PTSD Recovery: What Are You Good At?

I'll be honest with you: From the surface there wasn't much I was good at in PTSD recovery - unless you count avoidance. I was really, really good at that! And hypervigilance. And re-experiencing. Basically, you know, I was really good at PTSD symptoms. Recovery.... not so much!

So when I ask you what you're good at I know that's a sort of loaded question. Struggling with symptoms of posttraumatic stress can make you feel like you're just not good at anything, unless it's being depressed, hopeless and just generally feeling useless.

Getting A Grip On Your Gifts

Think back over your life and remember a time you felt really good about something you did. That can be as simple as learning to tie your shoe, or as complex as writing a symphony. When you identify a moment, pause and examine it. What traits, qualities and characteristics did you possess in that moment? That feeling of being competent can go a long way in supporting your recovery process.

One trick to strengthening your healing process is recognizing what you're good at. For example, I'm really good at writing to examine what I'm thinking, experiencing and feeling. Knowing that, I used writing a lot in my recovery! I journaled every day. I wrote an enormous number of poems. I penned plays and then shared them with the theater community in which I worked. I wrote and wrote and wrote because it was one way to be in a comfort zone and do something uncomfortable. Eventually, I even wrote my PTSD recovery memoir.

Today, take a look at where your strengths lie, and then figure out how to apply them to your recovery process. Are you good at speaking? Do you enjoy painting? Do you love to dance? Is riding on a Harley your thing? Do you just whiz through organizational tasks? Since the work of recovery can push you off your center it can help enormously to do at least some of the work in an arena in which you feel strong, grounded and in familiar territory. How can you take what you're good at and use it in your healing process?

Once you've got an area identified, examine who can help, support or share that area with you. Healing from PTSD can be very lonely and isolating. One way to ease the burden is to share it either with those who have PTSD or those you are simply compassionate. I used to show some of the poems to my therapist and we used them as a jumping off point for conversations. Other poems I submitted to be published and just felt good that I could translate my interior world into something someone else would read and hopefully find solace in.

There is so much to who you are, way beyond the weaknesses that you feel in PTSD. Connect with your strengths and find a way to incorporate them into your recovery process for added creativity, flexibility and support.

Michele is the author of Your Life After Trauma: Powerful Practices to Reclaim Your Identity. Connect with her on Google+, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and her website, HealMyPTSD.com.