Healing Process

I can just imagine some of you read the title of this post and thought, “OK, Michele’s really out of touch with the PTSD experience.” Don’t lose faith in me, I’m not out of the PTSD loop! Then again, maybe I am. Maybe we all need to unloop every now and then and find new alternatives to our idea of healing, so stay with me for this one.

After 8 years of talk therapy, plus EMDR, TFT, TAT and EFT (not familiar with those terms? Visit our “Treatment” page) I wasn’t getting better. In fact, I was spiralling down to a worse place than I’d ever been. I was constantly triggering and while my mind was melting my body was breaking down organ by organ.

Enter a novel idea: In a fit of despondence I recused myself from all professionals and decided to try an experiment. I decided to think through my own healing process. (Whoa, I’m not suggesting you dump your therapist! Although, becoming conscious of how you can engage your own thoughts would be a good thing…)

I reasoned things out this way: I knew I lived in a state of perpetual dissociation, depression, anxiety, fear and sadness. I thought part of the trick to beating that would be to manufacture an alternative state. I needed to feel the OPPOSITE of what I was feeling. What would be the opposite of depression? Joy, of course!

We all have to take responsibility for our healing process. That means outside of the therapist’s office you need to make the effort to continually push forward. One great way to do that is to actively work at altering your state. How to do this? Deliberately take actions that change how you feel. For example, if you feel fear, practice breathing, relaxation, centering and meditative excercises that get you back in touch with a sense of security. If you feel sad, deliberately do something (i.e. watch a funny movie) that makes you laugh. Changing your state is a good way of putting PTSD on notice there’s a new sheriff in town.

I know you want to feel better. I know you would really love to spend the day feeling safe, secure and free rather than terrified, anxious and angry. The more you accept, except and give in to post-traumatic stress symptoms that muddle your mind the more PTSD will continue to rule you. The trick is to lift your mind out of its present focus and settle in a new one. Like any new skill or exercise, this takes practice.

One easy way to alter your state is to engage in an activity that brings you a feeling of immense happiness – even better: bliss. When you do this you interrupt not only the PTSD state but also the PTSD perspective, the PTSD persona, and the PTSD perception that the whole world is one big, dark, dense pain.

I know, so often it doesn’t feel like joy can be part of the PTSD experience. You’ve lived that way and become so used to it it’s only natural you would question your ability to be different. But you’d be surprised. Your joyful self exists; you just have to discover it, learn to tap it, and then develop its strength. All entirely doable no matter how long or severe your current PTSD state.

Still with me? Good, because we’re only just getting started on a really important aspect of overcoming PTSD!

BRIDGE THE GAP Exercise:

One easy thing to do today: Commit to seeking joy. That’s right, just making the decision sets you on the path.

That’s it, no bigger deal than simply saying to yourself (and really meaning it): “I will seek joy in my life, and I will find it because I know the capacity for joy exists in me.”

Don’t worry if reconnecting to joy seems like a tough project right now. No problem. We’ll fix that.

Joy can play an important role in healing in so many ways it will take a whole new post to outline the Top 10 Major Impacts Joy Has On Healing, which will be the subject of my next post…

(Photo: Scott Ableman)

Tags: healing, Joy, post-traumatic stress, ptsd, symptoms, The Healing Power of Joy