What Have You Found Helpful?

[Teasel]

Would love to know what you have found helpful or healing with ptsd / complex ptsd and the many symptoms. Or other related problems like depression, isolation etc.

Helpful habits, waus of seeing things, or specific work you've done on yourself.

Many thanks :)

 

[NoWhereKnowWhere]

Grounding
Self care, self soothing, self love
Exercise <~ that's a good one although I have a lot of depressive symptoms so can be easier said than done. If I'm being honest with myself I always feel much better when I'm at my most active.
Keeping my sleeping pattern in a routine. Again easier said than done.
Meditation
Yoga
Mindfulness
Having as much information about PTSD as possible.
This site
Helping others

 

[Friday]

Attitude... The first time I went through anxiety/panic attacks it was with others who were very familiar with them, and not afraid of them. They were just a thing. We did a fast & dirty weekend of reducing a specific trigger, which had several effects. Probably the most important one overall wasn't reducing the trigger, but was knowing that all this "stuff"? Is changeable. It's also temporary. No matter how bad it is in the moment, or how long it lasts, this is just a thing to get through. I knew jack about PTSD at the time. The people I was with who taught me to first ride out a panic attack, and then to kill a trigger? I think mostly knew jack about PTSD. All the ins and outs and details I didn't learn for years later. But that very first; This sucks, but we've got this? // Problem? Let's sort it.... I think has been one of the most valuable things in my life. Quote is from later, but it sums up the ethos: "As yea I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. For I am the baddest motherf*cker in the goddamn valley." ;) Stubborn up. We've got this.

Exposure Therapy... I've tried a lot of things over the years, still have more things to try as well, but as far as reducing symptoms? This has been the only thing to date that just plain & simple works.

Willingness to get creative. To accept the illogical as logical and run with it if it works.

Normalizing. Part attitude, part pragmatics. This is my normal. So let's work with what we've got, instead of kicking over what things coulda/shoulda/woulda been, or trying to force things to fit in a way of doing things that doesn't work.

 

[The Albatross]

I have a whole bunch of "P's"... started with 5, practice, patience, persistence, perseverance and (optional for the secular) prayer. Combined with goal setting it's been invaluable for me. Now me and another member and a by phone peer have 15 "P's". The ever evolving list of P's (starting from the original 5) are now:
Perception, potential, priority, presence, patience, practice, planning, positives, persistence, perseverance, proactive, potential, pleasure, purposeful (aka meaningful) and prayer

A guest once posted about the 4 S's which was a nice framework too though I'd change "self esteem" to "self worth":
FOUR S's
self care
self esteem
socialization
spirituality

 

[Suzetig]

Self care for me, know what I need to do to look after myself and doing it - for bad days I literally have a list that includes showering, washing hair, brushing teeth etc. I also make sure I do things that soothe me so reading for pleasure, listening to music, seeing friends, cosying on the sofa with a blanket and a movie - whatever it takes to calm me if I'm feeling hypervigilant.

I also have an excellent therapist who I can call on when I need her. My relationship with her has been one of the most healing things for me. I've also changed job to something much less stressful and only now see how triggering the work environment was for me.

 

[KwanYingirl]

After years of straight line therapy by well meaning therapists who knew nothing about actually helping my PTSD, I landed with a brilliant trauma therapist. He taught me the nuts and bolts of traumatic triggers, emotional overload, mind/body/spiritual splits. I have embraced his suggestions and most of my focus now is in the spiritual realm. Reiki, yoga, Buddhism, Shamanism. I feel my essence is finally coming to my awareness and it a place that is free of fear. My anxiety is all but gone, my outlook is positive. But I still have PTSD. For example: trying to find a dress for my sons wedding that will not make me stand out in the photos. I am difficult to work with because getting photographed is a huge trigger and yesterday I was so stressed out I didn't even want to go to the wedding. Now I feel better in one day, whereas in years past I'd suffer for days or weeks under the same stress load.

 

[Ronin]

Embracing, Safety & Sharing.

Embracing as facing choices of the past as they were without making excuses & doing about everything to avoid habits keeping me in that cycle, both physical and mental, Safety as not exposing myself to danger where avoidable & minimizable just to see I can pull it off &/or with a wish not to, Sharing as well, reaching out to people, both in crisis and not.

Speaking of mottos, 'Throw me to the wolves, and I'll come back, leading the pack'.

 

[Ronin]

@The Albatross, I've enjoyed your lists quite a lot.

Thinking of other P things on the goal list: Protection & Peace & Prosocialness & Preservation (as in one's living environment). I was about to add truth on the P list but that Russian pun doesn't work with English, oh well. (Anyone have an English word for truth starting with P, just in case?)

 

[The Albatross]

@Cashew Ooohhhh... like those P's at least the last 3. :woot: Care to explain protection? Adopting the other three out of hand and one day hope to have them all memorized, but this old bird's fuzzy brain has to go and dig them all up every single time....so I stand until the first one is clarified at

Perception, potential, priority, presence, patience, practice, planning, positives, persistence, perseverance, proactive, potential, pleasure, purposeful (aka meaningful), peace (or peaceful), Prosocial, preservationistic? (even though I don't think it's a word it is the trait of one who does the action of preserving something like my own life and my sanity) and prayer

So that brings us up to 18 until "protection" is more clearly defined.

 

[Ronin]

<grin> Along side safety. (Ha, there we go with another S!) ... considering consequences for self & others before acting to more depth than immediate concern.

Or: if having to think a month ahead, thinking a year. If a year, thinking a decade. Looking at the larger picture, and working on staying well enough to stay for it.

(In case this explanation's insufficient - that's all good, I'm trying to explain something I'm struggling with in my life :P )

 

[The Albatross]

@Cashew I think rather than protection I could get on board with prudent or prudence. Will roll that around in the back of my mind. What do you think?

 

[Ronin]

@The Albatross Prudence is way more fitting word for the concept, thank you for bringing it up. :tup: