Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) -Stepping Stone Community Services

Author: Lynda Benigno

According to the American Psychological Association, one in eleven will suffer from PTSD in their lifetime. During the Civil War and again during World War 1 the term " shell shock" was used to describe PTSD. In 1980 PTSD was officially recognized by the American Psychiatric Association. Post traumatic Stress Disorder is caused by a life-threatening traumatic event with the most common example being war. Other traumatic incidents such as sexual assault, car accidents, shootings, natural disasters, and domestic violence have the potential to cause PTSD.

Three brain regions play a role in PTSD. The amygdala evaluates stress. Smells, sights, and sounds of memories are stored in this region, and when a similar situation arises, the amygdala sends a signal to engage in fight or flight. The hippo campus is responsible for storing and retrieving memories. The prefrontal cortex, located behind the forehead, is responsible for rational thought, making decisions, and emotional response.

When a life-threatening trauma occurs, your brain can get stuck in danger mode. The hippo campus works hard to calm the amygdala, if the hippo campus is unsuccessful, it results in damage. The amygdala becomes overactive and lessens the brains' ability to produce calming thoughts. The prefrontal cortex becomes under active, interrupting rational thought, and proper emotional response. The nerve circuits that connect these three areas of the brain cease to operate correctly, creating a perfect storm.

Not everyone experiences symptoms of PTSD immediately following a life-threatening trauma. Sometimes symptoms don't appear for months or years. PTSD causes the person to re-experience the trauma over and over again. This may present as nightmares, flashbacks, or reoccurring thoughts about the trauma as well as agitation, fear, severe anxiety, guilt, loss of interest in pleasurable activities, social isolation,and insomnia. Chronic pain that is not the result of physical injury during the trauma is caused by the body being under a constant state of stress and hyper vigilance. Hyper vigilance causes a person to continually scan his or her environment for potential threats and remain on high alert at all times. Conversations that have anything to do with the trauma may be refused. People, places, or things that are associated with the trauma may also be avoided.

Psychotherapy is the most effective treatment for PTSD. There are many avenues of psychotherapy that can be used to lessen symptoms and eventually heal from the trauma that was experienced. Cognitive restructuring can help a PTSD sufferer get a realistic perspective on the traumatic event leading to a reduction in shame or guilt. Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on facing the traumatic event head-on by identifying, understanding, and changing patterns of behaviors, feelings, and thoughts to improve functioning. CBT is done in a controlled and safe manner so that the patient can confront rather than avoid the trauma. Stress management, as well as healthy coping mechanisms, are taught, so the patient has a plan in place for potential crisis and triggers. CBT can help the sufferer gain a full understanding of their trauma and add a sense of control. SSRI'S can be prescribed to relieve depressive symptoms and lift mood but should be used in conjunction with psychotherapy. Support groups can help reduce the feelings of loneliness, offer emotional support, and can be a great place to get practical advice from others who are also moving forward with their healing.

The opinions expressed in this article are of the author and not intended to diagnose, treat, or cure any physical or mental condition. If you are struggling, please contact your healthcare provider, the National Suicide Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or the Stepping Stone Community Services at 330-577-4099.

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Recognize The Moments That Trigger Impatience.

Author: Lynda Benigno

We have all heard the saying "Patience is a virtue". We live in a world of instant everything, and so we have come to expect immediate gratification. When we find ourselves in a situation that isn't going according to plan or what we want is not provided right away, we tend to feel a flood of emotions. Impatience increases adrenaline, cortisol, and blood pressure that eventually leads to heart disease. You are also more likely to make rash decisions or damage relationships. On the flip side, fostering patience can lead to improved relations, communication, decision making and less stress that affects the mind and body. Patience is a skill that we can learn and with practice becomes a way of being.

Recognize The Moments That Trigger Impatience

Certain situations may arise throughout your day that trigger impatience. Perhaps you are waiting in a long line at the grocery store while on your lunch break or with your kids. You begin to feel angry or irritated. You want to tell the cashier to hurry up, you are on a time crunch, or the kids are having a meltdown. You can't understand why it's taking so long to check out. Making a list of these moments allows you to become conscious of the scenarios in which impatience occurs, so you are better prepared to use healthy coping strategies.

Understand The Feelings That Occur When Impatience Arises

We want to feel comfortable at all times. When impatience appears, it can feel like intolerable emotional pain. When we understand that uncomfortable is different from intolerable, we can better manage our response. Recognizing the feelings that occur is a response to our lack of control over the situation and is not as big as we make it in our heads helps to lessen the impact of the inconvenience you are experiencing.

Work On The Narrative In Your Head

The thoughts you have and the way you talk to yourself has a significant impact on your response to any given situation. If you are standing in a long line, you might think " I can't stand waiting, I have so much to do" or " Why is this line so slow". Perhaps you begin to think about other times you were in a long line and how you felt at that moment. You start to compare that moment with the present moment and feel your emotions heighten. When this thought process begins to occur, slow yourself down. Take a deep breath and acknowledge the thoughts you just had. Remind yourself that you are disappointed in the situation, and it is making you uncomfortable, but that uncomfortable is tolerable. The situation is temporary and in the grand scheme of things is not that big of a deal.

Practice Active Listening

Active listening requires patience. When we actively listen to another person, they feel heard, and our responses are better thought out. When someone is speaking, we tend to prepare our response while they are still talking instead of soaking in everything being said. You can practice active listening by quieting your thoughts and solely concentrating on what you are hearing. When the other person is finished talking, take a moment to think out your response. The conversation slows down, communication improves, and both people feel understood and heard.

Look At The Big Picture

Problem-solving becomes easier and less stressful if you look at it from different angles. Impatience causes us to make quick and sometimes irrational decisions. When you take the time to slow down, explore all of your options and the different outcomes associated with each, you are more likely to make an educated and rational choice. Even if a decision needs to be made quickly, taking a moment to think of the consequences as opposed to jumping to the first thought in your mind is always a better choice.

Desired Outcome and Looking from Another Perspective

We all have the ability to help or hurt in any given situation. When you become impatient, you may lash out. You may shout at the cashier to hurry up, become pushy, demanding and display outward signs of the anger and irritation you feel inside. Doing so will surely make the situation worse and have no benefit to anyone, not even yourself. If you are stuck in traffic on your way to work; yelling at the person in the car in front of you will not speed up your arrival, and furthermore, you have taken your frustration out on someone who also has very little control over the situation. At that moment you have to decide what the desired outcome is. Do you want to arrive at work quickly or do you want to arrive safely? Would an impatient response make the situation better or worse?

Breathe And Be Gentle With Yourself

When you are patient with yourself, you make room for patience with others. When you feel impatience beginning to arise, take a deep breath in and count to ten, then breathe out slowly counting to ten. Allow yourself the room to breathe between tasks throughout the day and remember that everything does not have to be done right now or in quick succession. In a world of now, slowing down may be just what you need.

The opinions expressed in this article are of the author and not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any physical or mental condition. If you are struggling, please contact your healthcare provider, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or the Stepping Stone Community Services at 330-577-6656.

Words that can build yet also destroy.

Words that can build yet also destroy.

Author: Lynda Benigno

 Words have potency, the potential to build a child up or tear them down, motivate or destroy. Your tone is just as important as the words you use. Infants understand facial expressions and tone before language develops. By the age of two, they are responding to verbal communication. As a child begins to get older, the language used by parents and caregivers have a stronger impact on social development, cognitive skills, and emotional development. Words are just words you might say, but science tells us differently.

 All humans have the desire to be understood, accepted, seen and heard. We seek unconditional love, the room to make mistakes without condemnation, and an environment where we can be expressive. Children are no exception. If you are a parent, think back and count how many times you have told your child to think before they speak. Now ask yourself if you are holding yourself to the same standard.

 Children who grow up in homes with degrading and accusatory language, hypercritical and shaming words, frequent comparisons to other children and veiled threats grow up feeling inadequate. The child, ever mindful they are watched from a critical lens can experience a drop in self-esteem, depression, guilt, anxiety, and an inability to manage negative emotions. They may feel self-hatred, become withdrawn or combative, engage in self-harm or turn to alcohol or drugs as a coping mechanism. What we know from research is the brain of a child who grows up in a safe, responsive and supportive environment develops normally. In a hostile and unsupportive environment, grey matter of the brain undergoes literal structural changes affecting the hippo campus ( emotion regulation), the frontal cortex ( decision making) and the corpus callosum ( sensory, motor and cognitive superhighway between the brains two hemispheres).  It is indeed a form of abuse.

 As parents and caregivers, we have an obligation to self-reflect.  It is imperative we work through our past traumas and baggage, so we do not pass our wounds to future generations.

  What words will you choose for your children's tiny ears today? Choose wisely, for they will shape who they become.

 If you know a child who is being abused, please contact the Childhelp National Child Abuse Hotline at 1-800-422-4453

The opinions expressed in this article are of the author and not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any mental or physical condition. If you are struggling, please contact your healthcare provider, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or the Stepping Stone Community Services at 330-577-6656.

Say It Like You Mean It.

Ahh, communication. So many words to explain ourselves, yet so many times we feel like we aren’t being heard or understood. The result, we end up repeating ourselves, or using more words to explain or justify or actions. Still there is a misunderstanding, which often results in disagreements that lead to arguments. Most people don’t understand the 4 styles of communication (assertive, passive, aggressive and passive-aggressive), and don’t really understand the fact that they are not being direct and assertive. Many times, this has to do with how we are raised. If the adults in our home got their way by using aggressiveness, most likely they taught you that this is how to speak to others. If people in your home were passive and didn’t voice their preferences or were taught to take a “back seat” to others, they often become passive adults that get walked on. Why is it important to understand your style of communication?

·         Clear communication results in less disagreements and less time wasted

·         Assertive communication reduces the likelihood you will get taken advantage of by         others

·         Understanding your communication style allows you to learn ways to make changes and get more of what you want

·         Direct and assertive communication often raises other’s feelings of respect toward you, which can lead to promotion and pay raises

·         You don’t have to feel guilty about saying things you don’t mean or walk away with the feeling that you should have said something

The opinions expressed in this article are of the author and not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any mental or physical condition. If you are struggling, please contact your healthcare provider, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or the Stepping Stone Community Services at 330-577-6656.

#ssfravenna #ssravenna

It's Not You, It's Me.

We use the line “It’s not you, it’s me” when it’s time to end a relationship that just doesn’t seem to be going anywhere. We use this line as a way to save the feelings of the other person, but do we really believe it is “me” who needs to change? Not likely. We tend to blame the other person in the relationship without ever really taking a look at the problems we bring to the relationship (to save our own feelings!). Is it no wonder we end up repeating our mistakes in relationships? Do we tend to date the same person (different name and face) over and over again? Only to get frustrated at the time and energy spent on a person that doesn’t meet our needs. Well it is YOU! The good news is you can do something about it. What your probably didn’t know is that we try to “work out” our relationships in our early years by dating adults with the same characteristics. The problem is, they never “work out.” By taking a look at these past relationships with a professional, you can heal once and for all and attract a person that meets your needs and fulfills your idea of a healthy relationship.

The opinions expressed in this article are of the author and not intended to diagnose, treat or cure any mental or physical condition. If you are struggling, please contact your healthcare provider, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 1-800-273-8255 or the Stepping Stone Community Services at 330-577-6656.

#ssravenna #ssfravenna