Living with Post Trauma

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (P.T.S.D.) is a sensitive and debilitating disorder. Daily tasks, motivation, direction – especially focus – becomes very difficult, especially when confronted with sensory triggers that cause a mental relapse, causing you to relive or experience the traumatic event(s) that led to the condition. These triggers can be anything from sound to smell, touch to taste, or sights to surroundings. Often times the results are debilitating and become such dominating thoughts that even daily routines become extremely difficult to carry out.

Now although this is not a dictionary definition of PTSD, this is explanation is the culmination of my personal experience and research. One reason I feel compelled to share this information is to reach out to others living with PTSD and provide support. Another reason is because I feel that there are a lot of people living with similar symptoms who may have only been diagnosed with acute anxiety or manic depression yet are not aware that they too have probably experienced a traumatic event that led to their condition.

I just decided to omit 2 paragraphs of detail about my experiences leading to PTSD while overseas. Instead, the effects are much more relevant to living with Post Trauma and easier to talk about.

Effects of Post Trauma:
Phew, okay so keeping yourself busy with something you are passionate about is important to avoid depression. While there are hobbies, work, and business ventures that can and usually do occupy much of your time, there will always be triggers that cause feelings to surface that we try to block out and prefer not to deal with. I find myself still to this day experiencing what many have dubbed the “mile long stare”, where I am detached from reality and immersed in a reenactment of particular traumatic events, according to the trigger. Sometimes it will be the smell of diesel, fireworks on the 4th of July, certain spoken phrases, the energy of a crowded room, or a roadside object… The list goes on.

Sometimes I have to take a couple days (or more) off of work and redirect my focus to deal with these negative mental states. It requires a lot of energy to re-focus on even daily tasks as it is very emotionally draining. The more I think or talk about these events, the longer it takes to recover from the effects, but I’m learning to reprogram my thinking through the use of NLP and personal development. Though I may never fully recover or have full control over my thoughts, I have a much better grasp and understanding as to why I enter different mental states and how to deal with it.

At the time of this writing, I am recovering from an episode of a PTSD lapse I guess you would call it. I am in charge of delegating a paid software engineering project, just finishing a demanding pro-bono membership site with a constantly changing process, and maintaining a traffic exchange and limited liability company. Recent financial obligations are causing added stress and most of my efforts are not producing nearly enough to justify my obligations, causing an overwhelming situation.

I realize that this post may not have a very positive effect on my character or business, but I feel it needs to be done. If you have a similar situation or just want to comment on my thoughts, please do so below. After a couple of days, give or take, I plan to be back on track.

Thank you for reading.

Tools to Help:
Personal Development through NLP

Tags: anxiety, depression, NLP, personal development, PTSD