anthony
18-08-2006, 12:49 PM
I want to go a bit further now on Nam's original post, Forum a Trigger (http://www.ptsdforum.org/thread361.html), and extend the overall benefit of what reading and posting on any community related to your trauma will do for you.
Exposure therapy, being a part of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), is aimed at getting you increased exposure to your fears. Reading and writing in direct, or indirect, fashion to your own fears and trauma, will raise your symptom level, or SUDS level), to an elevated level.
When reading or writing about your trauma, history, fears and symptoms, the idea is a constant, but low level, exposure to your improved ability to cope with your symptoms. To cope and learn how to manage symptoms, firstly you must be exposed to them at a more intense level than when relaxed, or little symptom outbreak within a given day.
Exposure therapy has various methods in which to improve your overall long term gain to your symptoms, this forum being a lower scale of direct trauma exposure therapy. Basically though, your short term pain from exposure to your fears here at lower intensity, is only to improve your long term gain with symptom control.
Currently many attempt to control their PTSD with avoidance, substance abuse, work holism, etc etc... any key distraction method to not deal with the past pain. The problem is, is the symptoms are still coming back and back, and each time more often with more intensity. This is your body progressively telling you that you need to face this fear, whether slowly or quickly, you need to face it. These techniques are proven time and time again as non-effective, hence why many end up here at a point where they want to finally deal with their past, and wanting to know where to start.
What is hoped that some are now discovering, being generally those who have been upon this board actively discussing their issues and others for several months now, is that if you walk away from this board for a week or two, you should start to feel better than you have before. The reason is, is that you need to allow your mind some space to recover, and constant exposure will not give you that space, ie. if your on this board every day constantly, you are getting no recovery time. I understand that you may be telling yourself, and believing you need to be dependent upon this board, or even your counsellor who you may have on speed dial, but a counsellor will tell you the same thing, in that you need time to process, analyse and reflect upon what you have learnt.
At this point, you come back and hit the board again, at which point your either going to now start seeing less symptoms because of reading and posting, or you are going to return to the same level as before. If you return to the same level, then you still haven't dealt with your trauma and you need more work more discussion, more exposure.
Reading over and over your own posts, recollections and replies will slowly decrease your intensity levels of symptom exposure. This is the idea of exposure therapy. You read until such time that you are no longer as fearful of what your reading, no longer fearful of your own traumas, triggers and past.
Reading this forum you will get intensity, you will get exposure in small and large doses, you will get negatively moody, and you will feel as though you are getting worse. This is the short term pain for the long term benefit and gain towards you only. If this is you, then this means you healing, which is the best news you most likely just got today. Congratulations.
Exposure therapy, being a part of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT), is aimed at getting you increased exposure to your fears. Reading and writing in direct, or indirect, fashion to your own fears and trauma, will raise your symptom level, or SUDS level), to an elevated level.
When reading or writing about your trauma, history, fears and symptoms, the idea is a constant, but low level, exposure to your improved ability to cope with your symptoms. To cope and learn how to manage symptoms, firstly you must be exposed to them at a more intense level than when relaxed, or little symptom outbreak within a given day.
Exposure therapy has various methods in which to improve your overall long term gain to your symptoms, this forum being a lower scale of direct trauma exposure therapy. Basically though, your short term pain from exposure to your fears here at lower intensity, is only to improve your long term gain with symptom control.
Currently many attempt to control their PTSD with avoidance, substance abuse, work holism, etc etc... any key distraction method to not deal with the past pain. The problem is, is the symptoms are still coming back and back, and each time more often with more intensity. This is your body progressively telling you that you need to face this fear, whether slowly or quickly, you need to face it. These techniques are proven time and time again as non-effective, hence why many end up here at a point where they want to finally deal with their past, and wanting to know where to start.
What is hoped that some are now discovering, being generally those who have been upon this board actively discussing their issues and others for several months now, is that if you walk away from this board for a week or two, you should start to feel better than you have before. The reason is, is that you need to allow your mind some space to recover, and constant exposure will not give you that space, ie. if your on this board every day constantly, you are getting no recovery time. I understand that you may be telling yourself, and believing you need to be dependent upon this board, or even your counsellor who you may have on speed dial, but a counsellor will tell you the same thing, in that you need time to process, analyse and reflect upon what you have learnt.
At this point, you come back and hit the board again, at which point your either going to now start seeing less symptoms because of reading and posting, or you are going to return to the same level as before. If you return to the same level, then you still haven't dealt with your trauma and you need more work more discussion, more exposure.
Reading over and over your own posts, recollections and replies will slowly decrease your intensity levels of symptom exposure. This is the idea of exposure therapy. You read until such time that you are no longer as fearful of what your reading, no longer fearful of your own traumas, triggers and past.
Reading this forum you will get intensity, you will get exposure in small and large doses, you will get negatively moody, and you will feel as though you are getting worse. This is the short term pain for the long term benefit and gain towards you only. If this is you, then this means you healing, which is the best news you most likely just got today. Congratulations.