Coach helps Manage PTSD Symptoms
By Debbie Gregory.
A coach is highly respected as one who leads to victory. A coach can help reach goals.
The Veterans Administration has developed a website that will help with managing the troubling symptoms of PTSD. The PTSD Coach Online website is a self-help tool that builds coping and problem-solving skills. Veterans with PTSD can learn to manage troubling symptoms such as trouble sleeping, trauma reminders and anger. There is also a PTSD Coach mobile app, but you don’t need a smartphone for PTSD Coach Online. Anyone who has Internet access can access its tools.
PTSD Coach Online is for anyone who needs help with upsetting feelings. Trauma survivors, their families, or anyone coping with stress can benefit through the following:
- Self-Assessment: Self-assessment of PTSD symptoms with individualized feedback, and the ability to track changes in symptoms over time. The assessment does not formally diagnose PTSD.
- Managing Symptoms: Coping skills and assistance for common kinds of post-traumatic stress symptoms and problems, including systematic relaxation and self-help techniques.
- Assistance in finding immediate support: Enables individuals to identify personal sources of emotional support, populate their cell phones (via the app) with those phone numbers, and link to treatment programs. And in an emergency, users can quickly link to the National Suicide Prevention Hotline.
Learn about PTSD: Education about key topics related to trauma, PTSD, and treatment.
The site also offers 17 tools that deal with a variety of PTSD symptoms, and how to develop the following problem-solving skills:
- Be in the Moment
- Change Negative Thinking
- Identify Your Values and Goals
- Look Carefully at Your Thoughts
- Change Feelings by Changing Thoughts
- Deal with Trauma Reminders
- Learn to Be Assertive
- Notice Your Thoughts and Feelings
- Relax Through Breathing
- Relax through Visualization
- Weigh the Pros and Cons
- Write to Reflect
- Change How You Think About Sleep
- Form Good Sleep Habits
- Learn to Problem Solve
- Plan Something Enjoyable
- Relax Your Body
Although the PTSD Coach Online can help you with symptom management, problem solving and skill building, it is not a substitute for professional mental health treatment and care.
To find PTSD Coach Online, the PTSD Coach Mobile App and other resources on trauma and PTSD visit www.PTSD.va.gov.
