Treating PTSD: It’s Time to Change Your Mind

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So here we are, the very last post in the BRIDGE THE GAP healing workshop 2009. There are many of you who have been with me on this journey since January 1 and to you I say, CONGRATULATIONS!

There have also been many of you who joined along the way and to you I also say, CONGRATULATIONS! You all have done great work.

I receive email every week from survivors who are doing what it takes to heal and getting results from the workshop. My hat is off to all of you for your diligence, patience, strength, commitment and above all — belief in yourself! You will overcome. Even on your most challenging days your post-trauma self continues to struggle for freedom.

To wrap up this year I want to leave you with this one thought, Tip #12 for Staying on the Healing Path: You can change your mind. That’s right, you can use the power of your mind to change your mind.

At the most basic level of healing recovering from PTSD is all about changing your mind. The process of healing is literally changing your brain chemistry, your biology and above all, your psychology. The choice is yours to make. Will PTSD be your lifelong companion, or will you kick PTSD to the curb and get on with the live you deserve? There are so many people who do make progress. There are so many practitioners who believe this can be done. There are so many ways to go about it and reasons you will succeed. In the swell of all our voices, survivors and professionals alike, you can hear the rallying cry for a realistic and attainable freedom.

Change your mind. Each day choose one memory you don’t allow, one PTSD habit you’re going to break, one practitioner you’re going to leave and another you’re going to try. Each day make up your mind to change your point of view from trauma to freedom, PTSD to joy.

The power of healing lies within each of us. Deep inside we possess an incredible potential to heal. Our bodies do this naturally — bones recalcify, skin mends, cuts coagulate. We are designed to recover.

Some of the most exciting research of this decade has been that that reveals the brain is designed to be plastic and maleable. Neuroplasticity is quickly becoming a hot topic. Its applications to PTSD healing cannot be ignored.

The factor that most often causes us to fail in our healing is: ourselves. Not because we intend to fail. Not because we aren’t trying hard enough. The way we cause our healing to fail is by giving up too early. There is no presciption for healing. It will take the time it takes. There’s no magic formula. We can only commit, grab the tail of this beast and hang on for the ride until the monster is tamed.

Do not give up. If you have not found freedom it doesn’t mean you never will. It only means you haven’t yet. You haven’t found the right method, haven’t found the right way, haven’t found the right guide, haven’t found the right mood, belief or focus. My own healing took over 2 years after my diagnosis. I’d been in therapy prior to that for 8 years. My entire PTSD journey took over 25 years. And still, here I am today, 100% PTSD-free. If I can endure PTSD over more than a quarter of a century and still come out the other side there’s hope for us all!

We can’t know from where or how or when healing will scoop us up and carry us to a new place. Which means all we can do is keep working and believe and create our post-trauma self until it is strong enough to lift off and help us move on.

At a New Years Eve party a few years ago I hit PTSD rock bottom. OK, so that wasn’t the first time I’d hit rock bottom but it was the first time I decided it was the last time. I made a New Year’s resolution that by the time a year went by I’d be PTSD-free.

It was a big and daunting resolution. I was a mess and yet boldly saying I would not be a mess 365 days later. An even more ridiculous thing to say if you knew that I had absolutely NO IDEA how to achieve such a miraculous thing, or that I’d already been consciously struggling to do it for over a year. Still, I made the commitment. I dragged myself through hell, left my therapist, found a new kind of therapist, broke down, picked myself back, raged, wallowed and cried a lot. But in the end I did it. By Dec. 31st the next year I was shocked to find I was free.

We each walk our own healing path. Carve out yours. Be the action in your own life. Take back your power. Conquer the past by creating your future.

Don’t be afraid to challenge yourself. Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t be afraid to believe. Don’t be afraid to set yourself free. You’ve lived in the PTSD prison long enough. Open the bars. Walk yourself out into the sun. My hope is that 2010 will be the year each of you finally finds freedom.

For those of you wondering what’s the next step, tune in Friday for an overview of what’s on tap for 2010.

(Photo acknowledgement: my fabulous assistant, Jessica Lorren.)

Tags: healing, ptsd, Staying on the Healing Path