Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder now more often referred to as just PTSD is a seriously debilitating mental health condition with the potential to negatively affect every single aspect of someone’s personal, emotional, physical, and professional life.

The symptoms associated with PTSD are far reaching and complex, leaving many people diagnosed with PTSD to believe that a lifetime of medicines and weekly therapy are the only alternatives to managing the disorder and healing permanently.

With solid and reliable information, a deep desire to heal and regain control, and a reliable support system, anyone diagnosed with PTSD can understand and learn how to address the symptoms and beat the disorder. People who develop PTSD don’t have to live as victims, allowing the symptoms associated with the disorder to overrule all aspects of their life.

The primary difference between people who are barely managing the array of symptoms associated with PTSD, narrowly getting by each day with the help of one or several biological medicines and [maybe] therapy, and those who succeed at healing permanently from the disorder is rooted in knowledge and control. Those touched by PTSD must learn what needs to be address in order to take control of the symptoms and reclaim their lives.

From child abuse to neglect, from witnessing violence to being at war, from being physically or sexually assaulted to falling victim to human traffickers, any of these situations can be extremely traumatic for the brain and can leave deep emotional wounds that stop the lives of people with PTSD in their tracks.

After trauma, activity in the amygdala increases. The amygdala is the region of the brain that helps us process emotions, and it’s also linked to fear responses. Exposure to trauma subsequent development of PTSD makes the amygdala hyperactive. Think of someone who drinks lots of coffee throughout the day. At first sight they appear to be very awake, extremely alert, even jittery and jumpy, and seem over-reactive to everything around them, almost as if things around were out to ‘get them.’

This over-sensitivity to the world around is caused changes in brain chemistry after exposure to trauma. But, while the world cannot be changed, anyone can change the way they react to the world, and it is important for people with PTSD to learn ways to counter this over-reactivity and lack of control. This, and many other goals can be achieved with a plan of action that includes crucial elements to help you regain control of your life.

The first step is to learn background information about your disorder. This knowledge will help you understand how PTSD symptoms affect your feelings and emotions and fuel your reactions. Contextual understanding of the underlying foundation of PTSD will help you collect information about yourself, how you react to you surrounding environment and understand what makes you reactive.

Learned knowledge about PTSD and how the symptoms affect you personally are necessary to draft a plan of action to tackle the symptoms. Learning ways to take control of your symptoms will allow you to see how PTSD affects your brain chemistry, altering your thought process, something that is reversible. Think of it as workout for the brain so that you can retrain your brain and regain control of your thought process and your life while managing the symptoms.

If you want to permanently heal from the impact of PTSD, you need to rise above and carve your path to healing by drafting and implement a custom-made system that will allow you to live a controlled, productive, and fulfilling life in your own terms. But you have to be willing to put in the work. For many people with PTSD, managing the symptoms can be a daunting task even after therapy and medications. While there are countless variables that can affect the life of someone with PTSD, there are also countless ways of managing the issues that arise out of these life disturbances and recover control to beat the disorder.

To draft a solid plan of action, you must learn as much as you can about PTSD so that you understand the meaning of what is happening to your mind and body. This will help you gather information on how, when, who, and why PTSD affects you. You can then use this valuable information to draft your plan of action and tackle the disorder.

PTSD is not a one size fits all disorder and what works for some may not work for others. The one thing that always has positive results is a personalized system of tools, skills, mechanisms, and techniques you can use anywhere. These properly learned coping mechanisms to tackle the symptoms of PTSD are the only long-lasting tool that will improve your quality of life and allow you to regain control of your brain, outside of constant therapy and medications, if that’s your goal.

Learning the role that stress plays in your PTSD life and brain, and how it defines your actions and reactions is perhaps the most crucial step in your journey to regain control. Managing your stress and how it impacts your anxiety, and how this affects your reactions to the surrounding environment is the only way to tackle and permanently control your symptoms to regain control of your life.

It is possible to beat PTSD and reclaim your life. Don’t let anyone convince you otherwise. When you immerse yourself in your healing, and not your symptoms, you can learn valuable coping mechanisms and skills to help tackle your diagnosis and heal permanently.

Coping skills and mechanisms will help you anticipate and, with practice, predict when something is about to ‘throw you off balance.’ This will allow you take control of your feelings. Emotions and feelings before they affect your behavior and reactions to the stressor and end up ruining your day.

I am honored that you have chosen this guide as an assistive tool for your healing, and I hope you’re ready to understand the fundamentals of your disorder to beat PTSD like I did and many others have. You can retrain, regain, and reclaim your life.

As you read, please keep this in mind:

Understanding PTSD and how the symptoms affect at all levels is the foundation

to healing from this potentially debilitating disorder.