Map Your Healing Journey

Buckle up. The list of what pisses me off about PTSD Treatment is LONG.

Just in case you’re new here: Welcome. I am a survivor of childhood sexual abuse by my father, along with emotional neglect and varied abuses at the hands of both parents. My parents also had alcohol use disorder and/or problem drinking. Growing up with them was traumatic.

I was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, depression, and anxiety in 2006. I was 31 years old, married for 11 years and mothering two young children.

Which brings me to my first beef with the treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

My First Beef With PTSD Treatment

There is no official treatment protocol or space for those of us with PTSD who are not under the care of the VA.

I don’t have any beef with active or retired military getting PTSD treatment – I am, in fact, an Army brat. However, people don’t know about PTSD outside of the context of the military. EVEN THOSE OF US WHO HAVE IT.

For instance, I was really open about my PTSD. I would talk about it whenever I wanted, and people would respond, “Oh, what branch of the military did you serve with?”

“I didn’t,” I would say. “I’m a survivor of childhood sexual abuse.”

And there would be The Flinch. As I wrote in that linked article:

The Flinch. Right behind her eyes. Not because she was a terrible person or anything, but because she didn’t expect me to say anything like that. She thought that the only people with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder were those in the military – and those people are most likely male. That is the most common information people have about this disorder.
Erasing The Flinch, Sweatpants & Coffee

Once I started saying it, I couldn’t stop. I refused to stop. I had lived with secrets my entire life, I would not do it anymore.

Trauma Survivors Know Next to Nothing About PTSD

At no fault of their own.

I know I didn’t. And I come from privilege, in that I’m a white, cis-het woman with a college degree and I’ve had health insurance most of my life.

I meet with individuals every day who know they want to change the ways in which they respond to life, but don’t know how. They have extensive trauma, most from childhood.

We work together for a little bit, and I ask, “Do you know if you have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder?”

There’s a thoughtful pause. Answers include, “I think so” or “Someone told me that I might” or “I might have heard that from the therapist/doctor/friend/pastor.”

My next question is, “How do you experience PTSD triggers?”

Another pause. “I don’t know. What are those like?”

Some – I would say, MOST – trauma survivors have lived with PTSD for YEARS without information, direction, or help. I believed for years that PTSD was a mental illness. It’s not. PTSD is a psychological trauma that can be physiologically healed. I FOUND OUT THE TRUTH BY ACCIDENT.

(Side note: Curious if your trauma symptoms are related to PTSD? Take this FREE PTSD Quiz to find out!)

OH THAT PISSES ME RIGHT OFF, see the example below ~

PTSD Treatment? If You Can Find It

I compare PTSD treatment for the average person to that same person breaking a leg.

This person breaks a leg. Goes to the ER or their doctor, where they receive an examination.

Time for an x-ray! Results are evaluated. Treatment is prescribed, including an immediate cast. Instructions are given for taking care of the injury at home. Follow-up appointments are made, and further physical therapy is arranged if needed. Treatment is given for days, weeks, sometimes months.

Okay, so now this same individual is diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

That’s it. That’s the story.

What about treatment, you ask? <shrug> The message is, “They’ll figure it out.”

Are there books and videos and meds and options? Sure. But the trauma survivor has to find everything, do everything, try and make appointments while living with a debilitating condition – with or without insurance – with providers who are stretched thin and doing their best without a protocol to start with.

That Is IT! I’m Providing PTSD Basics

As a trauma recovery coach and PTSD survivor, it didn’t take long for me to realize that many individuals have similar experiences with PTSD diagnoses and treatment.

(Oh that pisses me right off)

So I’m making one. I’ve created a PTSD educational protocol.

What’s in it? The basics.

Stuff that I’ve learned over years and years, thanks to a combination of mental health professionals, reading, research, experience, and plain old accident.

I called it – hold on to your hat – PTSD Basics – and you can find out more here.