Research Opinions And Feedback Needed - Grad Student Work On Pts Community

[Amanda Briggs]

Hello members,

I am working on an epistemological project and wanted to get the opinions of those living with PTS on a few (relatively) new forms of therapy that are showing results, but are not traditional psychotherapy.

There have been a few studies published in various medical magazines that promote the benefit of breathing based yoga that has shown to have better results than traditional psychotherapy alone (this study included Vietnam Veterans as well as abuse victims).

Study I'm referencing appears in The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine (col 11 #4 2005).

This study also appears in the book "Presence" by Amy Cuddy - she has a few popular TED talks and references yoga benefiting PTS in her book as well.

Does anyone had any experience with this? Is alternative medicine often suggested or do you need to seek it yourselves? How to you perceive these types of therapies (positive or negative)?

Any thoughts at all on these approaches would be very beneficial to my work. I want to know what people actually think of these studies rather than just citing them in my paper.

thanks very much in advance :)
Amanda

 

[formicism]

epistemological research... can you elaborate on how you'll be using the opinions provided by study participants, or to what you'll be comparing them?

 

[Friday]

Breathing is pretty foundational in managing and grounding out PTSD symptoms.

Ditto exercise.

So I'm not sure how breathing and exercise would be considered alternative or new?

 

[hodge]

Yep, breathing and safe place imaging are core management techniques. I've also done yoga, though not in a couple of years. No professional ever suggested yoga to me; I just started it on my own before delayed PTSD hit, or actually just as PTSD was hitting, now that I think about it.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

Yoga I see as a form of exersise, when I could do it anyway. I good exersise but other than the normal exersise endorphines etc, I dont see that part a benefit other than putting you into a calmer mindspace. Is a very relaxing, slow moving exersise that I very much miss.

So calmer mind space in general. Then the breathing, yes, fundlemental for PTSD to learn good breathing techniques that help you.

So the two put together; calmer over all but especially when doing it and learning of mindfulness breathing, I can see how it benefits.

I havent done it while diagnosed but Im positive I had PTSD before diagnosed but can't claim that. I can claim being rageful and it didnt peak until after I stopped yoga after an accident that causes it to be impossoble for any sort of exersise but the rage/explosions I did have, it did calm that down. I was a bit of a calmer person in general. Nicer person I suppose one could say but its just want people saw on the outside. Def calmer inside.

Hope that helps!

 

[EveHarrington]

Alternative medicine can be good stuff! But, it can be difficult to find what works for you as efficacy rates can/do vary from person to person (as with anything).

I wouldn't say that trauma therapy is anything much like traditional psychotherapy. I personally don't believe traditional psychotherapy does much of anything. (But hey maybe that's just me.) So in comparison-----even nature therapy where you go out and hug trees and become one with the universe might be better than psychotherapy (and for me, it probably would be!)

Sorry for rambling but I don't put much stock in psychotherapy nor comparisons to psychotherapy. Gimme comparisons to cognitive based therapy-----and then I'm interested.

 

[lostforgottensoul]

even nature therapy where you go out and hug trees and become one with the universe might be better than psychotherapy (and for me, it probably would be!)

Bahahaha :roflmao:

In my therapist's words "nature heals". Where's the first tree that i can hug? f*ck people, im good with trees! :D

 

[Amanda Briggs]

epistemological research... can you elaborate on how you'll be using the opinions provided by study p...

Absolutely, I wanted to get a sense of what people in this forum feel about the current offerings in treatment, the more traditional versus alternative. The studies I came across seemed to point that alternative methods are producing better results. In one case study, traditional therapy led to relapses in PTS patients where a group that tried SKY yoga seemed to see better long term results.

Before I include these results, I wanted some feedback from an actual person dealing with these issues and if these studies seemed out of touch or far from the reality that is currently available.

 

[Amanda Briggs]

Breathing is pretty foundational in managing and grounding out PTSD symptoms.

Ditto exercise.

So...

Thanks for your reply! Indeed, breathing and recommendations for exercise aren't exactly new, but the trend, at least in current literature being touted (ie: Amy Cuddy's "Presence") seems to point that these basic actions produce better results than more traditional methods like a group talk on coping strategies, etc. I was at first excited by this, but wanted to see what the community thought before writing about it - perhaps too good to be true?

 

[Amanda Briggs]

Yep, breathing and safe place imaging are core management techniques. I've also done yoga, though not in a...

Thank you for your feedback! I saw a few studies reference Sudarshan kriya yoga, but a few other "flavors" have popped up as well. Hoping to gain more insight as I go.

 

[Amanda Briggs]

Yoga I see as a form of exersise, when I could do it anyway. I good exersise but other than...

Really appreciate your feedback - thank you!

 

[Amanda Briggs]

Alternative medicine can be good stuff! But, it can be difficult to find what works for you as ef...

Excellent point, I believe that there are "different strokes for different folks" so maybe yogic breathing wouldn't be as helpful for some as traditional therapies and vice versa.