Being a self-empowered survivor means taking responsibility for your posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) recovery plan. Healing will not progress simply because you think it should. It will not move forward just because you want to reach the end (don't we all wish that it would?!). It will not occur just because you present yourself in a professional’s office. Unfortunately, posttraumatic stress disorder recovery only happens when you actually engage in a PTSD recovery program.

Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) support can be hard to come by. Many people -- especially those who haven't experienced trauma -- find it hard to relate to survivors and even harder to be supportive. While PTSD symptoms can make you feel like a freak (and look like one to those unwilling to learn how trauma changes your brain and creates PTSD symptoms) the truth is, there absolutely are people who understand and are even willing to support your PTSD coping and healing strategies.

How to treat PTSD by yourself is a tough process to discover. In fact, as someone who struggled with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) for over 25 years, I can tell you from personal experience that you won't discover how to treat PTSD by yourself and reach 100% success. You will need the insight and training of professionals who have deep knowledge in processes that can ease the pain, soothe the memories, and release the fear. That having been said, there are many things you can do on your own to supplement the work you do with a professional, or to tide you over until you find the support you need.

I wasn't actually diagnosed with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) when I started therapy. So years into my first therapeutic relationship I realized we were going nowhere -- fast. I'd gotten into therapy to learn how to live as a chronic patient, but what we were doing was talking and talking and talking about my trauma and the enormous fears I carried. I was mentally and physically deteriorating at a frightening speed. I needed to know how to find a good PTSD therapist.

For anyone who experiences dissociation as part of the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), (and this includes me during my PTSD years) you know how frustrating, embarrassing and uncontrollable it can be. Reducing dissociation in PTSD is something we all want.

Recently, I’ve spoken to two survivors who are just discovering (after years of invested time and work) that their therapists are not equipped to work with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD).  This breaks my heart to hear. You’re struggling enough to cope through the day without being stuck in a treatment approach that can’t help you reach your recovery goals as quickly as possible. But the two stories I recently heard don’t surprise me. In fact, it was my story too.

Healing is all about being able to shift out of survival mode, complete the trauma response, consolidate memories and move into a life focused on things other than threat and danger, safety and control. If you’re in a situation in which trauma maintains a high level of threat, either ongoing or sporadically (i.e., an abusive relationship, a war zone), it’s going to be very tough to heal posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In that case, it can be beneficial to switch to a different strategy: Bulking up your trauma coping skills.

After trauma, there's a need for life to feel safe and in control. Sometimes, we put in place really good and healthy habits that help the transition from trauma to life afterward. Other times, it's easy to slip into habits, cycles and patterns that are very destructive. For example, co-dependence. When you put this type of behavior together with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) you can increase the time it takes to heal tenfold.

Back when I was struggling with symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) I was also struggling with mercury poisoning, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, Celiac Disease and suspected liver cancer. Sounds crazy, right? How your body expresses the level of psychological stress in your mind is a very real and very treatable situation.

A few weeks ago I wrote about how to stop PTSD anxiety, flashbacks and panic from the perspective of putting mindfulness and intention into action. My colleague, Megan Ross (Trauma Therapy Coordinator at Timberline Knolls) and I had a whole conversation about this and I wanted to share her insights with you. But there was a cliffhanger: Once you understand PTSD symptoms and how mindfulness can help change your physiological experience, the question arises, "What do I do now?" Specifically, what can you do to interrupt or stop flashbacks? Megan Ross and I talked about this too. See what you think about the tips that we covered.