hey everybody happy Thursday I hope your
week is off to a wonderful start /
almost in because I know for many of you
this is already Friday it's fine I live
Friday but I have a surprise video
coming out for you tomorrow so hope
you're subscribed to me have your
notifications turned on because that's
the thing
but let's just jump right into today's
question because it's a good one today
we're talking about PTSD so the question
is hey Kati how does one deal with PTSD
and anxiety / fear when the trigger is
realistically dangerous in the example
to give their cars are terrifying me
because of a traumatic accident that I
was in but cars are in fact dangerous
and I don't know how to rationalize that
a way to make them safe in my head again
so I want to start off by talking about
the kind of the why behind why we get
treatment in the first place I had
someone ask in the comments of my video
on Monday like why do we want to work on
this and why should we and they wanted
me to kind of talk more about the why
and the truth behind the why is that if
something is bothering us this is a
perfect example of having something
happen and now the symptoms or the
aftermath or the side effects of what
happened to us are impairing our ability
to function that's the why that's why we
get help if we aren't upset with how
things are going
or having issues in our life like we're
struggling to get to or from work or
school or focus or do more work or
school interact with friends and family
our romantic relationships are suffering
whatever it may be if we don't have a
side effect of something that we
wouldn't be seeking help in the first
place and so I just want to talk about
and start talking more about the why and
that is it and you notice if I talk
about DSM diagnosis there's always like
a bullet point in there where they say
is it impairing your ability to function
so they talk about work life school
social bla bla bla they go through all
this this whole list and that's the why
okay and then the second question and
I'm going to kind of answer all of the
questions at once because they all tied
together the second question is person
asked are what are your options when
your PTSD causes you to be dysfunctional
in today's society for example cars or
triggering I need a car to get to work
so this is kind of going back to also
like how does one deal with the PTSD and
anxiety / fear around triggering things
that we have to interact with and the
truth of this is treatment and I know
that this sucks I know it's not the
answer that you want I know that we're
hoping that there can be like a you know
one two three types of tips and tricks
and I do have more videos about PTSD if
you want more click over here but for
today's question the truth of it is that
we need to get into some sort of either
CBT therapy exposure therapy is great I
have a video about that you click over
here and watch that um where you kind of
imagine yourself getting in a car how
would that feel then you use maybe your
breathing techniques or any other kind
of anxiety reducing techniques that you
have to help bring you back down and
then maybe you drive around the block
and come home and then try to calm
yourself down you slowly you know go
through the stages of getting into the
thing that's most triggering knowing
that you have these tools to calm
yourself down and then before you know
it you'll have all of this backlog of
situations where getting in a car
driving to work and going to visit
friends is quote unquote safe and you're
okay and that's when we can overcome it
so exposure therapy is a great one so
Web CBT the exposure therapy and the
other is just any therapist who
specializes in trauma work a lot of the
trauma work that many people find really
helpful is just talking through the
trauma in a lot of detail and having the
therapists check in with them and
teaching them relaxation techniques it's
kind of like exposure but in a different
way and so those are some of the options
and ways to answer the question like how
do you deal with it in all honesty
that's how we deal with it and there's
also the other option don't forget about
medication if these other things seem so
impossible and we're not able to
participate in any type of therapy or
relaxation technique or anything like
that medication might be the thing that
we need to kind of bring us enough above
water that we can you know participate
in therapy and that's what medication is
for is to help us better participate in
therapy at least that's my belief is
that it helps us feel better do better
so that we can actually practice what
we're learning in therapy because it's
really hard work and as always leave
your experiences in the comments share
any tips and tricks
things that your therapist may have
taught you that really helped you
overcome this because we're in it
together and that's a great thing about
our community is the more that we share
with each other we share our experiences
the more we all learn because your
experience I believe is just as
important as my expertise and together
oh it's the best outcome so I hope you
found this helpful if you liked it give
it a thumbs up if you like more PTSD
topics I can definitely talk more about
it and don't forget to subscribe if
you're new and I will see you all
tomorrow I have a surprise video all not
really a surprise but I have a really
cool video so I'll see you then bye