Contrarian Approach for PTSD

".... prevailing practice in psychiatry, a technique that encourages patients to relive painful or traumatic events. Yet, for some patients, this therapy may inadvertently cause a resurfacing of PTSD symptoms and psychological distress, putting that patient at risk for health problems."

http://psychcentral.com/news/2009/06...ptsd/6581.html

This is what I believe I was feeling when I started the thread, DBT Gives Me PTSD. The anger I felt when ever I started reading about DBT came from my having the same experience as what is written about in the above article.

I do better when I try to repress certain memories or stay away from situations that trigger my PTSD. (Within reason of course when it comes to being able to function IRL as far as avoinding triggering situations.)

Just thinking about being "forced" to think about or be put in situations that trigger me was setting off a trigger in me! I hope all who read and/or responded in my DBT/PTSD thread will read this article.

In the olds days psychs called it Implosion therapy. Its kinda like the EMDR that my first T forced on me. Made my PTSD worse.

All I know is that, when I went into what was causing my PTSD, it got worse, not better.

I tried telling my Pdoc, but this but was just dismissed. Sorry but making me more aware of my problem, just made it worse.

And then on my way home, I was subjected to something that reinforced my concerns, so was never able to go to my next appointment. That was 17 yeras ago.

I, too, have experienced this. I believe it depends on the individual, and how well they are able to cope with the aftermath of the treatment. Not all of us were born with a Herculean gene and can rise above whatever is thrown at us. Some things can set off a parade of triggers and leave us hanging on by a thread to our sanity. What works for one may not work for another, and we are the ultimate judge on what is helping us. Take gentle care all. Calm

Hey Pom!!

I'm not sure if you are understanding DBT correctly. I think you have a book on it, at least I thought you mentioned you did earlier.

I just wanted to share with you that when I went through DBT, it wasn't about exposing us to our traumatic memories and making us face them again. It was about helping us learn to identify, monitor, and re-direct our emotions when we became triggered by our traumatic memories instead.

They taught us skills that we could use and help us monitor and track our triggers throughout the week and they would be available for us to call if we needed guidance on what we were learning.

At first, I was scared to do this because I was afraid I would fail, and I to thought I was going to be exposed and triggered so I ran. But once I got into it and started experiencing it, I realized that it wasn't forcing me to relive anything but merely giving me a choice between being stuck in my triggering events or being able to pull myself out of that event and change my emotions so that I would be safe and not have to get blown over by it.

I know it's not for everyone, but I just wanted to offer you another point of view.

I'm glad you shared this article. I think it has a good point. Maybe suppression would be a good thing for certain people. Everyone is different so it stands to reason that there would not just be one perfect way to treat something, but multiple options to explore.

Take care!!

Thanks for sharing your insight and experience Elysium. I don't have a book on DBT, I was reading articles here on PC and online. Your explanation and experience make it sound much less scary.