hypervigilance and control

[ptsdnurse]

Hi everyone

I'm new to this forum as I need to find someone who can relate to my symptoms - please be kind!

I am a nurse currently on long term sickness while I receive EMDR treatment for my PTSD which was caused by an incident at work. I am around 6 weeks into this treatment and felt things were progressing well, but this week have noticed a significant increase in my hyper vigilance. I am becoming angry and frustrated and feeling like everything is out of my control. I have had difficulty with my sick pay this week due to admin issues and this has been a huge trigger as I am frustrated, feeling that my finances have been taken out of my control. I have found that my employee hasn't been particularly supportive, and have constant anxiety waiting for them to email/call me every week to arrange meetings and get updates. I just generally feel like I have completely lost control of everything in my life, not knowing if/when I will be well enough to return to work, and my future is very uncertain at present.

Please tell me this is all normal and part of my recovery? Will these symptoms improve once my treatment is over, or will I always suffer from hyper vigilance? Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can help to manage this at present? I am really struggling right now.

Thanks.?

 

[Survivor3]

Hiya. Difficulties with finances are called a stressor and are always going to cause stress. Hypervigilence can come and go and is usually caused again by stress. I suffer from that aswell. Disruptions in your work life will also cause frustrations.can I ask what happened at your work place that causes the PTSD? These are normal reactions. I'm sorry your going through this. All the best to you. S3

 

[ptsdnurse]

Hiya. Difficulties with finances are called a stressor and are always going to cause stress. Hypervigilence can come and go and is usually caused again by stress. I suffer from that aswell. Disruptions in your work life will also cause frustrations.can I ask what happened at your work place that causes the PTSD? These are normal reactions. I'm sorry your going through this. All the best to you. S3

I had an acute deterioration of a patient who suddenly and unexpectedly died. I then recieved little to no support from my employer as it is seen as 'part of the job'.

 

[Friday]

THIS >>> The ptsd cup explanation

One of the most immediately useful and absolute best tools I have ever come across.

Please tell me this is all normal and part of my recovery? Will these symptoms improve once my treatment is over, or will I always suffer from hyper vigilance? Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can help to manage this at present? I am really struggling right now.

Yep. Totally normal.

Trauma Therapy is different from regular therapy in that it’s much more like reconstructive surgery for a badly healed broken bone, rather than presenting with an acute injury (where you start getting better immediately / every step of treatment improves your situation). Things are going to get a LOT worse, before they get better. Surgeries, recovery, PT... It’s gonna be brutal for awhile, and things are going to be a helluva lot worse in the short term... for a kickass long term.

As far as ongoing symptoms? If Trauma Therapy is like reconstructive surgery, PTSD is like diabetes or asthma. HIGHLY manageable, but there are things you will need to do for the rest of your life (Upside? With PTSD they’re mostly fun things :tup: even if it’s annoying to “have” to do them), AND sometimes no matter how well you’re managing your diet & monitoring your blood sugar & insulin (or SPo2, or how exquisitely you’re managing your stress levels) sometimes there’s just going to be an issue that comes up that needs to be dealt with. Dealing with it swiftly? Limits the scope of the problems that follow.

The entire point of trauma therapy is to get PTSD symptoms down to nil -or as close as possible- and then -ideally- stress management techniques keep you there for the rest of forever. New trauma, new or ongoing stressors, &/or loss of coping mechanisms can kick you right back into being super symptomatic again... but the faster you can get in front of it? The faster you can get symptoms right back down to nil.

Personally, I’d say PTSD is one of the better disorders to have... because it is SO incredibly reactive (very few things once you’ve acquired it can you manage it down to asymptomatic)... also there’s no skipping birthday cake required ;)