How To Heal Yourself from Traumatic Stress

Trauma affects all of us at some stage in life. The stress that follows from a traumatic event usually stays as ‘tension’ in the body that is not appreciable at a conscious level. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a condition that describes typical symptoms of nightmares, flashbacks, irritability and avoidance following a traumatic event. Even if a person does not have symptoms of PTSD, a traumatic event can affect a person, sometimes permanently. Various researches put a figure of 1% to 8% of population suffering with PTSD. The treatment of PTSD in psychiatry is with antidepressant medications. But in psychotherapy it can be treated with imagery and desensitization. In this article I am including a technique that I have used successfully over last 20 years to help people with PTSD and traumatic stress.

Instructions

  • 1

    Sit comfortably on a chair. Close your eyes. Take ten deep breaths. Breathe out AS SLOWLY AS YOU CAN.

  • 2

    With your eyes closed, remember one event that you would consider a 'traumatic' event. Each event has a start and an end point.  Decide the two points.

  • 3

    With eyes closed, run through the traumatic event in your mind AS FAST AS YOU CAN from start to the end.  Do it at least five times. Then stop. Take five deep breaths. Keep your eyes closed and notice how you feel. You may feel 'agitated' or 'angry'.

  • 4

    With eyes closed, run through the event in blocks of five times. Evaluate your feelings after running through it after each block of five. You will successively go through stages of 'agitation', 'anger', 'sadness' and then 'physical tiredness' or 'exhaustion'.

  • 5

    Carry on doing this exercise till you reach the stage of either 'tiredness' or you notice that the memory has started to faze. You will also notice becoming 'calmer' than before the exercise.

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