If you have a family member or a friend who has been diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, you may feel at a loss for ways you can help them. A few tips for helping a loved one navigate PTSD are:
- Approach them with empathy. You may not personally understand what they are feeling and experiencing, but you can still be a source of comfort and support for them. Refrain from voicing your desire for things to “go back to normal” or for them to “just get over it”. They want things back to normal just as much as you do.
- Provide social support for them. It is common for individuals diagnosed with PTSD to isolate and withdraw from friends and family. This is a place where you can encourage them to reach out to friends or pick back up a hobby that they have enjoyed.
- Be patient with them. Healing and recovering takes time. You may feel that they move forward toward healing, to later take a few steps back. This is normal. The path to healing is not direct.
- Learn their triggers. Every person experiences PTSD differently. Some individuals have things that trigger them, whether it be sounds, smells, locations or people that remind them of the trauma, certain dates, an increase in stress, or feeling pressure from others or situations. This is not a complete list, as every person is different, but this is a good place to start. Knowing their triggers can help you respond in a time of crisis.
- Take care of yourself. Helping and walking with someone on their journey to healing can be taxing and exhausting on everyone involved. To best help others, help yourself. Develop a plan of self-care. Identify things that relieve stress for you and that “fill your cup”. Make a plan for how you will use these skills and activities when you are overwhelmed and need to take a break.
Source: National Center for PTSD. (2018, August 14). Understanding PTSD: A Guide for Family & Friends. Retrieved April 19, 2023, from https://www.ptsd.va.gov/publications/print/
If you, yourself, are dealing with PTSD, know that you are not alone in your battle and journey. There are many distressing pieces to living with PTSD. Flashbacks, nightmares, emotional reactivity, hypervigilance, and insomnia are some of the negative impacts of PTSD, but this is not a complete list of the symptoms that you could be experiencing. Every individual experiences PTSD in their own way. There is hope for you. Some ways you can help yourself are:
- Get to know your triggers. Certain situations can trigger an emotional reaction or flashback. Identify what these are for you and come up with a plan on ways to engage in coping skills to get through them.
- Have a safe place. Having a safe place to go to either physically or mentally can be helpful when you are experiencing distressing symptoms. Plan ahead for this. Determine a physical place where you can go to relieve stress. Mentally, come up with an image in your mind that can be a safe or calming place for you. This could be a beach, a place in your home, a place or memory from childhood or the past. Think and prepare ahead of time.
- Confide in someone. Opening up to others can be hard when dealing with PTSD. You may feel like they can’t understand what you are experiencing, or you don’t want to burden them with your struggles. Opening up to someone can be one of the most helpful things you can do for yourself.
- Take it easy on yourself. Many people will place pressure on themselves to be in a certain place with their healing or get frustrated when things seem to not be getting better. Give yourself grace. Do what you need to do to take care of yourself. Give yourself the space to heal and grow.
- Get the support you need. Seek out professional help when needed. This could be reaching out to your primary care provider to discuss any medical interventions, getting psychiatric help, finding a therapist to help process the trauma you have experienced, or reaching out to peers or others who have gone through a similar situation. Ask for help. There are people who want to help you through this.
Source: Mind. (2021, January). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Retrieved April 19, 2023, from https://www.mind.org.uk/media/7135/ptsd-and-complex-ptsd-2021-pdf-version.pdf
This is not an exhaustive or diagnostic list, if you feel that you are experiencing struggles that are affecting your daily life, reach out and contact our office to schedule an appointment.
Cara Parkinson can be found behind the front desk in the office. She has worked in mental health with children and adolescents for the past 4 years and joined our office in July of 2020. She is currently working to complete her Master’s in Social Work. She enjoys spending time with her dog, Bella, reading and is a lover of learning. She looks forward to discovering more ways to advocate for and help others along their journey through life and finding healing.