Are intense fear, guilt or shame stopping you from living your life?
Do you constantly feel on edge and unable to relax? Are you having sudden, explosive fits of anger? Are you finding yourself avoiding people, loud noises, or situations that remind you of something bad that happened in your past? Are nightmares and your racing heart keeping you awake at night? These are some common signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
PTSD often starts slowly and you might only remember pieces of what happened. You may start avoiding little things at first like talking or thinking about it. It might be that you notice that you’re drinking more or using other substances to help calm down, sleep, or take the edge off. Perhaps you start to feel very uneasy as nighttime falls because you know the nightmares will creep in when you finally do fall asleep. The anger and anxiety become so unpredictable that you even stop leaving the house and start isolating yourself from everyone, even those closest to you. You begin to believe that no one can be trusted and the world is unsafe.
You’re probably feeling very alone and that no one understands what you’re going through. You may think that it’s your fault or that you’re going crazy. You may even start thinking that you just can’t take it anymore.
It’s natural to feel fear or panic when traumatic things happen
When you believe you’re in danger, a very primitive part of your brain, the amygdala, takes over in order to get you out of danger and keep you safe. Your amygdala prepares you to either fight, freeze, flee, or faint, otherwise known as the “fight or flight” response. In most cases, this response stops after the danger has passed. It’s kind of like a water faucet that gets turned on and off when necessary. Our bodies and brains are well-adapted and designed for this kind of temporary or acute stress.
With PTSD, it’s as if the faucet never gets turned off all the way. You experience intense feelings of fear or anger seemingly out of nowhere, anytime you think about the traumatic event or are reminded of it by current situations or people, otherwise known as triggers. Triggers can be things that you see, hear, smell, touch, taste as well as things you remember about the event. When triggered, you try really hard to avoid thinking about what happened but the harder you try, the worse you feel. You start to feel like the traumatic event is happening all over again (flashbacks) and you can’t stop it.
PTSD can happen to anyone
Trauma is a shocking or dangerous thing that you see or happens to you. These include events that occur in war, combat, violence, abuse, natural and man-made disasters, and terrorism. Trauma also includes emotional and physical neglect in childhood. If the traumatic event happens to you, your risk of developing PTSD is greater than if you watched it happen to someone else.
Unfortunately, trauma is not rare but not everyone who experiences a traumatic event goes on to develop PTSD. According to the National Center for PTSD, 60% of men and 50% of women experience at least one trauma in their lifetime. They estimate that 7-8% of Americans will have PTSD at some point in their lifetime.
You can recover from PTSD
While recovery from PTSD looks and feels different for each person, you want to be able to do those “normal”, everyday things that you used to do like going to work, school, the grocery store, and kids’ activities without feeling anxious or angry. You want to be able to make sense out of what’s happened to you and find a way to make peace with your past. You want to feel safe in the world again and reconnect with the people you love. You want to be able to enjoy things like you used to. In short, you want to be YOU again, able to handle anything life throws your way. Trauma therapy with me can help you do just that.
PTSD treatment can help you deal with your past
I help people just like you overcome PTSD everyday by integrating Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Thought Field Therapy (TFT), Brainspotting, and mindfulness. This multi-pronged approach allows us to tackle your PTSD symptoms to get you relief in less time than you might think, often within the first four to six sessions.
I use Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) to help you identify and change unhelpful thinking patterns that are fueling your anger, anxiety, and depression into more helpful ones, thereby reducing symptoms. I help you identify and gradually change how you respond to triggers. We also work on incorporating various health-promoting behaviors, such as improving sleep and building social relationships, which help reinforce this change in mindset.
I use Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) to help you develop healthy boundaries with others as well as effective communication skills. This model focuses on becoming mindful of thoughts, feelings, and body sensations without judging or resisting them, which is quite effective in helping reduce symptoms of PTSD. In addition, DBT emphasizes self-compassion and radical acceptance of what cannot be changed both of which are critical in overcoming PTSD.
Understanding PTSD symptoms and how to manage them is important but it’s not enough to completely resolve symptoms because some of the trauma is still unprocessed. I use Thought Field Therapy (TFT) and Brainspotting to help locate and process trauma out of your brain and nervous system, which reduces anger, depression, and anxiety symptoms and eliminates triggers.
Above all else, I am a collaborative therapist. I treat you as the unique, intelligent, resilient being that you are. I understand that I have to earn your trust and that means meeting you where you are, ensuring that you feel safe, heard, and respected, and allowing you to control the process and the pace at which we work.
My years of training and experience in all of these approaches as well as my certification in trauma therapy allow me to draw from a wide variety of strategies and skills to help you recover from PTSD. In addition, I was a Registered Nurse for 25 years before I became a therapist. This allows me to draw from that extensive base of knowledge and experience to help you understand how your brain works and how anxiety and trauma affect your whole body.
Still not sure if PTSD therapy is for you?
“It would take too long to get better so why bother?”
Change is hard and it takes time, even when WE choose to change. This is true in therapy, too. Think about it this way: Time is going to pass anyway so do you want to spend that time stuck in anxiety and depression or would you rather spend that time beginning to feel even a little bit better and taking back the control of your life?
“I’m so ashamed that I can’t get control of my anxiety”.
Feeling ashamed about starting therapy is completely understandable. Traumatized people rarely, if ever, feel safe around other people, even those closest to them. Everything in their brain screams, “Don’t think about it, look at it, and definitely don’t talk about it and you’ll be okay”. The problem is, the more you avoid or deny the traumatic memory or event, the more control it takes over your life and the worse you feel.
“Therapy is for crazy and weak people.”
Although it’s changing, there is still stigma in our society about PTSD in particular and mental illness in general. It’s no wonder that most people who’ve thought about getting help for PTSD or other mental health issues feel so ashamed and anxious about taking that first step. Having PTSD does not mean you’re crazy or weak. In fact, it takes tremendous strength and courage to admit that you need help and even more to go and get it.
You can feel like yourself again
Ready to take the next step toward feeling better? If so, please give me a call at 512-766-2875 for a free, no obligation, 15-minute consultation.
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