PTSD - Dealing with Anxiety Attacks

Anxiety is a nerve-wracking experience, especially for those who find it hard to manage the attacks. When flashbacks develop, usually the emotions are numb. However, after the attack the person may feel anxious and overwhelmed or even depressed from the attack. People with PTSD may even experience anxiety from overdoing it. For now, I recommend that until you get better, you minimize your responsibilities. Take baby steps. Reducing your activities can help you manage stress and anxiety.

Next, consider ways to challenge your anxiety and PTSD symptoms. We will consider some creative activities as well as some useful techniques in CBT.

Kick the blues

If you are experiencing difficulty managing your anxiety or PTSD symptoms, avoid using alcohol or drugs to self-medicate your symptoms. When you self-medicate your symptoms by using excessive alcohol or drugs, it only makes the problem worse.

Try to make friends with encouraging and supportive people who will consider your feelings and symptoms. Write in a journal daily so that you can express your feelings comfortably.

Record your feelings daily. After you write down your feelings review them to find some hidden messages that will help you combat your symptoms.

Creative activities to consider

To help me overcome my disorder I used my creative abilities to express myself freely. You can use your creative skills as well to combat stress, anxiety, panic attacks and other PTSD symptoms. You may want to consider dance, art, exercise, singing or other creative activity to use as an outlet to combat stress and negative thinking.

Talk it out

When you feel overwhelmed, discuss your feelings with someone you can trust. Talk with those who love you and whom you love as well.

Exercise, eat healthy and get plenty of rest.

Help others

When you feel like you cannot change your state of mind, help others. Often when you spend time helping others you forget about your problems for a while.

Remember

All of us experience feelings of despair. It is a normal reaction. Learn to accept that you have the right to express your emotions.

CBT Techniques to combat PTSD

Thinking outside of the box

Spend some time thinking about how mental illnesses affect millions of people in the world each day. Use what you learn to help you see that you are not alone.

Synthesizing

Create a poster that helps you to see how your PTSD symptoms affect you.

Most of our problems we experience come from our belief system, which drives us to think negatively, especially when the belief system is irrational.

Checking your belief system

Intention – to improve positive inner beliefs

Description – try to choose a behavior that you would like to change about yourself. Focus on positive thinking and try to create some positive inner beliefs that feel right for you.

Write out your negative inner beliefs and change them to something positive. Affirm in the present tense – “I believe this is true for me.”

Repeat and Recite – Repeat your inner positive belief up to 10 times daily.

Picture your positive inner belief as though it is occurring. Picture and feel what it would be like to let go of your negative beliefs. Visualize yourself enjoying a successful future. Treat the positive inner belief as something true. You will find it easier to reduce stress.

Technique

Steps to managing stress effectively

Intention – to improve inner well-being

Description – Your goal is to reduce stress by recognizing your feelings. You will need to identify your feelings and give yourself permission to express those feelings.

1. Work off your stress – do some physical exercise workouts to work off your stress. Studies show that physical exercise is the most effective way to reduce stress.

2. Talk about your feelings with others or yourself – share your feelings with a person that you can trust so that you do not take on the load by yourself. Talk about your feeling of stress. Others tend to have the ability to help you see your problems more clearly.

3. Accept the things you cannot change – When you spend hours, days, nights, etc worrying about things that are out of your control, you set yourself up for pitfalls. Learn to accept the things you cannot change. Acknowledge that you make mistakes and that some things are out of your control.

4. Avoid self-medicating with drugs and alcohol. You naturally have the ability to cope with stress. You just have to learn to do it. Using alcohol or drugs to self-medicate only adds to your problems.

5. Proper rest – Plan some time in your daily schedule to give your body and mind rest.

6. Take time to do a kind act for others – helping others can help you take your mind off your own problems for a short time.

7. Take baby steps to wellness – try to avoid taking on too much, or more than your mind and body can handle. Take baby steps instead.

8. Admitting your mistakes – it is OK to admit when you are wrong. It gives your body and mind time to relax. Don’t stress yourself out trying to be right all the time 9. Open the door to others. Spending too much time alone in self-pity builds stress. Allow others into your life so that you can reduce stress.

Summary

In this article, we went over ways to combat anxiety through CBT learning. We have used a series of very useful techniques. These techniques have helped millions of people combat anxiety yet they only work if you are willing to use them daily. Please do the activities provided to you daily to get the most out of your online therapy. In next article, we intend to help you combat your phobias.

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