Will Hypnosis Help Treat PTSD? (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)
Do you find that certain odours provoke nausea or distress? Do certain sounds remind you of incidents you would rather forget? Do you find yourself in situations when your reactions are disproportionate to what is happening at the time? Have you been involved in any traumatic event from which you know you haven’t fully recovered?
Most commonly associated with ex armed forces personnel who have completed tours of duty in war torn countries such as Iraq, Bosnia, Afghanistan etc yet can happen to anyone who has experienced a traumatic event such as a car crash, a violent assault a sudden and unexpected bereavement in which they may suddenly have flashbacks which causes them extreme distress.
The brain is an amazing, complex organ that operates a myriad of functions simultaneously, but one of its main priorities is to alert us to danger and keep us safe. When an extremely traumatic event happens the brain strongly associates this with danger because of the unpleasant bodily sensations we feel at the time, the elevated heart rate, the stomach churning, clammy palms, throat going dry, the overwhelming desire to get away from that situation at any cost.
To keep us safe the brain sifts through all the millions of pieces of information it receives through our senses, what we smell, what we hear, what we touch and what we feel and taste and records what we were experiencing at the time the traumatic event occurred.
So, in the future, hearing a certain sound, smelling a particular odour, seeing a particular car, will the evoke that heightened fear response as the brain has pattern matched with what occurred previously and associates it with danger. An example would be if you were attacked and the attacker wore a particular aftershave in the future any smell of that aftershave could bring on similar feelings of fear and distress, or if a particular song was playing in the background at the time, again that song could in the future be associated very strongly in your brain with that feeling of fear and helplessness and yet to anyone else your response could seem at best out of proportion to what’s occurring at the time or worse still completely irrational.
The good news is that if you live in Stockport or the surrounding area Panacea Hypnotherapy can help you. Through a course of sessions the strong association with the event is reduced, of course you will be unlikely to forget an extremely distressing event, but you will be able to reduce the overwhelming emotional responses you have to any triggers from that event and get back to living life normally once more.