Keywords: Overcoming PTSD.
Overcoming PTSD and overcoming one's difficulties, in general, seems to be a phrase often used but is also widely misunderstood.
Making an effort can be constructive to move out of a stagnant state of mind. The constant "trying to get somewhere," however, might prevent healing.
Why Overcoming PTSD might NOT be that Helpful
When you are focused on arriving somewhere else from where you are, you are not dealing with what is. While it is understandable, when you suffer, that you want to be in a better state of mind, that very projection towards somewhere else is a dissociation. It is an avoidance of what is that you make out of feeling overwhelmed by your internal pain.
Making an effort can be constructive to move out of a stagnant state of mind. The constant "trying to get somewhere," however, might prevent healing.
For example, when you lack self-esteem and are anxious and you force yourself to be assertive, you will only be able to hold that up for a limited period of time. The focus on assertiveness prevents you from finding out why you are anxious in the first place.
Going through The Layers of Overcoming PTSD
You will have to work through the different layers that make up the dissociation to be able to start expressing boundaries in a healthy manner, even if that is a necessity at some point in time. You can't do it the other way around.
In this three-way conversation, we explore overcoming PTSD and the extremes of the "overcoming response" and explore where it might be useful and where it might work against us.
This conversation is between Jan Hutchins, Roland Bal and Graig Bloomstrand, December 2017