Ptsd Tool Box - Healing ptsd from the inside out

[In the weeds]

My psychiatrist has recommended the book "Ptsd Tool Box - Healing ptsd from the inside out".

I was wondering if anyone has read this book and if it has helped them?

 

[arfie]

i have not read the book, but the title is a tidy synopsis of my 50 years of psychotherapy.

1) the ptsd tool box
my psychotherapy started decades before the ptsd theories coalesced into a formal diagnosis. a huge part of that piecemeal therapy was "the psychotherapy toolbox" which helped me deal with the myriad of poorly understood symptoms, one symptom at a time.

2) healing ptsd from the inside out
whatever the source of those poorly understood symptoms, healing them is an inside job. help is available and advisable, but nobody can heal for me.

 

[In the weeds]

Thanks @arfie. I wish I could logically understand that I have to heal myself from the inside and lately all I'm doing is having flashbacks that make me want to shut down.
I feel then that I don't even want the flashback to end. I want to sit in it and think it through and remember details, and that is not helping. I don't think it's a healthy way of looking at it. But I can't make it stop.

 

[arfie]

the study which helped me through that wicked dichotomy was on how to look back without staring. there is much to learn from where i have been, but life is a forward progression. it be a question of balance.

 

[In the weeds]

Thanks @arfie . That's a great way to look at it. Someone said that if the book falls open to that page, it's ok to close it and put it back on the shelf. I don't know why that is sometimes hard for me.

 

[arfie]

I don't know why that is sometimes hard for me.

the further i heal, the more okay i am with not knowing why. insert zen proverb here. "^it^ is what ^it^ is whether i understand ^it^ or not."

 

[Freddyt]

the further i heal, the more okay i am with not knowing why.

Love it. The zen proverb is the one where s new student begins by asking endless questions and the master asks if he likes tea. They start the tea ceremony, The master pours the students tea until it overflows into the saucer and when that's full, all over the table.

When you mind is full of knowledge you have to empty it to let in what you need. It's why I never read or studied about PYSD or its treatment. Better to know nothing and fill it with what you need to know....

 

[Mach123]

I recommend Trauma and Recovery by Judith Herman still considered by many the authoritative work on the subject.

 

[arfie]

Love it. The zen proverb is the one where s new student begins by asking endless questions and the master asks if he likes tea.

the zen proverb i like for being okay with not knowing is:
if i don't understand, it is what it is. if i do understand. it is what it is.

knowing why seldom changes anything, whatsoever.

 

[Rose White]

knowing why seldom changes anything, whatsoever

Knowing why sometimes increases my empathy or compassion for a person (which can paradoxically sometimes endanger me, but hey)