Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and symptoms                 Entry for March 12, 2007       The Sunday (March 11th) edition of the New Haven Register ran several stories alerting us to a condition some       of our returning veterans may have developed from their time in the service.        These men and women were trained well by the military before they arrived at the various "war zones", but living through these events was something else - having your vehicle bombed, snipers shooting at you, and using women and children as human shields ?! How you do or don't cope with that is where problems can develop. Yes, it's part of war and with support and understanding, you get through it and carry on, but what if it keeps playing out over and over in your memory? Or if the fear of it happening again immobilizes you so much that you can't move forward with your own life?       While you're in the service, you manage okay, and think when you leave it's all behind you. But what if it follows you and haunts your dreams at night and makes you irritable during the day? If you soon find yourself tense or getting depressed, developing physical ailments or drug or drinking problems, then the bad news is : the traumatic events you lived through have brought about post traumatic stress disorder. The good news is : it can be worked through and alleviated - especially with hypnosis.       NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), offers many techniques to undo the damage. You can stop the constant replaying of memories, you can separate the emotions from the pictures -(the memory brings up the emotion, then we react as if it's happening all over again and to the subconscious it is. It thinks this has happened to you hundreds of times - you're stuck in a "perpetual loop"). Your nervous system now gets a little out of whack and so all types of maladaptive behavior appear.       Short term effects are: *tension  *disturbed sleep  *intrusive thoughts about the incident  *irritability *depression  *psychosomatic / physical complaints  *poor concentration  *nightmares  *poor performance in easy tasks  *memory loss  *paranoia  *feelings of hopelessness  and even *vision problems.       If left untreated, these long term problems might result in : *post traumatic stress disorder   *chronic depression   *chronic inability to concentrate   *emotional liability   *alcohol and drug abuse   and   *increased aggression.       It is very important to note here that you don't have to have experienced the war first hand to be going through these. There are many situations in our everyday lives that can bring on these problems : *divorce  *death of a loved one (spouse, parent, child)  *money problems  *moving  *retirement  *bad neighbors  or even *being fired. The list goes on and on.       These are broken down into: mild, moderate and major life crisis levels. Each one alone can be managed, but if you have several of them happening at once, it can throw you into a major crisis.       The first thing you can do is stop reacting and take a break from it all. Take stock of what you've just been through. Write down the events - then look at your list. Know that many other people have gone through this before you. Do some reading about the subject - online or in the library; join a self-help group - they're everywhere, including churches; and seek a mental health care professional - including hypnotists - (we do more than just smoking and weight loss programs, there's bed-wetting, insomnia, nail-biting, compulsive shopping, sexual problems, etc. You get the point).       But please, don't be embarrassed and keep it to yourself, thinking it will go away on it's own or over time. It may actually make the problem worse or add new problems, depending on what coping skills you use. Reach out. There is help available to you.       Remember this : We live in a very balanced universe. For every up, there is a down. For every night, there is a day. And for every problem there is a solution. Just pick the one that work best for you -( and all concerned).