How might Post Traumatic Stress Disorder be dealt with effectively.
Most of us have experienced stress at some point and quite a few people genuinely feel stressed regularly. The severity of the stress will largely depend upon the circumstance and how the person handles it. Sadly, the after effects of specific stressful events can become overwhelming and hard to cope with. These overwhelming experiences can then be re-activated by day to day circumstances, leading to problems with everyday life. This issue is in many cases diagnosed as PTSD; the effects can be both physical and psychological in nature and would normally have a substantial impact on their everyday life.
The foundations for PTSD can be laid in numerous ways, for instance, by witnessing a horrific accident, being assaulted or being affected by a natural disaster. Memories of disturbing occurrences can badly affect people, specifically those serving in the army. Left untreated, the symptoms of PTSD can have a long lasting effect on daily life.
Typically when someone with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder experiences these ‘flashbacks’, they also encounter intense feelings of anxiety and panic that they had at the time of the original event. PTSD can normally be accompanied by fatigue due to sleep issues and this makes it challenging for the person to concentrate which in itself brings about problems at the office and in the home. Emotional symptoms can also develop into despair and anxiety. This constant state of anxiety can also lead to physical symptoms, such as palpitations, stomach issues and throbbing headache.
For health care professionals, the first line of treatment for the most part includes medication to overcome the stress and anxiety and depression. This is typically enough to stabilise the sufferer, but long term success is often achieved when the underlying feelings and triggers are resolved. Hypnotherapy can thereby be a useful tool for long term healing. Making use of hypnosis, the PTSD suffer can safely process the primary event so that it is no longer activated by everyday situations.
The feelings of panic experienced during ‘flashbacks’ can be turned down if not utterly removed helping to move the person to a more rational reaction to any triggers. People tend to be surprised how comfortable and relaxing the state of hypnotherapy is, and this can further help to lower anxiousness levels so the PTSD sufferer can cope better in day to day life. The additional benefit of being in hypnosis is that the hypnotherapist can work directly with the parts of the mind responsible for their emotional responses to the initial event.
During a consultation, the Hypnotherapist will gain a comprehension of the traumatic event or specific encounter from which the disorder might have developed. If and when they have all the information, they will probably then agree a treatment plan with the client, as well as reviewing the individual’s progress carefully.
In most cases, the key aim of treatment for PTSD is to help the person to safely process the traumatic memory so that it no longer has the high levels of raw emotion attached to it. The idea is to change the frequent behaviours brought on by the event into more appropriate ones that might be considered ‘normal’ in the situation. Hypnosis is solution focused and can work to ease any distress so that the individual has the capacity to cope in situations, without the excessive strain of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It might help with day to day living as a whole and overcome any problems with family and work life too.
