Okay , So How Does PTSD / Anxiety Affect Us
Imagine that your mind is a working office . You are sat behind the desk dealing with the daily work load ( Thought processes and information ) that comes in and out . We have a big filing cabinet in the corner of the office to safely store away our memories and learned information once they have been used and dealt with . They are then safely locked away until such time we choose to use them . All good so far . On our desk , we have an in-tray and an out-tray . The intray is for thoughts that we need to deal with later because there maybe something more pressing to do or we don ' t have time or we don ' t feel ready to deal with them yet . Our out-tray is somewhere to put these thoughts once we have dealt with them ready to be put away in our filing cabinet . Normally , the daily running of the office is not too difficult and although sometimes we find that the in-tray can pile up a little , there is no problem in dealing with these things . everything is harmonious . Things can , and often do , happen to upset the daily running of our office . For me , it was a period of 22 years in the British Army . It was only when I looked at things in this way that I realised the amount of stuff that had piled up in the in-tray that hadn ' t been dealt with . ( These are the memories we don ' t want to think of too much from active service or traumatic things that have happened by doing a hazardous job ) Because the pile was now so high , I didn ' t know how to deal with it or where to start so i just left it there and tried to manage the normal running of the office . But every now and then the door to the office would open unexpectedly and a gust of wind would blow everything out of the in-tray . This ' door opening and gust of wind ' was actually a trigger to remind me of something in the tray . In my panic , I would scramble to try to pick everything up off the floor but as I saw all of the information that I hadn ' t processed lying around I automatically start to remember all of the bad stuff all at once and lose concentration on my normal daily operations . I ' ve just entered a flashback , reliving these traumatic memories but still not processing them . All I can do at this point is try to pick everything up and get them back in the in-tray . But because these events have traumatised us so much the office doesn ' t quite shut down when we go to sleep and we are constantly thinking of the things that we have been reminded of while we sleep . ( nightmares ). As you can see , it is now virtually impossible to run the office normally . So what can we do ? The First Field Dressing will help to place a hand on the pile and steady it until professional help can help to put everything where it should be .
So What ’ s Involved ?
Although not essential it can be really useful to work through the programme with friend or someone who you can trust to help you go through the booklet .
We will firstly look at ways to „ ground ‟ ourselves initially when we are affected by our symptoms . These are simple exercises that can make us feel temporarily well so we can implement further actions to stabilise us . After which we will look at and recognise our symptoms and then build plans to help us in the future .
It is strongly advisable that when you begin any form of help or counselling , you inform the professionals of your plan . This will not only assist treatment but it may also aid in your recovery .