Strategies for dealing with people with PTSD?

[Biciclista]

Wahine, you are awesome! You show a lot of courage. Good luck.

[Miranda]

He is receiving psych treatment and he is on medication. But he is very ill and there are days when I feel like I'm in over my head.

You might consider if the patient would sign a release of patient confidentiality consent for you to contact his therapist and see what suggestions he/she might have (and/or start with asking the medical doctor's advice- since your PT order stems from them).

This link below should go to a website that briefly notes some information about EMDR (sure there are more indepth articles, this was just the 1st web site that popped up in google for me).

http://www.safeharborhouse.com/artic...PTSD-Treatment

I've personally undergone this techinique before and it was helpful. But I did have some side effects as my session was "incomplete" the therapists called it. Which she explained everything to me before. To that I was grateful or I would have thought I'd completely lost my mind when they happened.

Just sharing that experience in that if possible to establish a relation with his other care providers it might give you a heads up on how to problem solve even better.

As others have stated, agreed about your caring attitude and going the extra mile. Your patient is blessed to have you.

Good Luck.

[Wahine]

Thank you Biciclista.

There's a fascinating story about how this fella came into my life but it's a very long story. Definitely interesting, but perhaps too long for TE. The Cole's version is I never used to be able to tolerate people who demonstrated self destructive behavior or people couldn't take action when action was needed. When dealing with these patients, I would get very frustrated to the point of it being unhealthy for me. Over the last 6 years, I have worked very hard to understand that some people are just not wired like I am. That their drive is different and that I needed to be more compassionate with those individuals for my own good. I did better but it was still a struggle for me to understand.

The day before this fella came into my life I was involved in a group role playing/problem solving session that went down a very strange path. A path that I thought had nothing to do with my current life circumstances. It ended up dealing with PTSD. The very next day, this man comes into my clinic for an evaluation. He ranted for 30 min at the get go and I sat and listened. I didn't get frustrated, I just let him go. Eventually, we got through it and got on to the business of PT. I was able to help him.

I came out of that appointment knowing that there was a very important life lesson for me in my relationship with this person. So, I've tried to keep that my focus through all of this.

I really appreciate everyone's input and kind words. It is very helpful because I do still struggle with it. Even though I know that when it's all over I will have learned something from it all that will result in a happier and healthier me. So really, it is all about me.

[Wahine]

You might consider if the patient would sign a release of patient confidentiality consent for you to contact his therapist and see what suggestions he/she might have (and/or start with asking the medical doctor's advice- since your PT order stems from them).

As others have stated, agreed about your caring attitude and going the extra mile. Your patient is blessed to have you.

Good Luck.

Thank you for your input. I've done these techniques myself and did find them very useful.

[indysteel]

Thank you for your input. I've done these techniques myself and did find them very useful.

Me too. My therapist asked me to volunteer for it so that she could get enough hours to be certified in EMDR. While I don't technically have PSTD, I do have some things from my childhood that were traumatic, and EMDR really helped me process through them in a way that talk therapy had not. If your patient hasn't considered it, perhaps that's something you could discuss with him.

As others have stated, your compassion toward this man and desire to help and understand him is admirable.