PTSD Self-Help

For individuals who have children who may have experienced something traumatic, or you yourself have experienced something traumatic, and are worried you may have symptoms of PTSD, there are some things that you can do by yourself to help get through this difficult time.  Now, as a future mental health counselor, I highly recommend seeing a counselor, even if only once to just have someone to talk to and process things with.  However, I know that it is not for everybody.  Before I entered this field I had so many issues I thought I could deal with on my own and I didn't want to go seek professional help.  I know that feeling.

There are ways to overcome things by yourself, if you put the proper effort into it and have the proper tools and/or guidance.

We all experience some sorts of traumatic experiences in our lifetime.  They can be anything from the death of a pet, to a school shooting, to just watching a scary movie that haunts our nightmares.

When I was in high school, I was in a 3-car accident on I-4 outside of Orlando, Florida.  I had left my parent's house without telling them to go to the beach with my friends.  We never made it to the beach.  I am lucky to even be alive.  I am also lucky that I didn't receive any injuries.  It truly was a miracle.

I may have left that accident without any physical injuries, but I left with a lot of emotional ones.  The next time I drove on a highway, I cried and cried and had to get off immediately.  I was on my way to get my Senior portraits done, and I was a mess by the time I got there.  Every time I was in the passenger seat of anyone's car, which is where I was sitting during the time of the accident, and I saw a person move even just slightly to the left into our lane, I freaked out and would immediately grab onto the door and the chair.  This is what I did when we got into the accident, and this is what I did for years afterwards because I was so afraid of it happening again.  For months I had nightmares of a red car coming at me, which is the one thing I remember from the accident, a red car just feet from hitting my side of the car as we were perpendicular to the road and crashed into a black pick-up truck.

As you can tell, I still remember this accident vividly.  I experienced a lot of symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  I was never officially diagnosed, nor did I ever receive any professional help for it, but I tried my best to help myself.

I taught myself deep breathing techniques.  I tried to change my train of thought to that not everyone that moves a millimeter to the left is going to swerve into your lane and cause a wreck.  I traveled to Europe after graduating college and took the scariest taxi ride of my life with a French taxi driver that spoke no English driving 120 km per hour.  I think that in that moment I was more scared of ever being in a car that American drivers no longer worried me, so when I came back to the States my anxiety and stress seemed immensely diminished.

Why did I go on this long rant about my own PTSD? Perhaps you have gone through something traumatic, some type of crisis, and maybe right now don't feel comfortable getting help yourself.  I wanted to provide you with a self-help guide that has been shared with me at my internship site.  You can find it and print it out here:

http://www.moodjuice.scot.nhs.uk/posttrauma.asp

It may have taken about five years, but I did, slowly but surely, get over my anxiety while in cars and on highways after that trip to Europe.  Sometimes I do still have little mini panic attacks but I assure you that now 7 years after the accident, I am doing incredibly better.  And I promise it does not have to take that long for you!  I do encourage you, if it doesn't seem like you are getting anywhere yourself, go seek professional help.  It doesn't hurt to at least try.