Coping with PTSD: Tips for Support and Healing

What does life look like for someone with PTSD

Depending on the level of trauma, typically higher anxiety and depression

Guilt– Even if they are not in the wrong, guilt will weigh heavily if something goes wrong

Anxiety– can be from large groups of people or a current situation; sometimes this is a daily occurrence and always be anxious about something going wrong

Depression- a lot of the time with depression, we tend to feel like we are a failure, and when things don’t go right, it makes us feel worse and about the size of a grain of salt

Triggers– usually caused by anything recognized by the 5 senses that takes them to a time that was a traumatic experience to them

Insomnia– With heightened levels of anxiety, it becomes hard to sleep with constant thinking

A different perspective than most

Once experiencing something traumatic, you tend to think deeper about everything

It’s more difficult to take things with a grain of salt; everything you hear is processed on a deeper level

At the same time, it makes you stronger, more resilient to life’s punches

Sometimes, living with ptsd makes trusting and loving even more difficult, especially if someone close to you caused or contributed to the trauma

The healing process

Healing from any sort of trauma can be difficult and always takes time

There is no good way to gauge how long it takes to heal, honestly; that is left to the mind of the person

The time it takes to recover from trauma, which has different stages is not voluntary

There is no expert that can tell you exactly how long it takes, nor what works for each individual person

This much I know, after getting professional help for the last 5-6 years, they can guess, they give you temporary band-aids like medication to help you in the meantime

Medications have proved helpful once I found the one that worked best for me

They do the best they can, every situation is different, and no matter how many workbooks you do, your body and mind have to heal on their own time

There are also different factors that apply to the recovery, such as age it happened, seriousness of the traumatic event, and level of damage it causes mentally or physically

The best thing I have found is to either block it out and move forward, accept what happened and make a change to your life that eliminates the possibility of a reoccurrence, or confiding in a trustworthy person

Personally, I find it difficult to work with a counselor. i have yet to have a single consistent counselor, even for my (step)children

The body and mind heal themselves over time in their own ways. The best way to help is to find someone you can trust to talk to, remove yourself far from where it happened, and give yourself the grace to heal in a healthy way

Try not to let depression eat you alive, and find happiness where you can

Those with PTSD tend to be harder on themselves and need support

Professional help is great, but the real support comes from your family, whether it’s your mom or your spouse

It’s important to have a lifeline of support when you need it

As a person with different types of trauma (car accident, rape, sexual abuse, recovering addict) I have found support on the home front is the most important thing

With all the bad life deals, there are days that are so depressing it’s hard to leave bed, let alone wake up

Yes, even with children

It doesn’t mean I don’t love them

My own brain tends to occasionally go into shut down mode from trying to rest to where I could sleep for 24 hours and still be exhausted

There is a guilt carried, even though I’m not at fault for the trauma I’ve been dealt, I tend to wonder what I could have done to prevent it and I carry guilt

How can you help a person with PTSD?

• Let them know you’re there to hear them out and help
• Offer to help with daily tasks if you can
• Check in on them occasionally
• Let them know they are important
• Tell them they are loved

While these are a few things, these types of things are huge to people who struggle with everyday life

Sometimes, there are days where it feels like an internal battle to leave the bed or take a shower

Doing some of these things for someone with trauma can make a huge difference.

I hope you found this post helpful and I would love to hear your story, because life is tough and the world is too.