Re: Battling PTSD
Ah. This is an area where I have a great deal of personal experience. I suffered from PTSD for many years, stemming from growing up in a highly dysfunctional and frequently violent home.
I recommend counselling from a therapist who is specifically trained in PTSD. You don't want psychotherapy, you want someone who can teach you ways to deal with the symptoms of PTSD, simple as that. There are tricks you can use, such as setting up little phrases that trigger relaxation, that sort of thing. Someone trained in treating PTSD will be able to help with all kinds of things of that sort. I want to emphasise that it must be someone who is absolutely experienced in and who specialises in trauma therapy! You don't want lengthy psychotherapy, you want practical help.
The one thing that has helped me more than anything else has been self-hypnosis and meditation (which are, after all, extremely similar). I highly encourage you to practice meditation if you don't already, and if you do, ramp it up and do as much as you can reasonably do, striving for a genuinely empty mind. The time "away from yourself" is invaluable for reducing stress.
Now a bit of personal info, just so you know... A dozen or so years ago, I had PTSD so severely I was nearly disabled by it. I couldn't leave my own apartment by myself for a while there (which meant I had to wash my clothes in the tub, yuck). I got multiple panic attacks a day and usually at least one flashback, but frequently multiple flashbacks. It was not good, to say the least.
These days, I rarely get flashbacks, and I have few to none of the other lingering symptoms (hypervigilance, insomnia, nightmares, etc.). I can recognise a panic attack before it even happens almost all of the time, and I can almost always prevent it from happening at all.
Definitely possible to get on top of PTSD and panic/anxiety and all those related disorders.
I wish you inner peace and healing.
May the light surround you, may you be blessed. May the light surround us, may we be blessed. May love and light surround us all, and may we all be healed and blessed. And so it is, and so it shall be, now and ever after.
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