Hi there and welcome to another moment of the mania! I'm Ann Shannon, the manic writer. I blog about PTSD and encouragement and write book reviews and romantic fiction. My passion is the military, soldiers, and veterans, especially those with PTSD. I love that you stopped by, grab a drink and make yourself at home. Leave a comment or find me on social media, I'd love to meet you and get to know you.
Come join me at my new site.
Click here and don't forget to change your bookmarks!
Click here and don't forget to change your bookmarks!
It
is my goal to end the stigma that comes with PTSD. I blog about PTSD
once a week, searching the mountains of information out there and
bringing you the best of what I find. I review a book on PTSD every
other week and I publish a weekly encouraging reflection and tweet
encouraging quotes for PTSD survivors daily,follow
meto
be encouraged. Together we can make a difference.
When
I'm not blogging about PTSD or trying to encourage those of you
living with it. I'm an author. I write romance. I just finished my
first book and I am revising and editing it. With any luck, it will
be published later this year, in the meantime you can get a sample of
my work on the web. Original work can be found here,
and fanfiction can be found here.
Let me know what you think, and tell me how you found me!
Hi there and welcome to another moment of the mania! I'm Ann Shannon, the manic writer. I blog about PTSD, encouragement and write book reviews and romantic fiction. My passion is the military, soldiers, and veterans, especially those with PTSD. I love that you stopped by, grab a drink and make yourself at home. Leave a comment or find me on social media, I'd love to meet you and get to know you.
It is my goal to end the stigma that comes with PTSD.
That’s one of my taglines. Today I’d like to reflect on what I mean by that, how I might do it and how you can help me.
Dictionary.com defines Stigma as a mark of disgrace or infamy: a stain or reproach, as on one's reputation. The second definition in the listing refers directly to mental health. A mental or physical mark that is characteristic of a defect or disease. The word itself dates back to the 1500’s and originally referred to the mark a criminal or a slave got, a brand or tattoo, that marked them as a slave or a criminal. We now use it to refer to mental health conditions that are misunderstood and stereotyped. That makes me sad. Individuals who are struggling with PTSD, depression and other mental illnesses are not slaves or criminals, they are human beings who need us to understand them not mark them.
So what do I mean when I say it is my goal to end it?
I’m not a doctor, or a therapist, I don't even have a degree in psychology. My degree is in Christian Ministry and I hardly use it now. Well, I did learn to write while I got it, so I use that part. I realized just after I finished it that the ministry wasn’t where I needed to be and I walked away. I realized that the work where I could help make a difference was on the front lines of PTSD. My husband has it, my Mom has it. And, I want to help others not go through the hell I’ve watched them go through. I want to end the stigma that comes with a soldier saying that he or she has it. I want you to be unafraid to admit you have a weakness and it is PTSD because we all have weaknesses. I want to walk beside you, help you understand it more and guide you to your healing.
So how can I work to end it?
I believe in education. I believe that understanding is the beginning of acceptance. In the case of PTSD I think misunderstanding causes fear and fear breeds stigma. We are afraid of that which we do not understand. My goal with this blog and the book I will eventually finish is to help people understand PTSD more clearly. If we can end, or reduce, the stigma that comes with saying “I have PTSD” then maybe we can more help for those who need it. Maybe then, instead of trying to get it accepted as a real condition, we can discuss and implement better treatments. Maybe.
I believe healing is possible. What I don’t believe is that you will be the same person you were before. None of us are the same person we were 2 years ago, 5years ago, 10 years ago. Life changes us and we adjust, with PTSD that adjustment is difficult and sometimes, most of the time, you need help.
So I write. I research. I share. I encourage.
I use this blog to share my research and my encouragement. I’m in the midst of writing our PTSD story, how we got where we are and I will include it in a book about PTSD. I will compile the posts I’ve done into that book and publish it in the hopes that it helps someone find their way through the forest. I will befriend you whether it be through my blog, through twitter or facebook or IRL. I will walk beside you and comfort you, listen to you and offer you my hand when I can.
How can you help me?
You can get help if you have PTSD and you haven’t already. Take care of yourself, you deserve it. You can share my blog and my other work with others. The more people who see it the great the chance I can help someone. You can keep the conversation going, tell others what you’ve learned. Education is the key to ending stigma.
We can do this if we all work together.
It is my goal to end the stigma that comes with PTSD. I blog about PTSD once a week, searching the mountains of information out there and bringing you the best of what I find. I review a book on PTSD every other week and I publish a weekly encouraging reflection and tweet encouraging quotes for PTSD survivors daily, follow me to be encouraged. Together we can make a difference.
When I'm not blogging about PTSD or trying to encourage those of you living with it. I'm an author. I write romance. I just finished my first book and I am revising and editing it. With any luck, it will be published later this year, in the meantime you can get a sample of my work on the web. Original work can be found here, and fanfiction can be found here. Let me know what you think, and tell me how you found me!
I usually blog about PTSD and if you come here for that don't be discouraged by the different topic, this is what I do when I'm not talking about the subject that fills every corner of my life. I will be continuing to blog even while I write. It helps, a lot, to have something that I love to do and for me that's writing love stories! Even my husband gets in on the action, discussing books ideas, plots, and characters with me for hours. My work is available for free right now, just check out my links to the right. And make sure you make time for fun too!
Hi there and welcome to another moment of the mania! I'm Ann Shannon, the manic writer. I blog about PTSD, encouragement, and write book reviews and romantic fiction. My passion is the military, soldiers, and veterans, especially those with PTSD. I love that you stopped by, grab a drink and make yourself at home. Leave a comment or find me on social media, I'd love to meet you and get to know you.
I love these guys. They are hysterical to watch. In this episode, they are doing a blind taste and identification of juices. They did this once with bottled water and that one is worth watching also.
I love the faces they make when they don't really like what they are tasting and the camaraderie that occurs between them. It's clear that they are good friends and have been for a long time, their friendship shines through.
I included the water one just for fun.
I usually blog about PTSD and if you come here for that don't be discouraged by the different topic, this is what I do when I'm not talking about the subject that fills every corner of my life. I will be continuing to blog even while I write. It helps, a lot, to have something that I love to do and for me that's writing love stories! Even my husband gets in on the action, discussing books ideas, plots, and characters with me for hours. My work is available for free right now, just check out my links to the right. And make sure you make time for fun too!
Hi there and welcome to another moment of the mania! I'm Ann Shannon, the manic writer. I blog about PTSD, encouragement, and write book reviews and romantic fiction. My passion is the military, soldiers, and veterans, especially those with PTSD. I love that you stopped by, grab a drink and make yourself at home. Leave a comment or find me on social media, I'd love to meet you and get to know you.
Over the last few weeks, I’ve covered the common treatments for PTSD, self-help, CBT and medication. I don’t mean to say these are the best or only treatments, but they are the typical ones, in my opinion. They are the infantry in the treatment army, the first to go in and fix things. Hey, infantry is important, they are the initial surveyors, they head in, get the lay of the land and report back to headquarters with their assessments. Without these important tools, we would be overwhelmed with ways to handle and heal PTSD.
Please remember that I am a writer and researcher, my key role is to filter through the mountains of information available and bring the best of it to you. I do not and can not offer medical advice if you suspect that you or a loved one is dealing with PTSD please seek professional help immediately. If you are considering suicide, or you believe a loved one is considering it, please call for help now. As I've said before, we can't let the trolls win this battle and 1 suicide is 1 too many.
Once someone with PTSD has been triaged though, and the initial threats have been handled, it is time to look for healing because so often someone who is struggling with PTSD doesn’t seek help until their life is falling apart. They have serious depression, or they’re trying to mend themselves with alcohol or drugs, or the worst of all, they’re considering suicide. It’s important to triage them and handle those initial problems, help them get back on their feet because you can’t heal someone who is still hiding from the trolls under their table.
Over the next few weeks, I want to talk about some of the methods that are used to heal PTSD because I believe there is healing available. Will you be the same man or woman you were before your trauma? Of course not. Life is about change, both the good and the bad, but you can find relief from the fear, anxiety, flashbacks and depression. You can heal your mind to some degree and live again.
I believe in you.
One method I’ve come across that has incredible success rates is Prolonged Exposure therapy or PE and I’d like to give you a quick overview of it today. I was surprised that the success rates are as good as they are because I’d never heard of it before but when I described it to a good friend of mine who used to work in public health she chuckled and said they’d been using it for OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) for years. I wondered why, with the success rates it has, it isn’t more common to hear about it.
Prolonged Exposure therapy can help decrease the effect your trauma has on your life today. For example, if you have PTSD and you don’t drive because you’re afraid of roadside bombs, or of flying into a mountain in the dark it can help you overcome those fears and regain your life. It does this by helping you deal with the thoughts and feelings that accompany your PTSD and the situations you are probably avoiding because of it. (source)
Prolonged Exposure therapy can be broken down into four stages, education, breathing, real world practice and talking through the trauma (source). Each of these strategies is designed to help you regain control in a situation where you feel you’ve lost it. PE doesn’t erase your problems it helps you learn to deal with them and live again. I know I keep saying that but living again is the goal when you have PTSD because PTSD steals the joy from life and I am determined to help you get it back from the trolls.
The education portion of PE teaches you about the therapy and your own reactions to trauma, and PTSD. It helps you understand what the new ticking in your mind is. Hint: it’s not a time bomb, it's a troll trying to distract you.
The breathing exercises help you learn to relax and regain your control when you are experiencing a stressor, this can be a flashback or some other symptom that causes you to feel out of control. Breathing exercises are used in many stress-related therapies and it is amazing how much they can help. I’ll cover them in more depth in a later post.
Real world practice is kind of self-explanatory, but I’ll say it anyway. It involves having the individual expose themselves to situations where they feel out of control and work through dealing with it.
I could use this with airplanes and spiders. I did this once with spiders, I held a tarantula. Kudo’s to the brave man who let me hold his pet, he has no idea how close it came to being squashed. I’m still terrified of spiders, but not tarantula’s so much anymore. So it worked, but obviously I need more work. If I am going to do this with airplanes I think it would help if the airplane was heading some place tropical, I’d definitely feel better about flying then.
Finally, the most important part of PE is talking through the trauma. You sit with a therapist who is trained in PE and they guide you through a series of exercises that help you see your fears more clearly and overcome them. Through this work, you learn to gain control over the trolls who are haunting you and put them to work for you. They should work for you rather than against you after they aren’t paying rent, are they?
It’s important to remember that PE doesn’t rid you of PTSD, but it can help you live more comfortably with it. PE has been shown to reduce symptoms and help individuals with PTSD live more productive and happy lives. It’s been widely studied and is good treatment even for those who have other mental health complications such as mental health issues or substance abuse problems. (source)
In my opinion there is no one way to treat PTSD, we are all unique and as such we all need different approaches. If you are suffering from debilitating flashbacks or fears then PE might be right for you. Only you and your doctor can decide the best treatment for you. For that to happen you have to be informed. Follow some of the links I’ve included to learn more.
I wanted to give you a success story for PE what I found instead was a video. I’m including it here, but I want to include a trigger warning. It is a 60 Minutes segment that covers an inpatient program at the VA in Arkansas. It is intense and emotional. If hearing other vets discuss their trauma, PTSD, and struggles is hard for you then I suggest you don’t watch it, or at least watch it with someone there to help you if you get upset.
Whatever you do, please don’t suffer in silence. You have PTSD because you have courage, use that courage to get help. I believe in you.
It is my goal to end the stigma that comes with PTSD. I blog about PTSD once a week, searching the mountains of information out there and bringing you the best of what I find. I review a book on PTSD every other week and I publish a weekly encouraging reflection and tweet encouraging quotes for PTSD survivors daily, follow me to be encouraged. Together we can make a difference.
When I'm not blogging about PTSD or trying to encourage those of you living with it. I'm an author. I write romance. I just finished my first book and I am revising and editing it. With any luck, it will be published later this year, in the meantime you can get a sample of my work on the web. Original work can be found here, and fanfiction can be found here. Let me know what you think, and tell me how you found me!
Friday, June 5, 2015
Hi there and welcome to another moment of the mania! I'm Ann Shannon, the manic writer. I blog about PTSD, encouragement, and write book reviews and romantic fiction. My passion is the military, soldiers, and veterans, especially those with PTSD. I love that you stopped by, grab a drink and make yourself at home. Leave a comment or find me on social media, I'd love to meet you and get to know you.
If you are a regular reader then you know that I use Fridays to update you a bit on the mania in my life. It’s been a busy week, full of research, travel, catching up and JunoWrimo and I have a lot of catching up to do with my real work.
Last week I brought my daughter, who also aspires to write, to the CCYW, Champlain College Young Writers conference. It was amazing. Not only was it set on the banks of Lake Champlain in beautiful Burlington, VT but the people there were great as well.
My daughter learned a lot and not just about writing. She made new friends and had a three-day college experience. Which is to say she avoided me all weekend. Just as it should be.
I also learned a lot. There was a workshop for the chaperone's and I very much enjoyed not only the instructor but the other students as well. We were challenged to write a bit of a memoir and then share it. It was the first time I’d shared something so deeply personal to people sitting in the same room and it was moving. I loved hearing their stories, the way they described them and the emotion they conveyed with mere words on a page. Memoir and biography are not fields I ever intend to delve into, but I learned a lot from working with them, about myself and about writing.
I also learned that it is a long ride from my house to Burlington. Very long. It is, however, a beautiful ride and I am looking forward to returning with my younger daughter next year. She doesn’t intend to be a writer per se, but a Mangaka and I think the experience would open her eyes to more within the writing world.
In the meantime, JunoWriMo has begun and I have hardly worked on my books at all. I had planned to write the anthology and I have three of the five planned stories for it outlined and one begun. Unfortunately, when I started to write it I just wasn’t feeling it. I got roughly 3K words of the expected 8-10K needed and felt like it was flat. I’ve decided to change strategy, for now anyway and work on my final revision of Falling Star. Maybe I’ll pick the anthology up later in the month when I can focus more fully on a completely new project.
I’ve written or revised 4700 words so far this month which is disheartening because I’d like to move faster, but it just hasn’t been possible yet.
In other news, I purchased my very own domain! I’m so excited that I can hardly sit still. I am working on building my WordPress blog there and a few other things and then I will migrate everything over and leave a link for redirection. It will probably be July before I can launch it but next week I may have a preview link of the new site and my place-holder post.
I usually blog about PTSD and if you come here for that don't be discouraged by the different topic, this is what I do when I'm not talking about the subject that fills every corner of my life. I will be continuing to blog even while I write. It helps, a lot, to have something that I love to do and for me that's writing love stories! Even my husband gets in on the action, discussing books ideas, plots, and characters with me for hours. My work is available for free right now, just check out my links to the right. And make sure you make time for fun too!
It is my goal to end the stigma that comes with PTSD. I blog about PTSD once a week, searching the mountains of information out there and bringing you the best of what I find. I review a book on PTSD every other week and I publish a weekly encouraging reflection and tweet encouraging quotes for PTSD survivors daily, follow me to be encouraged. Together we can make a difference.
Hello there! If this is your first time
visiting my blog welcome! Get a drink and pull up a chair, let the
madness draw you in. I'm Ann Shannon, the Manic writer. I blog about
PTSD, encouragement and I write book reviews and romantic fiction. My
passion is the military, soldiers, and veterans, especially those
with PTSD. I loved that you stopped by, leave me a comment or find me
on social media. I'd love to meet you too and get to know you!
It's been a busy 2 weeks since my last
journal update. I spent a lovely week in our capitol, Washington DC
visiting as many places as we could. I've been to DC many times so
some of what I saw was a repeat, but there is always more. I visited
the Ford Theater for the first time and had a blast. I highly
recommend it for your next trip. I also saw the Korean War memorial
and the World War Two memorial for the first time, they are
breathtaking.
So very true!
I walked a total of 57K steps in 3
days! Now if only I could manage that with my writing. 57K words in
three days would put me in a coma I think. 50K is my total goal for
the month of June, I can't imagine that in three days!
JunoWriMo begins on Monday! I will have
a late start with it because I am chaperoning a writers conference
that my daughter is attending this weekend and we return Monday
morning. It'll be fine, I hope.
I'm a JunoWriMo newbie and not sure
what to expect as the only WriMo I've participated in so far was
April camp. I love the encouragement to get people writing and intend
to participate whenever I can from now on. If you love writing why
not join us too?
What have you been up to? Are you a
writer, an artist? What do you do that makes you smile? Tell me about
it, I'm always interested in what brings others joy.
It
is my goal to end the stigma that comes with PTSD. I blog about PTSD
once a week, searching the mountains of information out there and
bringing you the best of what I find. I review a book on PTSD every
other week and I publish a weekly encouraging reflection and tweet
encouraging quotes for PTSD survivors daily,follow
meto
be encouraged. Together we can make a difference.
When
I'm not blogging about PTSD or trying to encourage those of you
living with it. I'm an author. I write romance. I just finished my
first book and I am revising and editing it. With any luck, it will
be published later this year, in the meantime you can get a sample of
my work on the web. Original work can be found here,
and fanfiction can be found here.
Let me know what you think, and tell me how you found me!
Hi there and welcome to another moment of the mania! I'm Ann Shannon, the Manic Writer. I blog about PTSD, encouragement and write book reviews and romantic fiction. I love that you stopped by, grab a drink and make yourself at home. Leave a comment or find me on social media, I'd love to meet you and get to know you.
A positive attitude is the filter that shapes how we interpret and respond to people and circumstances. Attitudes are habits, and since we become our habits it's important to choose them wisely.
A positive attitude can change everything. When I was in my 20's I was a single mom and I worked very hard to make ends meet which meant that I often drove a car on the verge of a breakdown. This trained me to have a positive attitude. Once upon starting up from a very long red light my car chose to make a sound that would have rivaled the coming of the apocalypse rather than move forward. The grinding, grating and other offensive noises coming from underneath my feet told me I was staying put for the moment. Where I could have cried I chose positivity instead, I climbed out of my car and cheerfully exclaimed “At least it's not raining!” That's when the volunteer fire alarm rang out for all to hear and I realized I had broken down directly in front of their driveway.
Ah well, positivity will get us part of the way. I made it through that day because I chose to be positive regardless of how dark the circumstances looked.
I know that a car breakdown is nothing in comparison to the challenges we face when we are dealing with mental illness and I do not want to belittle or disparage the pain that we feel when we have PTSD.
I do think there are valuable lessons in my story though. I had several ticks against me that day. I was broke, during that time in my life I rarely had two dimes to rub together. I was alone, I had no one to share the burden of a broken down car with me. I was miles from home, where I broke down I still had a 30 minute drive on back roads before I got home and with a broken car I had to figure out how to do that with a 6 yr old in tow. Finally, I was one step away from a crisis, with no car I had no way to get to work which would have started an avalanche that would have ended with me jobless.
These are all moments that we experience everywhere. If you suffer from PTSD, or love someone who does, then they are all points that, with attitude, you can adjust.
Are you broke? Struggling with PTSD can lead to employment problems but there are resources out there. If you don't have the strength to find them find an advocate who can help you. Be brave and ask for help. I know it's hard but in the end it's worth it.
Are you alone? You may feel very alone but look up and look around. I may not have had a partner at the time, but I had family and when I reached out they were very supportive and helped me while my car was repaired.
Are you miles from home? I've been there. That day I was a mere 20 miles from my home but I've been farther and I know how it feels. And you might just feel lonely in a room of people who love you. Be brave, reach out. I got a ride home and you can too.
Are you one step away from a crisis? Granted me being jobless and potentially homeless is different from the crisis you may be approaching if you have PTSD and again, I recognize that there is no comparison here, just life situations that crop up everywhere. If you feel a crisis coming on, or are in one please, please, please get help. Talk to a family member, a trusted friend, a doctor or call the crisis line. Don't let the trolls win this one.
All this to say that when we look on the positive side we often find a lot more going for us than we originally thought there was. Step back and ask yourself what's good about this situation. Is the sun shining, enjoy it! Do you have a full belly, revel in the feel! Are you surrounded by loved ones who care? Give them a hug and thank them.
Please remember that I am a writer and researcher, my key role is to filter through the mountains of information available and bring the best of it to you. I do not and can not offer medical advice if you suspect that you or a loved one is dealing with PTSD please seek professional help immediately. If you are considering suicide, or you believe a loved one is considering it, please call for help now. As I've said before, we can't let the trolls win this battle and 1 suicide is 1 too many.
It is my goal to end the stigma that comes with PTSD. I blog about PTSD once a week, searching the mountains of information out there and bringing you the best of what I find. I review a book on PTSD every other week and I publish a weekly encouraging reflection and tweet encouraging quotes for PTSD survivors daily, follow me to be encouraged. Together we can make a difference.
When I'm not blogging about PTSD or trying to encourage those of you living with it I'm an author. I write romance. I just finished my first book and I am revising and editing it. With any luck, it will be published later this year, in the meantime you can get a sample of my work on the web. Original work can be found here, and fanfiction can be found here. Let me know what you think, and tell me how you found me!
