Many people believe that PTSD is not real. That it is hyped up. Other people believe that it is real, but can be (and should be) controlled and if you don’t, then you are either weak or looking for attention.
 
When we believe these statements, it makes us feel worse. It makes us feel more isolated and more crazy. It makes us feel less human. When we feel this way, so many areas of our lives are impacted. We start to notice changes in many other areas of our lives.
 
The problem with this is PTSD and the stigma attached to it negatively play on each other. They come together and make the monster even bigger. They feed on each other making the situation worse.
 
Perhaps you noticed withdrawing more because being around crowds was making you anxious. However, the more you avoided going out, the lonelier you felt. The lonelier you felt the more irritable you became. The more irritable you became the less you wanted to hang out with people.
 
At the time you may not have noticed it until it became a much bigger issue. At the time you may have felt justified in not hanging out. Or you might have felt frustrated that nobody understood you.
Unfortunately, when we (or others) believe that we should be strong and be able to pull out of PTSD symptoms without trouble, it just isolates us more.
 
Eventually you find yourself feeling completely alone and unsure of yourself. You start to question whether you are strong. Whether these symptoms are just “in my head.” You start to question whether you are fit for the job you are doing (whether career, or family, or otherwise). You start to wonder if you are normal.
 
The truth is you are not crazy. Everything you are going through has a reason. It is completely normal to have emotional AND behavioral changes with PTSD. You are not alone and you are ok.
 
Although you are feeling unsure and questioning everything right now, I promise that you will not only understand PTSD better, but gain confidence that you can regain your old self again. When you learn just a few realities of what happens physiologically in the brain when you develop PTSD, you will start to see that your emotions and behaviors are actually NORMAL and you CAN change them. You are not doomed to a life of isolation and fear.
 
Keep reading to learn 4 big changes that the brain goes through when it develops PTSD
 
GUILT, SHAME, ARGUING, JUMPING AT EVERYTHING, SECOND GUESSING YOURSELF, ANXIETY
 
The biggest problem we have as a society is jumping to conclusions and not learning/educating ourselves. Sometimes this is out of fear – we don’t always want to know the truth, sometimes it is out of sheer ignorance – we just don’t know what we don’t know, and there are a variety of other reasons we jump to conclusions before hearing the truth.
 
Then, if we believed something for so long, changing that belief is incredibly hard. How long did it take before the world believed that the world was round? This concept took a very long time before it became fact and “normal.”
Living in ignorance can be a comfortable place because it is known. Whatever we hear first (and enough) we tend to believe. So changing that belief to the opposite is incredibly difficult and it takes time. It is important not to give up on yourself or on humanity’s ability to learn and grow.
 
UNDERSTANDING, ACCEPTANCE, GROWTH, SENSE OF PEACE, HOPE, STRENGTH
 
Although you struggle with all of the emotional and behavioral symptoms of PTSD, you have the potential to get your life back.
Your brain is very adaptable and you have the ability to live life according to your terms.
 
When we choose to educate ourselves about the four biggest changes that happen to the brain with PTSD, we are choosing to take action. To learn and to grow. We are ready to take the bull by the horns and take back our lives. This is because when understand something, it is much easier to take action on it. Unknowns are scary.
 
Learning what these changes in the brain are is only the first step, however. Then it is on you to do something about it. It is on you to take this knowledge and run with it. To gain power over it. To grow from it and get your brain to rewire itself – again.
 
HERE ARE THE 4 BIGGEST CHANGES THE BRAIN GOES THROUGH WHEN IT DEVELOPS PTSD
 
Yes it’s true you are frustrated and worried about PTSD and it’s effects on you and your life. But with education comes the ability to make change. Once we learn about something, we understand it better and can really take action. It is hard to take action when we don’t truly understand something.
 
Take a look at these 4 biggest changes to the brain when PTSD develops.
 
1. Cingulate Gyrus: The Cingulate Gyrus is responsible for processing emotion and regulating behavior. When someone develops PTSD, their Cingulate Gyrus is overactive. This causes an increase in feelings of guilt and worry. It causes one to second guess themselves, become more argumentative or oppositional, and become more prone to holding grudges.
 
Have you noticed any of these changes in yourself? Have you wondered why you are holding grudges when you never had before? Do you berate yourself because you never second guessed yourself before?
 
When the Cingulate Gyrus is overactive, it is unable to effectively help you process emotion or regulate behavior. Thus your emotions and behaviors are more uncontrolled.
 
2. Cerebellum: The Cerebellum is responsible for movement and balance. When someone develops PTSD, the Cerebellum is also overactive. This is where your increased startle response comes from. When the brain detects something potentially dangerous, the Cerebellum activates the muscle movement or jumpiness that happens.
 
When the Cerebellum is overactive, we do not have control over the physiological response that happens from our startle response. We need to help the Cerebellum settle down so it is not overactive causing an increased amount of motor movement.
 
3. Basal Ganglia: The Basal Ganglia are a bunch of neurons responsible for processing movement related information. For example when you need to lift your foot to go up a stair, the brain takes in that there is a step there. The basal ganglia talk to the leg muscles telling it to move in a certain way allowing you to go up the stair. They also process information related to emotions, motivations, and cognitive functions. When the basal ganglia is over reactive, we experience more panic and anxiety symptoms.
 
4. Amygdala: The amygdala is associated with our automatic responses. The amygdala is a storage facility for our experiences and an alarm system. When we experience something bad (for example putting a hand on a hot stove), the amygdala takes in this experience as bad. Next time we see a hot stove, we remember it, and don’t touch it. When something very bad happens, our amygdala knows this as potentially life threatening and prepares us for survival by setting off the alarm through sending cortisol (or adrenalin) into the body, giving us the energy we need to fight or run.
 
When we have PTSD, the amygdala is basically a broken alarm system. You turn it off by telling yourself you are safe, but low and behold it goes off again…and again…even when we are not in danger.
 
All four of these structures are located in the Limbic System of the brain and work together. When there is a potentially threatening situation, all four systems work together to do the best it can to keep the body alive. It is a very complicated and intricate process. It is actually a very cool process when you think of it from a purely scientific point of view. However, it is not that cool when you have PTSD and all these systems are overactive in you.
 
When someone has PTSD, you can actually see these systems in hyperdrive on a SPECT scan. You can actually see the changes in the brain as activity “lights up” on a SPECT scan. You can actually see all of the overactive parts of the brain in someone with PTSD versus someone without PTSD.
 
Education is only the first part of your journey through healing from PTSD. Knowledge is power. With this power comes the ability to change. When we can actually see something, it makes it more real to us. When we are able to see proof that there is a reality to what is happening, it makes us feel less crazy and more normal.
 
Achieving resolution from PTSD will take time. The brain is set to survival. It does not want to let the guard down because it is concerned for your survival. If the guard is down, you are less likely to see danger coming and be able to respond quickly to it.
 
The crazy part about this is we actually respond better to non-dangerous situations when we are calm and not in fight/flight. The experiences that our amygdala stores include experiences we’ve been through personally, things we’ve seen in movies, on TV, in the news, from friends, from co-workers. All of these are still “experiences” and the amygdala stores them.
 
When the alarm is broken, it doesn’t realize that you are not truly in danger. When we’re not truly in danger but the alarm goes off, we respond as if we are anyway. We do not have control over the automatic responses.
 
However, with time and therapy, we are actually able to re-wire our brain so that we no longer respond as if we’re in danger when we are not. The brain is very adaptable and can heal so that you keep what you need from experiences, but get rid of the baggage that PTSD brings with it.
 
Achieving this re-wiring can be a long, but very rewarding journey. You absolutely can get your life, happiness, peace, and sense of control, back while accepting and growing from your experiences.
 
Meg Young, LCSW specializes in re-wiring the brain, helping it re-adapt to a more effective level of functioning allowing you to live the life you desire and dream of. It is time to take back control of your automatic responses, take control of your brain, and fix the alarm so that you can live the productive and happy life you so crave.
 
The first call is the hardest part of this process. After that, you and I will work together to help you find the strength to grow and move through this to a place of safety and peace. Call me today to schedule that first appointment. Choose strength today and make that call. 941-462-4807.

Being a probation or parole officer is a thankless job. The clients you work with are not the most upstanding citizens in the country and often it feels like you are chasing your tail trying to keep up with all of them. Add to that the stress of the paperwork and management within your company, and it can lead to burnout, frustration, and displeasure very quickly.
 
When we have a job that includes a cohesive unit, burnout is still a real possibility. The job takes a huge toll on us. However, when our unit is not cohesive, it compounds the stress of the job, affecting our lives in numerous ways. We start to dislike going to work, we start to feel more apathetic about our job, we start to be more irritable with our clients. We start to bring the work home and our families start to feel the stress. We start to notice it in our bodies with increased ailments, more sick days (even when we really aren’t sick; just need a day away).
 
The problems with burnout include what happens to us physically and in our relationships, but it also causes a great deal of emotional stress. We start to feel more jaded about our job. We become more sarcastic or insensitive. We feel all of this in our body as well as our body holds a great deal of stress. We are more tired, have less energy, appetite changes, more body aches, more stomach aches and headaches.
 
Not only does living this way affect us, but it affects our loved ones. Just like you are harboring the stress of your job, your loved ones are harboring your stress. You might see changes in your kid’s behavior. You might hear your spouse tell you things have changed. Your spouse might even be more irritable with you.
 
A recently closed client of mine, “Peter,” came to me because his wife said if he doesn’t seek help, she will take the kids and leave. At the time he felt very misunderstood. “Doesn’t she understand what I am going through? Doesn’t she get that my job is miserable but I stay because we need the income?” Unfortunately, all this did for him was make the rift between them worse. As he was not hearing her and looking at how the stress was impacting their relationship and their kids, she was feeling more and more distant from him.
 
Eventually, Peter decided to come to therapy. Although at the time he started with me he did not think there was anything wrong with him, he still came weekly. He felt awkward and unsure coming into a therapist’s office. After a few visits, we transitioned to online counseling (read more about online therapy in this blog). Which helped him feel more comfortable and in control thus we were able to do some very good work together.
 
The truth is, it is completely normal for probation and parole officers to feel stressed about their job. Many struggle with admitting there is a problem until it is too late. Many have their families tell them seek help or else. Even if you haven’t gotten to this place yet, you are reading this blog because you think “maybe” there is something going on that you need some help with.
 
Peter denied there was a problem for a long time. Even when he first started coming to me he blamed it all on work and didn’t look at his own behaviors, words, and emotional states. At this point you may not be sure if you need therapy either. You may not be sure that there truly is a problem. However, when we see others overcome something similar, it can inspire us to make the changes we need to achieve satisfaction, peace, and joy in life and in your career. When we take similar steps, it is entirely possible to bring back the feelings of satisfaction and pride in the work you do.
 
Keep reading to see how one parole officer increased his pleasure in his life and career today.
 
PETER WAS FEELING OUT OF SYNC, UNCOMFORTABLE AND STRESSED OUT
 
Before scheduling his first session, Peter’s life was completely out of sync. He was feeling misunderstood and unsupported. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with his behaviors; after all, they were justified as he was so stressed out. Wouldn’t anyone feel and act like him in this situation?
 
He often found himself feeling irritable – at himself, at his co-workers, at his boss, just thinking of going to work, and more often getting irritable at his wife and even his children. He continued to put the blame elsewhere, which is something many of us do. It is very hard to see that whereas xyz is going on, we don’t have to act in a way that pushes others away. Often we don’t even see ourselves pushing others away. Once it starts, we often feel defensive as it is the issue of work, not issue of my behavior.
 
Living with this irritability impacted Peter’s ability to enjoy his time away from work with his family. He was more and more disgruntled and thus struggled to let it go more and more. The worse it got, the less he enjoyed his “free time.” The less he enjoyed his free time, the more his wife saw his attitude change. This started a very difficult hole for Peter to get out of.
 
Peter said that his wife had always been very supportive of him. So when she started complaining about his attitude and behavior shift, he felt very hurt. His relationship was no longer the solid foundation that helped him through his stress. He believed he couldn’t go to her anymore for support.
 
As he decided he couldn’t get support from her, his other relationships started to deteriorate. He stopped hanging out with his friends – who wants to hang around with someone who complains anyway? He didn’t enjoy his time with them anymore anyway.
 
As noted above, right before he scheduled a session, Peter’s wife gave him an ultimatum…either get help, or she is leaving with the kids. Peter felt so betrayed by this. First his job was super stressful, then his supportive wife was becoming less supportive of him, then he stopped enjoying things and people so much – his life was spiraling down – and now his wife is threatening to leave?
 
After stewing on his anger for a short while, Peter made the call. His life was in shambles, and all because of a job and a situation he has no control over. But he knew that this was the only way to make his wife stay.
 
When Peter arrived to the first session, he expressed his annoyance over the whole situation and how unfair it felt to him. While we completed the assessment, getting to know his needs and what brought him to me, we explored a timeline of what happened including things he had control over and things he didn’t have control over.
 
By the time he left that session, he still did not feel convinced that therapy would help him, but was open to coming back for a second session. He was intrigued enough with what he heard and learned in that session that curiosity opened him up for another session.
 
As we continued therapy, Peter knew he needed help with letting stress go on a very regular basis as it built up in him so quickly every day. We created a treatment plan to address stress management techniques. We did a lot of educational work to help Peter understand the stress response in the body and normalize his feelings and even his behaviors.
 
By the time Peter left that session he felt eager to come back again. What he was going through was normal and could even be expected if stress isn’t handled effectively regularly. He was not alone in this and was not crazy. He had a plan to get his family and even his life back, even if he didn’t have control over everything in his life.
 
PETER IS REJUVINATED, MOTIVATED, AND HAS A NEW LEASE ON LIFE
 
When Peter and I sat down to work together, we would spend a few minutes going over any questions or concerns that came up between sessions. I always gave him time during the session to vent his frustrations as he needed an outlet for it.
 
We identified several techniques that will help with stress management, the barriers to using them, and the ways to overcome those barriers. We did a lot of education on stress and stress management because like most people, Peter did not understand the role of the stress response and how to turn it off.
 
Peter attended weekly and started to feel more and more human. He started to get excited to come to therapy and teach his wife the skills he was learning. He found that by including her in his practice by telling her what he learned as well as why and how the skills work, it kept him more accountable to doing the skills on a very regular basis.
 
Peter said he knew things were getting better because his wife was talking to him more and not complaining as much. He didn’t yet see a difference in his behaviors, but often others see things in us before we do. Furthermore, the skills he was using were shown to be effective in calming the stress response, which means his reactions will be different as he will not be as stressed out.
 
When I practice with clients like Peter, I like to use a mix of modalities. EMDR (eye movement desensitization and reprocessing) is an amazing technique to help reprocess old memories so they do not affect you today. However, some people have to be convinced of this because it is seems a little silly. It works amazingly and even Peter was astounded at the effects!
 
I also like to use a lot of education with people like Peter as there is a lot of misunderstanding and mis-expectations on both the stress response and the effects of the skills to reduce the stress response.
 
I use a great deal of homework at the beginning as a metaphor I use frequently is “if you practice baseball one hour per week you’ll get better (like therapy), but if you practice baseball 6 hours per day, 7 days per week, you get better much quicker.” Use the skills 200 times per day…Yes, 200.
 
After a few weeks of therapy, it was obvious Peter was starting to feel better. We transitioned to online therapy as that worked very well for him within his schedule. The cool thing about the online work with Peter is because he was at home, he felt even more comfortable and thus made progress even quicker!
 
Peter started seeing improvement in his attitude at work as well as noticing that he would agree to get togethers with friends again. He saw his relationship strengthen with his wife as she started practicing the skills with him daily! They even brought the kids in on the use of skills daily and it became part of their evening routine!
 
Peter knew he was ready to end therapy because he no longer had time for me. He was so engaged in his world and his life that he felt almost put out that he had to come (online did make it easier for him to show up)! Each of those last few sessions, Peter was excited to tell me about how things were going, but at the same time said he had nothing he needed help with this week and wanted to get back to what he was doing.
 
We did a last session to address ways to stay on the sidewalk – my other favorite metaphor is “when we change a behavior, it is like walking on the curb. It is very easy to fall off and takes a lot of effort to pay attention to staying on the curb. After some time, we move away from the curb, but can still see the road. If we don’t pay attention to where we’re walking, we drift and end up off the sidewalk in the road.” We have to always pay attention to ourselves. It is very easy to fall back into old behaviors (or new unhelpful ones).
 
Our final session was ensuring Peter felt comfortable noticing when he was drifting towards the curb so he could bring himself back to walking a healthy line on the sidewalk and maintain his passion for his life, job, and family.
 
I KNOW YOU ARE READY TO FEEL THIS SAME PASSION AND ENERGY FOR LIFE AGAIN. PETER’S STORY IS ONLY ONE OF MANY OF MY CLIENTS WHO HAVE BROUGHT THEMSELVES BACK FROM BURNOUT AND STRESS RELATED PROBLEMS
 
Although you struggle with anxiety and feeling like you are in a dark pit, you have the potential to feel good about yourself again. Now that you have seen what is possible for Peter and other clients I work with, you know you are not alone in this struggle. There is a possibility for you to also have no time for therapy because you are enjoying life.
 
You have the opportunity to grab life by the horns and pull yourself up. Be the person you know you are and want to get back.
 
Achieving this passion and excitement for life and your career after the stress response has been activated for so long may feel like a long shot right now, but it is easier and closer than you think. You absolutely can find the enthusiasm for life. Meg Young, LCSW helps people just like you, and specializes in our critical care givers – first responders (including 911 dispatchers), medical professionals (including therapists), and court professionals (including probation/parole and corrections officers).
 
Choose strength and call me today to get started on your journey back to a stimulating life and career! 941-462-4807.

You remember when anxiety didn’t dominate your life. You remember when you were able to do everything without second guessing yourself. But life isn’t that way anymore, is it? Now even little things, meaningless things, cause anxiety. You second guess your decisions. When you have to make a decision or do something that used to be so easy, you notice yourself getting hot and in an almost instant panic attack. So, you start avoiding people, places, and situations so you don’t have to feel this way.
 
Unfortunately, as you started pulling away from things and people you enjoy, you noticed actually feeling worse. The anxiety has dominated you. It crept into every corner of your life. How did it get this bad? When did it get this bad?
 
As you pulled away and started noticing you were actually feeling worse, your relationships with your family got more tense, you may have started feeling like a failure. You may have started asking yourself whether you are the strong person everyone thinks you are. You continue to hear people say this, but you may believe it less and less.
 
This internal struggle is killing you. It is so painful to live with and nobody seems to understand. How could they? They believe you to be so strong. They believe you to be the confident, competent one. What happened to you? You want to believe you are still this person, but you’re just not sure.
 
The racing thoughts, second guessing yourself, instant panic attacks – over “nothing,” racing heart, instantly feeling hot is hard to describe to people. It was easy to push down for awhile. It was easy to ignore or pretend it didn’t exist for awhile. But somewhere along the line it became all-encompassing and overwhelming.
 
Eventually you could not deny it to yourself anymore. Eventually it seeped out and other people saw it as well. Unfortunately, instead of this making you feel better, it just made you feel worse. Not only can they not understand, they see the “real” you now.
 
Hey, the real you IS strong. The real you IS capable. The real you IS who you once were. What is happening to you IS normal, but it does not have to define you. A lot of people who work with others in crisis feel (or felt) the same way. Many first responders, therapists, nurses, doctors, probation officers, parole officers, corrections officers have been where you are now. Many are still in therapy, and many will be here sometime in the future.
 
There is no way to predict whether someone will be so affected by their job, but there are safeguards we can put in place. If we teach new colleagues before they start the job and we open a dialogue about helping each other, we can minimize the number of suicides among our critical care givers. This is a mission I am on. I help you maintain your passion by teaching, empowering, and treating.
 
Anyway, I know that right now you are feeling unsure and unclear about where life will go from here. You want to feel confident and happy again. As you practice this technique step by step, you will gain a sense of confidence in yourself again. As you make some small changes, you will see big changes in yourself. It is entirely possible for you to believe in yourself again.
 
Keep reading to learn how to start feeling confident in yourself and your career today.
 
YOU DON’T WANT TO GO OUT, DON’T ENJOY WHAT YOU USED TO, PANIC HAS CONTROL OF YOU AND YOUR LIFE
 
When panic attacks come out of the blue for no apparent reason, it can be very frustrating to say the least. You feel like your life is not yours anymore. You don’t feel like you anymore. The biggest downside is that you feel like a failure – maybe as an employee, maybe as a spouse, maybe as a parent, maybe as a person. But this thought that you are not good enough is a very powerful feeling.
 
At the very least you doubt yourself. You find yourself second guessing your decisions and not being sure you made the right choices. From here you get down on yourself. At the very least this is a horrible feeling, but it is very likely only the beginning of the spiral.
 
Living this way is disempowering. It can be the beginning of a spiral downward that leaves you feeling empty, hopeless, and lacking faith in yourself.
 
YOU WANT ENERGY, HAPPINESS, AND TO FEEL CONFIDENT AND SURE OF YOURSELF
 
Although you struggle with anxiety, depression, and self doubt, you have the potential to be your old self. You have the potential to feel confident and sure of yourself and your decisions. You do not have to live in this pit forever. You are not alone and there is a way out.
 
When we choose to implement this skill into our lives on a regular basis, there is a possibility for freedom from racing thoughts, confidence in yourself, and enjoyment from activities and loved ones. You have the opportunity, right now, to make a small tweak in your day and see your life get back to where you want it. You have the control to take back your mind from the grips of panic and anxiety.
 
HOW TO PULL OUT OF PANIC ATTACKS SO THEY DO NOT RULE YOUR LIFE; YOU DO
 
I know that right now you may be feeling skeptical and maybe a bit hopeless that anything will work. I will be completely upfront here…nothing you do is going to make an immediate impact on panic attacks. The part of the brain responsible for setting off the panic is currently in hyper-drive and is set for survival. This means it is an instantaneous reaction that we do not have control over.
 
However, what we do have control over is what happens after the initial rush. What happens after the first 2-5 seconds. This is where we will intervene. Sticking with being up front, you will not make the shakiness disappear immediately no matter what you do. The shakiness is adrenalin which is a chemical released into the body to help with survival. Think of it like alcohol intoxication. It doesn’t matter how much water you drink, time will bring the alcohol out of your blood stream. Similarly, it doesn’t matter what technique you use, time will make the adrenalin reabsorb into your body.
 
So what then is what I’m about to teach you really supposed to do? We are going to intervene to prevent the panic attack from taking over your day and life. We are going to stop the intensity of it so you can regain control over your actions and be in control of you again.
 
The key to achieving this control is practice. Practice is whether or not you need it. Practice it 200 times per day. The more you practice it, the more available it will be for you when you need it. Don’t wait until you need it, then go searching for it. Have it readily available.
 
Making this change is not as difficult as you think because you are going to practice it so often. It is going to become second nature because you think of it so much. It is going to become easy and you’ll even start doing this without thinking about it over time.
 
When you follow a simple, step-by-step path, you will start to see your panic attacks decreasing in intensity and duration. You will start to feel more confident and more in control. You will start to have hope in yourself.
 
Take a look at these next steps to see how you can achieve freedom from intense panic attacks
 
One of the reasons you struggle with self doubt is because the brain is set to survival. We are set to think of worst case scenario. If we think everything will be great all the time, we set ourselves up for disappointment. Since the Amygdala does not know the difference between emotional and physical danger, disappointment equals danger. So, avoid disappointment at all costs by thinking of worst case scenario.
 
It does not have to stay this way when you start implementing a simple step-by-step plan. You can start to get out of the self-doubt because you will see yourself getting out of the panic attack faster and faster over time.
 
Step 1: Bring yourself back into the present
 
A panic attack comes because your brain thinks you are in a dangerous situation. Often it is a past dangerous situation you were actually in. Bring yourself back into the here and now. This is often called “grounding.” Take a few deep breaths then start with what you see. Remember that you see with your eyes, not your memory. As silly as this sounds right now, frequently in panic attacks, people lose focus of where they really are and even “see” the dangerous situation. Look around and tell yourself what you see (notice and literally say to yourself at least 5 things you see).
 
Move to what you physically feel. What do you feel on your skin? Are you sitting? Standing? Notice and say to yourself at least 4 things you physically feel.
 
Move to what you hear. Name to yourself at least 3 things you hear.
 
Move to your nose. Name to yourself at least 2 things you smell.
 
Move to your mouth. Name to yourself at least 1 thing you taste.
 
Here with Meg Young, LCSW, we discuss why this is so helpful, practice it, and come up with things that may help, including keeping something with you as a “trigger” object to doing grounding. When you start doing this regularly, you will start to notice the world around you, especially because you will be practicing this several times a day, even when you do not need it. You will notice your gratitude increasing as well.
 
Step 2: Breathe
 
After you physically ground yourself into the present moment, you want to continue to get your brain to understand you are safe right here, right now. Breathing is vital to life. As you take deep breaths, you are inviting more oxygen into your brain and into your body. Because you are taking deep, slow breaths, the brain will start to use the oxygen in an effective manner.
 
Together with my clients, we practice several different breathing techniques as there are many to choose from. Some people like sitting back in their chair with their hands behind their head, which opens up the diaphragm forcing deep breaths. Other people like the 4,7,8 technique which is breathing in to the count of 4, holding to the count of 7, and breathing out to the count of 8. Still others like visualization with their breathing, so they breathe in deep breaths of a healing color and breathe out stress.
 
When you start doing this, you will start to notice that in other parts of your life you feel more calm as well. Additionally, you start to notice the panic attacks being shorter in duration.
 
Step 3: Increase salivation
 
When you are in danger, (or your brain thinks you are in danger), all bodily functions except what is needed for survival shuts off. This includes digestion. We use saliva in digestion, so if we do not need to digest, our mouths become dry as well.
 
Once we are physically grounded to the real world around us, and have increased the oxygen to our brain and bodies, we want to get the bodily functions to turn back on. This is a good time to do something to increase salivation. Whether you take a drink of water, put a hard candy in your mouth, or do something else, we want to tell the body that we are physically safe and it is ok to salivate.
 
I help my clients identify what tool they will use to increase salivation. After that, we come up with a plan to ensure their tool is always available no matter where they may be.
 
When you start increasing salivation, you will find the panic attack is not only gone, but you are actually starting to feel calmer as well. This is a very cool time to just go inward for a minute and notice how you are doing with anxiety.
 
Step 4: Imagery
 
Remember how I said often people in panic attacks see with their mind instead of their eyes? Now that you are feeling calmer, it is time to introduce a calm, safe place into visualization. “See” a calm, safe place in your mind. Put as much detail into it as possible. What do you see, hear, smell, taste and physically feel?
 
When you schedule a session with Meg Young, LCSW, we will do this technique each session as well as you doing it at home so the kinks can be worked out and you start to see results even faster.
 
Adding this to your life will not only help you with panic attacks, but you will also start to notice more calmness and gratitude in your life. You may start to notice you are more tolerant and understanding of family and things that once bugged you.
 
This four step technique does not take more than 3-5 minutes and significantly decreases the duration and intensity of a panic attack.
 
Achieving freedom from severe anxiety can be a positive experience. It can be a fun journey to see what the world is like when you really get engaged in it. You absolutely can feel calmer and more in control of yourself and your life. Meg Young, LCSW specializes in people just like you suffering from panic attacks and anxiety over small things that you believe really shouldn’t bother you.
 
Take a look at this blog which will share the experience and outcome of a court professional I worked with recently.
 
Call me today to schedule an appointment. My schedule is limited, and I very much want to help you reach your goals as quickly as possible! 941-462-4807.

Those of us who work with others who are in crisis (first responders, doctors, nurses, therapists, 911 dispatchers), and those who struggle with life issues (therapists, nurses, doctors, corrections officers, probation and parole officers), are among the strongest in society. To be able to deal with people’s pain day after day and come back for more time and time again is both rewarding (when things go well), and frustrating, defeating and stressful. Others cannot hold a candle to the amount of stress that you go through every day in your work. This cumulative stress will take a toll if you are not careful. I wonder if you thought about that going into your line of work. Most of us go in with such a big heart and desire to help that we do not think about the cumulative effects our job will have on us. Or maybe you went in knowing it is possible, but thinking it won’t happen to you. Or maybe you knew it could happen, and even took precautions (going to the gym after work, taking time off, etc), but still found yourself with difficulty focusing, feeling that life isn’t real, and feeling an anxious fidgetiness.
 
The reality is none of us is immune to the effects of our job. Even when we take care of ourselves, we are still at risk of depression, burnout, PTSD, high blood pressure, GI problems and more. The cumulative stress that we have day after day not only affects our mental well-being, but also our physical well-being.
 
The downsides to this cumulative stress include mental wearing causing apathy, depression, irritability, and more. The truth is, PTSD is not only caused by a one-time serious situation, but can also be caused by cumulative smaller “traumas” such as seeing and hearing the suffering of others daily.
 
Furthermore, the cumulative stress includes physical wearing such as high blood pressure, weight changes, irritable bowel syndrome, other GI problems, and heart problems due to the high blood pressure, weight changes, etc.
 
Additionally, the cumulative stress affects our relationships. Whether it is because we are more irritable, more withdrawn or more passive, eventually what is happening inside cannot stay inside and those around us feel the stress also. A favorite saying of mine is “You cannot throw a pebble in the pond and not get ripple effects.” When we change, so do those around us. Just like the water when a pebble is thrown in.
 
Frequently the cumulative stress is sneaky. It creeps up on us and we don’t even notice it until it is out of control, or until someone points it out to us. Even then, often we have a tendency to “blow it off.” At the time, you might have blamed it on being tired, or “work is stressful.” But how often did you actually look deeper than work is stressful or being tired? Most of us don’t. Unfortunately, by blowing it off, all it does is make the monster bigger.
 
Eventually you wind up in a place of such frustration and depression that you can no longer deny it. Maybe that time came when you noticed behavior changes in your family. Maybe it came when your significant other said they are ready to divorce if you don’t get help. Maybe it came when you blew up more than you ever had before. Maybe it came when you had a suicidal thought. Whatever the case, you landed here in this dark pit.
 
The thing is, this dark pit is a common place for our critical care givers to land. The reality is there are more suicides among first responders and medical professionals than there needs to be. It is unfortunately a very common problem that is very, very preventable. It’s ok to admit you are very stressed. It’s ok to admit that you are overwhelmed or overworked. It’s ok to admit you’re scared. It’s ok to admit you don’t feel like yourself. You are not alone, and often when you speak out, you will find the truth in that statement.
 
Yes, right now you are feeling pretty frustrated and even hopeless that anything will bring you back to your old self. However, when you put into practice just three quick and easy tips, you can get your life back to where you once had it and feel the same passion for work you did when you first started in your profession. When you make just a few adjustments to your daily routine, it is entirely possible to regain your control and passion in and for life.
 
Keep reading for 3 tips so you can start seeing results today.
 
FEELING LIKE YOU ARE JUST SPINNING? FEELING OUT OF CONTROL? FEELING HOPELESS THAT IT WILL GET BETTER?
 
If so, you are not alone. So many people in the helping professions still think they need to be strong and not “cave” to the pressures and experiences of their jobs. The biggest problem with this mentality is you start spiraling down deeper into the pit and it becomes harder and harder to get out. Hoplessness and helplessness set in and try to convince you that it is not worth even trying. Or maybe you did try and it didn’t do what you needed at the time, so you gave up, feeding the hopeless/helpless feelings.
 
At the very least you find yourself feeling alone and completely stressed out. You don’t know where to turn or who to talk to. Everyone keeps telling you how strong you are. How can you admit that you don’t feel strong anymore? It’s a lonely place to wind up. And a dangerous one.
 
Living this way is incredibly painful. Even if you don’t see any changes in loved ones at this time, you are hurting. Frequently others notice our pain before we admit that they do. They hurt to see us hurting. When we realize that our loved ones are hurting because we are hurting, it only deepens the guilt and hopelessness.
 
THERE IS A WAY OUT OF THE PIT. CONTROL, HAPPINESS, STABILITY, LIFE ARE ALL WITHIN YOUR REACH
 
You can stay in the spiral feeling hopeless and falling further and further down, but you are here because you want to feel better. You want to get out of this. And you do have the potential to get your life back to where you want it to be. You can take charge of your emotions and regain the control of your brain and everything that has started to spiral with you.
 
When we chose to take charge of our emotions and regain control of our brain, there is a possibility for life to completely turn around for you. There is a light at the end of the tunnel which is not a train, by the way! That light is not as far away as it seems. It is within your reach.
 
You have the opportunity, right now, to start taking charge of your life. To bring your mind back under your control. To feel stable and healthy again. To feel happy with your life, family, and career. It is within your reach.
 
3 TIPS TO ACHIEVE CONTROL, HAPPINESS AND STABILITY CAUSED BY WORK STRESS
 
So today you feel out of control, depressed, anxious, angry, and unsure, but there is also a small piece of hope. If you didn’t have that small amount of hope, you would not be here reading this blog, looking for a way out of the pit.
 
The key to achieving happiness in your life, relationships and career is to take it slow. Take it one day at a time. There are no quick fixes. Nothing happens immediately. Drastic changes are hard to deal with anyway. As much as you want to be “your old self” right this moment, if that happened, it would not just be a pebble thrown into the pond, but a boulder. It would be much harder to control and maintain.
 
Despite not being able to be your old self right now, and having to slow down and take it one day at a time, the changes you will make after reading these tips are not as hard as you think. I only have three tips because too much at once is overwhelming. These three tips are relatively easy to put into play during your day without too much disruption or thought process about it.
 
Take a look at these 3 tips to see how you can start to feel the control you have been longing for
 
I’m having difficulty focusing!
 
One of the reasons you’re feeling so out of control is because it is hard to focus. When it is hard to focus, you feel like you’re all over the place. You forget things, you misplace things, you miss details. When this happens, it feels so frustrating and so stressful. Many people start chastising themselves over it as well, which just makes the situation more stressful.
 
Instead of chastising yourself, write to-do lists. When you remember something else, don’t go off and do it, but instead write it on your to-do list. Writing to-do lists helps you feel more organized which will help you focus on what you are doing. When things are written down, you won’t forget to do them, which frees up the brain to think about what you are currently focusing on instead of trying to focus on everything at once.
 
In session with my clients, this is a primary task of getting people back on track. Once we are done with setting goals and identifying needs, we get into task-oriented solutions as the majority of us want to feel better immediately.
 
When you take the pressure off by writing to-do lists and free your mind to think about more necessary things, we are able to do the deeper work that therapy can help with to get you feeling happy and in control again.
 
I’m fidgety, but can’t get things done!
 
It makes complete sense that you are so fidgety but can’t get things done. Your brain is on overdrive trying to do too much at once while in survival mode. It is near impossible to feel calm when your brain is in overdrive like this.
 
When you write your to-do lists, try to break down any bigger tasks that you have into smaller ones. Similarly to the issue of not being able to focus, when you are unable to get things done, but are so fidgety, it is because you don’t feel organized. Breaking tasks into more manageable tasks makes it easier for your brain to focus on the one thing that you are doing, again, freeing up the space in your brain and calming your survival brain down.
 
Together with my clients, we identify the biggest tasks in front of them and help break them down into manageable tasks that do not take much time to complete nor much thought process to understand. The easier it is to understand, the easier it is to do. The easier it is to do, the more likely you are to do it. The more likely you are to do it, the more you will do it and thus feel more in control.
 
When you start breaking tasks on your to-do list down, you will start to notice how much less noise is going on in your head. You will also notice the fidgetiness decreasing. Once this happens, a feeling of control starts to set in again.
 
I feel like I’m in a dream; life isn’t real!
 
I just mentioned that when you’re all over the place, your brain goes into survival mode. One of the aspects of survival mode is making the world not feel real. This is because if you are in such a dangerous place, the brain tries to protect you. The numbing is a way of the brain protecting you. The problem is, you are not in a dangerous place, but the brain is doing this protection feature anyway.
 
You want to get your brain to realize you are currently safe. One way to do this is do something very real: Sing very loudly, scream, or get the heart pumping by doing an intense workout or run. It acts almost as if you are “shocking” your system into reality.
 
When you schedule a session with Meg Young, LCSW, we create a plan tailored specifically to you that will get you doing all of these three tips regularly, thus helping you start to feel more real and in control so we can dig even deeper and make the changes permanent.
 
Adding these three tips to your life will make it possible for you to start changing your life. You will start feeling in control, real, happy, and focused again. You will be ready to face the challenge of digging deeper to make it a permanent change. You will feel stronger both inside and out.
 
Achieving a feeling of control and happiness is a journey which can be frustrating and time consuming, but also so rewarding. It’s like any goal that you have for yourself which was challenging. Maybe you wanted to get through boot camp which was incredibly challenging. Maybe you wanted to get through school, but struggled with your own depression or anxiety making it difficult for you. Maybe there were other challenges in your life that you did not give up on. Remember the feeling when you finally achieved that goal? How powerful and inspiring was that?
 
Meg Young can help you feel that same feeling of accomplishment with this goal you have for yourself. Sometimes we need a bit of extra support to help us meet our goals. It is not a weakness or a failure to ask for help. On the contrary, it is a sign of strength. We all need help from time to time. Therapists, doctors, and nurses should always seek consultation. First responders, and court professionals should always have backup.
 
All of our critical care givers are strong people. You deserve to enjoy yourself, your life, and your career. I look forward to helping you achieve this goal for yourself. Call me today 941-462-4807 to schedule the initial appointment that will start the deeper digging of making this change permanent for you!