{"id":19818,"date":"2020-11-26T09:12:07","date_gmt":"2020-11-26T13:12:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=19818"},"modified":"2020-12-04T23:30:34","modified_gmt":"2020-12-05T03:30:34","slug":"how-to-cure-ptsd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/how-to-cure-ptsd\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Cure PTSD: Treatment Options"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Do you want to know how to cure PTSD? Are there ways to cure PTSD and help with trauma? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many treatments that are effective in how to cure PTSD. Your options include different forms of therapy and medications. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep reading for ideas on how to cure PTSD and treatments that may or may not work. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

How to Cure PTSD <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As we\u2019ve discussed, trauma haunts survivors with flashbacks, triggering psychological and physical reactions that are out of the sufferer\u2019s control. The goal of treatment is to regain control of yourself and your thoughts, feelings, and body. Generally this involves four steps:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

  1. Learning how to be calm and focused<\/li>
  2. Finding a way to stay calm in the face of sensations (images, sounds, smells) associated with your trauma<\/li>
  3. Learning how to be present<\/a> and engage with the people around you<\/li>
  4. Not hiding things from yourself, such as the ways you adapted in order to survive during and after your trauma<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    Learn to Remain Calm<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

    So what’s the solution for how to cure PTSD? Although the author insists that talk therapy does not heal trauma, trauma survivors eventually need to face the facts of their traumatic event in order to move past it. However, they shouldn\u2019t do so until they learn to cope with the emotions and sensations the memory triggers<\/a>, so that recalling the event doesn\u2019t retraumatize them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    As we explained earlier, trauma lives in the emotional brain<\/a>, which triggers physical responses and is not governed by logic as the rational brain is. Consequently, you can\u2019t start by approaching your trauma with logic (e.g. \u201cit wasn\u2019t your fault,\u201d \u201cyou were just a child,\u201d \u201cyou had no control over the situation\u201d) and you can\u2019t reason your way through your emotions: Understanding why you feel something won\u2019t prevent you from feeling it. But understanding that your trauma is triggering certain emotions can help you begin to resist intense overreactions to everyday situations (e.g. exploding at your spouse for an innocent comment that reminds you of your abusive father). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Therapy for trauma must help patients reestablish a balance between the emotional brain and the rational brain, instead of letting the hyperreactive emotional brain send them into overdrive or cause them to shut down in response to minor threats. In order to do this, patients must practice self-awareness, or interoception<\/a>, to notice what\u2019s going on inside themselves. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Manage Hyperarousal<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    This is one day to day way that may help you learn how to cure PTSD in the long run. As we\u2019ve discussed, trauma survivors remain hypervigilant, are easily sent into a fight-or-flight response<\/a>, and take longer to calm down after a perceived threat has passed. To heal, they must gain control over their arousal system through mindful breathing and movement\u2019 slow, deep breaths with long exhales trigger the parasympathetic nervous system to slow your heart rate. Yoga, changing, martial arts, and rhythmic drumming can all help trauma sufferers gain and maintain a sense of calm, even in the face of traumatic memories and flashbacks and the emotions they arouse. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Practice Mindfulness<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

    Mindfulness<\/a> means having a self-awareness of your emotions, your body, and your responses. Traumatized people are haunted by seemingly ever-present sensations remind them of their traumas, so they\u2019re constantly either avoiding them, repressing them, or succumbing to them. Self-awareness gives trauma survivors the power to face those sensations and then move on from them. This may be a powerful tool for how to cure PTSD. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    It begins by merely noticing how you\u2019re feeling; as you pay closer attention to your emotions<\/a> and the ways they shift — based on your thoughts, perceptions, breathing, or body posture — it becomes clearer that feelings are short-lived. That realization takes the power away from the emotion and gives you the option to decide how to respond, rather than feeling like a victim of your emotions and resorting to the habitual reactions you\u2019ve developed to survive and cope. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Once you\u2019ve begun noticing your feelings and physical sensations, label them and notice how certain emotions are tied to specific physical reactions. Again, noticing and identifying these sensations gives you the power to endure them, because you know that they are temporary and that you even have the power to change them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    Mindfulness has many documented benefits, including <\/p>\n\n\n\n