National Roller Coaster Day brought to mind a few facts about the engineering wonders that attract so many and post traumatic stress. Have you gotten into the seat of one of these engineering wonders with jitters, apprehension or doubt about the journey about to be embarked? I know I have!
Post traumatic stress has many ups and downs that leave individuals feeling nauseas and ready to get off long before they can slow things down to a cognitively “safe” exit. Such an episode can feel like high impact engagement of emotional upheaval.
In business and life we can encounter many ups and downs. As a coach, I ask clients how much of a specific problem could have been avoided or minimized with a plan and preparation to achieve particular results? Forethought and insight of what is a probable, or inevitable, outcome gives ample opportunity to plan, prepare, and favorably respond.
When the twist and turns become more than one bargained for on an amusement ride, we all know it is too late to get off, that you have to remain seated to the finish. Several things can happen and you can come to realize this is not for you. The thrill of the ride is a “one and done” experience, or it can be a lesson learned that you will think and do differently as result of the experience.
Clients fear diagnosis yet often wonder if they live with potential Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It is common, and unfortunately, it is what often prevents a person from seeking help. That is where being a highly credentialed chaplain behooves the mass. With assurance of confidentiality and full disclosure that there is help and hope, without concern of employment or clinical record that many fear has negative ramifications, people become clients because the really do want off the “roller coaster” of post trauma stress.
My clients accept that what “we” do together are “results” driven and requires that the greatest work will be on their part. I facilitate methods and techniques that work to “retrain the brain” and to gain control over what can be “reset” in the brain’s function. To process information and psychological triggers that once “over ride” allows a mind to be transformed by renewing of thoughts, feelings, and actions lead to different results. There is no hypnotic modality, new age meditative repetitive behavior, or guided conversation.
Clients learn to recognize the triggers and manage stress, rather than remain locked into a pattern of uncontrollable ups and downs with exhausting and frightening reactions of post traumatic stress. Clients learn what happened to the brain during trauma, why that effects “now” and “how” to reset a “new normal” so that they regain control over what they are able.
Education is key to intervention and prevention. Studies indicate that 7-8% of the population is effected by some level of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The concern of diagnosis that goes on a medical or professional record hinders far too many people from doing with they actually can. If they only knew how to press ahead without fear of stigma, shame, embarrassment or any other concern of being labeled with PTSD. The body is capable of healing and forgiving more freely than policy, procedure and business operations. Nonetheless building people leads to well built profitable business.
Simply put, like getting into a roller coaster for the first time, no one knows what they do not know. People can presuppose and evaluate what the experience “might” be like, however, limited understanding and ignorance conclude erroneously. Truth be known, riding a roller coaster is very much like life with post traumatic stress. Assumptions lead to poor analysis. Education trains the brain, and ignorance leaves people “traumatized” without a clue of how to overcome the impact and the lingering effects a single event. The bottom line, is that fear, neglect, and ignorance change the trajectory of a possible improved mental wellness.
Like a roller coaster, we must recognize the engineering that has gone into the main operation system or brain that guides thoughts, triggers feelings, and manifests to results that impact or improve performance.
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