Three Ways To Accelerate Your PTSD Recovery

While PTSD recovery spans a slew of areas and requires many choices and actions; I’m always looking for ways to chunk down the work so that it’s more manageable. Recently, I spoke with trauma expert (and survivor of childhood sexual abuse) Bill O’Hanlon about his ideas for three simple ways to help you thrive after trauma.

While you will have your own unique healing timeline, O’Hanlon suggests powerful areas to develop that will both deepen your healing and strengthen your ability to move forward. In sharing the general concepts I’m adding my spin to their definitions so that you can conceptualize the ideas, imagine applying them to your healing process and have some simple steps to get you started.

How To Thrive After Trauma

Connection: A major problem after trauma is the disconnection that comes from yourself, others and the world. In an effort to feel safe and secure it’s natural to constrict (make yourself and your world small) so that you feel more in control. Healing, however, requires you do the opposite of your coping mechanisms in so many ways. Reconnection is one of the most critical because it ends your isolation. You are human, a social being. You are descended from tribes, which means your very DNA has inscribed on it the idea, desire and need to be connected to something.

In terms of yourself, that means connected to your mind (i.e. thoughts, emotions, feelings, desires, fears, interpretations) and your body (experiencing yourself in physical form versus having zero sense of yourself in a physical space). In terms of others, that means participating in a social way where you develop trust, a process of give and take and commitment to relationships. In terms of the world, this means finding your place in the larger context of the universe and the purpose and meaning of your existence here.

Compassion: Defined as having concern for the misfortune of others, compassion is exquisitely useful to shedding some light in the darkness of the PTSD mindset; it allows you to develop kindness and caring, two things that can get lost (toward yourself and others) as you juggle symptoms. It can also really help you in your steps toward reconnection. When you apply compassion to both yourself and others you offer empathy, sympathy, understanding, kindness, caring, deep-listening and even forgiveness in moments that are difficult; this also develops acceptance and softening. All of these results reduce stress, an outcome that can change you both psychologically and also biologically. In combination, the characteristics developed by compassion can give you more energy, more peace of mind and a renewed sense of purpose, all of which offer fuel for recovery.

Contribution: For years I looked and looked for some meaning in my trauma. “Why would such a horrific thing happen to an innocent child?”, I wondered. I never did find any satisfying answer, so I decided instead of looking for meaning in my trauma, I’d make meaning come out of it. As a matter of fact, that’s what inspired me to create the Heal My PTSD web site: I wanted what I learned through my suffering to help other people. Turning an experience into something that has a benefit in the context of the larger world transforms the negative energy of the past into positive energy of the present. It also plays into a sense of reconnection: as you help others you connect to what’s meaningful about yourself and then connect that to individuals and the world at large in ways that make a difference. In effect, you redevelop your identity as a person who matters, which is very significant in the post-trauma “I am less than” mindset.

Putting Theory Into Action

By now, perhaps you’re wondering how to put into practice any of these theories. Like everything in PTSD recovery, these could be approached slowly, individually and with a process of checking in with yourself to see how any changes feel. Since connection is at the base of all three steps you might try this in the upcoming week:

Connect to Yourself

Mind – Spend some time practicing thought-monitoring. What are you thinking? How do you talk to yourself? Listen to the chatter in your head – and then decide what to do about it. Being connected in this simple way can tune you into being more present, plus identify negative habits that need to be changed. For example, start saying, “Cancel!” to negative, self-defeating thoughts and then give yourself a big smile. This will 1) train your brain how to shift your attention from things that make you feel bad and 2) produce serotonin in your brain. Just the upward curve of your lips releases the mood enhancing hormone even when you don’t feel like smiling.

Body – Spend some time truly noticing different parts of your body. Focus, for example, on your left pinky. What does it feel like? Slowly bend and straighten it. What sensation does that produce? Or, stand with your feet and arms spread out and notice the space your body inhabits. Swing your arms; rock your feet. Stand taller; squat down. How big or small can you be? Getting in touch with your body in space begins a process of reconnecting to your body’s moment-to-moment presence in that space.

Connect to Others

When was the last time you were truly interested in what was happening in someone else’s life? I mean, really cared enough to deeply listen with your full brain (versus the half or more that’s so often devoted to monitoring your symptoms and environment)? Whether it’s a friend or stranger, spend two minutes of total focus in which you express genuine interest in what someone else has to say.

After trauma, and definitely in the midst of PTSD, you lose access to parts of yourself. Maybe you used to be compassionate but now you’re just angry. Or, you never had a chance to develop connection because from Day One you’ve been in survival mode. The recovery process offers ways for you to reduce symptoms and also opportunities for you to increase personal growth. In this case, posttraumatic growth that helps you move toward a full construction of your post-trauma identity and the sense that you are the person you would most choose to be—despite what life has thrown at you.

Michele is the author of Your Life After Trauma: Powerful Practices to Reclaim Your Identity. Connect with her on Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and her website, HealMyPTSD.com.