Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is something that happens to many people, making it difficult for them to live life as they previously did. Folks who have PTSD often struggle with intense and frequent anxiety symptoms. If you’ve experienced something that caused you to have PTSD, you are not alone.
About 3.6% of the American adult population has experienced PTSD in the past year. Trying to live your life while you’re battling through the symptoms of PTSD can be quite difficult, but there are ways you can make things easier for yourself. In this article, we’ll discuss a few tips that can help you cope with PTSD and live a higher quality of life.
1. Take Time to Meditate
Meditation is a highly effective activity for many issues like stress and anxiety. Mindful meditation can help you relax enough to deal with your anxiety and other PTSD symptoms in a healthy way. It’s also effective in helping to reduce self-blame and avoidance, which can hamper recovery.
Intrusive thoughts can be tackled with mindful meditation as well as depressive moods and negative thoughts. Taking on these thoughts with meditation instead of ignoring them will help you cope with PTSD more effectively and efficiently.
2. Care For Your General Health
While you should be focused on your mental health to improve your life, you shouldn’t neglect your physical and emotional health while trying to heal. Life is about balance, so keep a good balance between caring for your mind and caring for your body. You should visit your doctor regularly and make sure you’re healthy.
Not visiting your doctor often enough can lead to problems down the road. About 93 million American adults are at serious risk for significant eye damage, but only half of them have visited an eye doctor in the past year. Don’t be one of those people; visit your doctors often.
3. Get Active
Speaking of health, you can’t expect to live a high-quality life if you don’t exercise often. However, being stressed out and suffering from PTSD can affect how keen you are to exercise or be active. With that said, finding a physical activity you enjoy and performing it regularly can lower your stress and help you with other symptoms you’re experiencing. Find an activity you like and do it often so you’re not inactive a lot.
4. Try Some Aromatherapy
Aromatherapy has been found to help reduce the symptoms of chronic stress and anxiety, which are associated with PTSD. Using orange essential oil can help you calm down and feel less anxious, and it can promote relaxation so you’re better equipped to deal with your symptoms. Consider getting massages at a spa that focuses on aromatherapy so you can get the most out of this way of relaxing.
5. Spend Time with Animals
Pets can be really good for people who battle PTSD as they can help them to cope with the symptoms that pop up. Adopting a pet that is trained to recognize and prevent the onset of symptoms is a really good idea for people who love animals. These trained animals can make a big difference and help you truly cope with your PTSD symptoms.
If you can’t adopt an animal, you could consider visiting shelters or spending time in places like cat cafes where you can spend time with animals.
6. Consider Tackling The Root Cause
Although these tips can help you live a better life while you work through your symptoms, it might be good to take on the cause of your PTSD, if possible. You can consider taking legal action if an incident causing your symptoms warrants it.
For example, although criminal charges can’t be filed for nursing home abuse cases in Kansas, civil lawsuits can still be filed. If you’ve suffered abuse in a nursing home, this is a route you can take. Whatever has happened to you in your life, it’s likely you’ll be able to find some way of facing the root cause of your PTSD. If not, focus more on getting better.
Although post-traumatic stress disorder can make your life difficult and uncomfortable, there are many ways to cope and adjust so you can live as normally as possible. The tips shared here will give you a good starting point and you’ll be able to hone your coping skills and live a life that you can be happy with. Good luck!
