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The PTSD Solution: The Truth About Your Symptoms and How to Heal
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The PTSD Solution: The Truth About Your Symptoms and How to Heal
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Overview
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9781617222269 |
---|---|
Publisher: | Companion Press |
Publication date: | 10/30/2015 |
Pages: | 176 |
Sales rank: | 837,653 |
Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d) |
About the Author
Table of Contents
Foreword 1
Preface 5
Introduction 9
You deserve compassionate care 10
You are a whole person 11
The prevalence and history of PTSD 11
It's time to reconsider our thinking about post-traumatic stress 13
Part 1 What If? 15
What if you do not have an illness or disorder but instead an injury? 15
Traumatic brain injury 16
What if your symptoms are normal and necessary responses to this injury? 18
What if post-traumatic stress is really a form of grief? 20
Things we grieve over after a traumatic event: Primary and secondary losses 21
Part 2 The Grief We Call PTSD 25
Moral injury and PTSD 26
Diagnostic criteria for PTSD 27
What is grief? 29
Shock, numbness, denial, and disbelief 29
Disorganization, confusion, searching, and yearning 30
Anxiety, panic, and fear 31
Explosive emotions 31
Guilt and regret 32
Sadness and depression 33
Relief 33
The fear factor 34
Fear in traumatic grief 34
Fear in uncomplicated grief 40
PTSD versus grief 43
Traumatic grief 45
Traumatic grief as a form of complicated grief 47
Care-eliciting symptoms 47
Ten risk factors for complicated grief 49
1 The specific circumstances of the loss 49
2 Your personality, including the ability to understand and access emotions (emotional intelligence) 50
3 In the case of the death of someone loved, your relationship with the person who died 51
4 Your access to and use of support systems 51
5 Your cultural/ethnic background 52
6 Your religious/spiritual/philosophical background and current worldview 52
7 Other stressors in your life 52
8 Your upbringing and unwritten family rules 53
9 Your participation in meaningful rituals 53
10 Losses that tend to be stigmatized 54
What complicated grief can look like 55
Absent or delayed grief 55
Distorted grief 56
Converted grief 56
Chronic grief 58
Part 3 Mourning as "Treatment" 61
First, seek safety and comfort 63
Your grief in action: mourning 64
The six central needs of mourning 66
Mourning Need 1 Acknowledge the reality of what happened as well as the losses it created 66
Mourning Need 2 Feel the pain of the losses 68
Clean pain versus dirty pain 68
Chronic wallowing 71
Mourning Need 3 Remember the event 74
Mourning Need 4 Develop a new self-identity 78
Mourning Need 5 Search for meaning 79
Mourning Need 6 Receive and accept ongoing support from others 82
Finding a good counselor 85
The power of telling your story 86
Medical therapies for PTSD and how and when they support healthy mourning 89
Psychological debriefing 90
Early cognitive-behavioral interventions 90
Short-term cognitive behavioral therapy 91
Complementary therapies for traumatic grief 93
Drug therapy 94
EMDR 95
Psychosocial rehabilitation 96
Part 4 What Happens When You Don't Mourn Your Traumatic Grief 99
Symptoms of carried grief 100
Difficulties with trust and intimacy 100
Depression and negative outlook 101
Anxiety and panic attacks 103
Psychic numbing and disconnection 104
Irritability and agitation 104
Substance abuse, addictions, and eating disorders 105
Physical problems, real or imagined 106
Catch-up mourning for traumatic grief 107
A model for catch-up mourning 112
Step 1 Acknowledge carried grief 112
Carried grief self-inventory 114
Step 2 Overcome resistance to do the work 119
Step 3 Actively mourn the carried grief 121
Mourning Need 1 Acknowledge the reality of the loss(es) 123
Mourning Need 2 Feel the pain of the loss(es) 124
Mourning Need 3 Remember the losses and their aftermath 124
Mourning Need 4 Develop a new self-identity 125
Mourning Need 5 Search for meaning 125
Mourning Need 6 Receive and accept ongoing support from others 126
Step 4 Integrate the carried grief 126
Part 5 Believe in Your Capacity to Heal 129
Setting your intention to heal 130
No reward for speed 132
Caring for yourself as you heal 133
The physical realm 134
The cognitive realm 137
The emotional realm 138
The social realm 140
The spiritual realm 143
Reconciling your traumatic grief 147
Closure: a misnomer 149
The transformative nature of grief 149
A Final Word 153