Treating PTSD: Choosing a New Kind of Help

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There was a very daunting time when my PTSD healing simply hit a wall. I smacked into it full speed and then found I could not push through, leap over, dig under or find my way around this obstacle to healing. It was about 2 years after my diagnosis and I was ready to be free already! Instead I found myself mired in nightmares, anxiety, fear and despair.

What to do when we find we can’t get ourselves to the next phase of wellness? One proactive, self-empowered action is seeking new professional support. I’d been in talk therapy and that hadn’t really gotten me anywhere (although it did help me learn to speak about my trauma and PTSD experience). I’d tried a slew of information processing techniques and they hadn’t wholly relieved my symptoms either. What next?

I decided I needed something radical. I decided to go out of the realm of my comfort and experience to try something new. I found myself a hypnotherapist, leaped into the ever-present recliner, and plunged into a new treatment I was sure would fail.

Only it didn’t fail. This last resort, Hail Mary approach to furthering my healing was actually the step that lead to wholeness and complete freedom.

Tip #8 for Staying on the Healing Path: Always be on the lookout for the next thing to try. Unfortunately there is no single cure for PTSD. Each of us is different, which means each of us must continue trying new methods until we find the one that unlocks us from this prison. Turn your despondence into an energy that propels you forward. Use that awful feeling in a good way: Let it motivate you to seek something new.

In healing there are no guarantees. You have to be ready. You have to do the work. You have to find a practitioner and method that resonates with you. You have to be decidated. You have to be open to new ideas. Are you??

Ready to reconceptualize your quest for help? Check out our “Seeking Help” series. Read the first post here. 

What have you done to find a new source of professional input? Share your experience in the comments. Inspire someone else to try something new!

BRIDGE THE GAP Exercise

I know how badly you want to heal. I know how much you want to be rid of PTSD forever. I also know how much of yourself you put into hoping and believing in each treatment method you try. Which means disappointment can be enormous when it doesn’t work.

I tried 6 different methods, plus banging around on my own for a while, before I found something that helped me bridge the gap forever. The truth is, even when we fail we have made progress. Healing is cumulative, so even our failures do get us somewhere.

A note about the healing quest: It helps in so many ways not to put a huge pressure on each modality you try. It doesn’t help to drain your energy with disappointment.

Think of finding the right practitioner and method this way: You’re in a mall. You need an outfit or a tool or a toy for a specific thing. You go into a store, look around and don’t see what you want or need. What do you do?

Do you run out of the mall crying you didn’t find what you were looking for? No! You proceed to the next store, and the store after that tracking down success.

Of course, healing is so much more important that a trip to the mall, but the message is the same. You have to seek what you desire and not give up or become despondent when you don’t find it right away. It took me 25 years of undiagnosed PTSD and then some more years after that to heal. That’s the process, like it or not, and your job is to hold your head up and keep moving forward.

You task today: Reconceptualize your perception of healing. Imagine wellness is in a store in the mall. You don’t know which store but you are determined to find it stuck up on the back shelf of the least likely place. Take a deep breath. Know you have the potential for finding what you seek. Devise a plan. Enter the mall. Activate your shopping instinct and don’t stop shopping until you find what you need.

(Photo acknowledgement on Flickr).

Tags: hypnotherapist, ptsd, Staying on the Healing Path, symptoms, trauma