How to Cope With Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

The best way to cope with post-traumatic stress disorder varies from case to case, depending on the cause of the condition and its relative severity. While your psychotherapist is the best source of information on how to cope with your specific case of post-traumatic stress disorder, mental health professionals agree on a general set of guidelines that can help improve your qualify of life while you recover.

Instructions

Difficulty: Challenging

Things You’ll Need:

• Support group (strongly recommended)
• Psychotherapist

Use Coping Strategies to Manage Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

1. Get therapy. This is more or less non-negotiable if you want to work through and heal from the scars caused by your trauma. Cognitive therapy, cognitive-behavior therapy and exposure therapy are the three most common therapeutic techniques used to treat post-traumatic stress disorder.
2. Resolve to fight and overcome your symptoms. You'll only fully heal if the desire to do so is truly there. Help yourself by resisting social isolation and making an effort to break any routines that exacerbate your symptoms.
3. Avoid self-medicating. One of the most common complications of post-traumatic stress disorder is that sufferers turn to drugs and alcohol to escape. This will only cause you more harm in the long run.
4. Have someone around to talk to. You don't have to talk about the stressful event itself. Just be aware that many post-traumatic stress disorder sufferers frequently isolate themselves socially to their overall detriment.
5. Cope with post-traumatic stress disorder with the help of a support group of people who are similarly afflicted. Benefit from the experience of others who have bested the demons of post-traumatic stress disorder and find strength in numbers.
6. Rest, eat well and stay active. Maintain a healthy lifestyle. It will give you the physical strength you need to defeat the disorder.
7. Keep your mind active. Not only will this help stave off the mental sluggishness that characterizes post-traumatic stress disorder, but it will also help keep you from reliving the traumatic events by forcing you to focus on something else. Take up a hobby that requires thought, skill, focus and practice.
8. Follow any additional advice from your therapist, as he may have knowledge of other specific coping mechanisms that might help your specific case.

Tips & Warnings

• The actual symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder may not become apparent for a long time after the traumatic event--sometimes months or years. If you are involved in a particularly violent, traumatic or harrowing event, you should speak to a therapist regardless of whether or not you are exhibiting symptoms of a mental disorder.