PTSD – The Stress Connection with Christine Hunt

Hello and welcome to Shedding the Bitch Radio, where you can discuss, debate, and get advice on how to discover and shed the bitches of fear, insecurity, self-doubt, and negative mindsets so you can realize your dreams and life purpose and create and accelerate the riches you want in life. Join us here live every Tuesday at noon Eastern and dialogue with us at 818-572-2910. You can also chat with us at blogtalkradio.com/sheddingthebitch or share your stories on our website at sheddingthebitch.com. Whatever the bitch is that's holding you back from living your life to the fullest, it's not worth giving up the riches in life that you deserve. So call in now and let Bernadette Boas know what's holding you back.

818-572-2910. Good day, good day, good day everyone. Welcome to Shedding the Bitch Radio. And yes indeed, I am Bernadette Boas of Ball of Fire Coaching. I'm really excited about today's conversation because June is PTSD Awareness Month, post-traumatic stress disorder, and this month is meant to really bring awareness to the issues that surround the disorder while at the same time reducing the stigma around it. And our guest today is going to ensure that we fully understand who, what, where, how, and when, um, around PTSD. So stay tuned. I'm so happy that they do, you know, kind of devote a month to recognizing PTSD and, and just the severity of it, and, you know, recognizing that we all could use help when it comes to dealing with PTSD, whether that's for ourselves or for other people. So we're going to have a fabulous, deep, rich conversation in regards to that so you have the tools and the tips and some strategies to kind of help you or others through whatever it is that you might be dealing with. But before we get into all of that, I want to, uh, thank our new listeners and viewers who are finding us, whether it's on BlogTalkRadio, Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, any one of the streaming services, as well as on our Shedding the Bitch YouTube channel and our Shedding the Bitch Facebook page, where we're streaming both audio and video. And you are finding us, you're liking, subscribing, you're posting, and more importantly, you're actually commenting and giving us suggestions both on topics and on guests. And we so, so appreciate that because this is for you. This show is your show and we wanna make it the best that it can be to give you the tools and the tips and strategies and mindset so you can create riches in your life. And of course, you're probably finding it via our ongoing tribe of listeners and viewers who are also rating, subscribing, following, sharing, liking, and please continue to do so because it's with all of your devotion and loyalty to Shedding the Bitch Radio that we are picking up steam and many, many listeners and viewers, and we're so grateful for that. I also wanna thank our ongoing sponsor, North Georgia Tax Solutions. Debbie Schnelling and her team provide full service financial and tax services to small to corporate size clients all over the country, not just North Georgia. And she and her team are just fabulous and they'll take care of both your personal and your business needs. So be sure to go to ngtaxsolutions.com to learn more about what— how they can help you through whatever money, money issues you might be having. All right, NG Tax Solutions.

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Now, today's conversation, like I said, is all about PTSD and the stress connection. Life Wellness Coach Christine Hunt will be sharing the connection between PTSD, trauma, and stress, and the effects on not only the person with PTSD but with all of those who they are— they come in contact with, including, including loved ones, friends, and co-workers. So what we really want you to be listening for, and what Christine really wants to kind of hone in today, is having a conversation of the types of trauma and what can lead to PTSD, the symptoms of PTSD, and I think this is important so you can kind of be aware in case you're experiencing it or you're witnessing someone else, and the effect they have on the person and others within their circle of family and friends. Then the connection of PTSD to stress and how it affects health overall, and how it contributes to weight gain and chronic illness. So we definitely want to help you get it under control. And then short and long-term alternative therapies that you could be pursuing in order to— in order to— well, I'll ask her, does it cure it or does it just, you know, manage it? Well, so we'll talk to her about that as well. Now, for our guests and all of you, especially if you are new listeners or viewers, I'd like to ground you in a rich, rich question. So you might come on and you might be like, well, I really don't have anything that affects me when it comes to PTSD. Well, you may think that, but what I want you to do is really consider that, you know what, it might not be you, but it might be other people that you're, you're coming in contact with on a regular basis at work or at home. So I really want you to be thinking about what, if any, form of PTSD could you be dealing with. Remember, it's tied to stress as well. So what, if any, form of PTSD might you be experiencing and/or witnessing from other people? Keep that in mind as we get into this conversation because I think it's going to be important for, for you to then really take in the tips and strategies she's going to share with us. Okay, now Christine Hunt is a life wellness coach, certified EFT practitioner, speaker, and founder of Hunt for Hope Wellness. She discovered the healing power of EFT, which is Emotional Freedom Techniques, also known as tapping, and transformed her own life from one burdened with low self-esteem, financial lack, and chronic illness to a life of joy, success, personal satisfaction, and wellness. Her work is dedicated to helping people understand the link between their emotional baggage and stress, stress, which can affect their health, overall well-being, and peace of mind. Her methods, and I am a testament to this, we'll talk about it, but I am, I'm a testament to this. Her methods are so effective that her clients reach new heights in creativity and productivity along with deeper peace and relaxation in their personal and professional lives. They call her the miracle worker. Christine helps relieve the silent struggle with stress by helping her clients overcome the actual root causes of their emotional and physical distress. So they have a life that they can live and a body that they love. So right now, be sure to go to huntforhopewellness.com, and you can be looking into it as you're either watching or listening to us and learn all about Christine as well. Christine, I'm so excited that you're here.

How are you? I am very well. Thank you so much for having me again. I appreciate it.

Oh, you are so welcome. Yes, we had a conversation in regards to, in regards to your business, in regards to Hunt for Hope Wellness and what it is that you do. But we're going to talk about that here too because I want to be sure that all of our listeners and viewers get an opportunity to leverage what it is that you have to offer. But in today's conversation about PTSD, being that you really, you know, work on stress and emotional, especially emotional distress. Where does PTSD fit into all of this for you?

Well, PTSD is kind of like the mother of all stress because stress comes from trauma. And, and there's different kinds of trauma. So let's just kind of start there, if, if that would be a good place to start.

Yep.

There's different kinds of trauma. So there's little t trauma, which can be just kind of a situation that caused you embarrassment or humiliation, or, you know, somebody took something that was yours and you got angry about it, and it was something maybe that you really, really enjoyed. So the loss of that item that you really liked was somewhat traumatic to you. So these are the kinds of things that will maybe affect your self-esteem, your self-confidence, and just, it's nothing really super big, but it may have long-lasting effects on you. It may shape thought patterns. You may have created a belief out of that. So if someone stole something from you, then Well, not everybody in the world is nice, okay? Or you have to be careful of people that look like that because they can steal things from you. So, so those are kinds of the lessons that we learn from those kinds of things. Now, big T traumas are different. Big T traumas are situations in which people, they may fear bodily harm. You know, getting injured or even death. So these are the kinds of things that are going to manifest into PTSD for some people.

Right.

And, and, and it is that, that, that tremendous fear of death or loss or, you know, bodily harm. Yeah. That will implant that in a person. So those can be things like an assault, seeing someone else killed, armed combat. It can even be being trapped in a natural disaster like an earthquake or a tsunami, right? You know, anything like that, right? Geez.

Oh my God, that last set of things got my heart racing, like, just from PTSD, I think. No, no, no, I don't, I don't want to minimize it. I I take that back. Okay, but many people will kind of immediately respond that PTSD, oh, that's only kind of like the people that come back from the military and overseas and war and whatnot. And that's, you know, PTSD. I don't have PTSD even though I might struggle with X, Y, and Z. So help us understand, help us understand how we do have to look at it nowadays recognize that it isn't just these dramatic traumatic things, you know, that somebody has PTSD.

Yeah, so basically about 60% of men and 50% of women will experience one big T trauma in their lives, and that basically equates to about 8 million people a year all right, that, that acquire PTSD symptoms based on traumas that they experience. It could be being in a really bad car accident. Yeah. Okay, that can cause PTSD. For women, the usual kinds of things that have prompted PTSD for them might have to do with they were molested as a child or sexually assaulted as an adult woman. All right, raped or, you know, adversely approached in that way, that can be terrifying. That is invasion of their personal space, right? So in a way, it does have to do with that bodily harm sort of thing. So, but then for men, they might be involved in some kind of a physical assault, they might witness maybe a death or an injury. I mean, women can, can be involved in those same kinds of things too, but it might be more, more more prevalent for combat veterans, of course, to have that sort of thing. But you've got a lot of women in combat in the military now too. They are in those situations as well.

I witnessed a shooting when I— I'm not sure how old I was. I want to say it was like 10 or 11. I witnessed someone being shot in my neighborhood. And yeah, and I don't think about it a lot, but at the same time, I'm sure there's there's some triggers there. Yeah. If I were to really, really pay attention to it, right?

Yeah, yeah. Now, now, okay, you got to figure, let's just take armed combat. You have a platoon or a company of soldiers, they're all in the same battle, right? Now there's going to be anywhere from, I guess it's 5 to 10% of combat veterans may suffer from PTSD. So what's the difference? You can have two men in a foxhole and one gets out of the battle with thinking, oh, this is just a routine, routine exercise sort of thing, and the other one comes out with PTSD. Okay, why is that? And so our background has a lot to do with that. It can be— it can kind of go both ways. If a person has had a lot of adverse experiences in their life, if they have found a way to overcome them and cope with them and be able to manage and, and be prepared for that, then they may be less likely to have a combat experience like that and be damaged and come out of it with the PTSD.

Right.

So, or that can be a tipping point for a person. The combat experience can be the tipping point because they've had this accumulation of things that have occurred over the, over their lifetime, and this is just the straw that breaks the camel's back for them. Now, the same kind of thing can happen for a person who maybe they haven't had a lot of bad experiences in their life, They've had a wonderful life, hardly any kind of trauma, a great upbringing with loving parents and things like that, lots of friends, a good social network, and then they get into that kind of a combat situation or whatever the traumatic issue, you know, situation is, right? And, and they're not prepared for it. They don't know how to handle that kind of an experience. And so that can push them over the edge as well. So it just depends on a lot about the person's history and their coping mechanisms that they've been able to put in place that would determine whether or not they get tipped over the edge.

And when you even say tipped over the edge, you're not— well, let me phrase it as a question. Are you saying like, you know, they tip over the edge to where, oh my God, they have this massive blowup or they just go, you know, they have a mental break or something really dramatic, or is it just the fact that they go over the edge in that it creates such degrees of anxiety and stress and emotional distress that they're just, you know, not happy people, they're having trouble coping, so forth and so on?

It can go both ways.

Yeah.

I mean, a person can be so traumatized that they are in this perpetual frozen state of shock. And, and so therefore they just cannot function socially anymore. They, they just cannot deal with life anymore because they are frozen in that time. The, the trauma has been so bad that that is all that they can think about, and, and that's it.

Yeah.

But for other people, yeah, they can function, but they will have the symptoms. And, and it's so depending on the types of symptoms or the severity of the symptoms will determine how full-blown we'll say the PTSD would be for them.

Right. Now you talked about kind of, you know, men and women in the military and whatnot, but maybe like in psychographic terms, who suffers from PTSD?

Anybody.

Anybody.

Anybody can, again, based on what they're exposed to and what their, what their life has been or their coping mechanisms about dealing with adversity, you know, what their skill level is basically on that. So you or I could be driving down the road going to the grocery store and we could be in a head-on collision, all right, and we could be very traumatized because, you know, we see that person coming toward us and all of these ideas flash through our head. Are they going to turn? Are they going to stop? What should I do? You know, so there's all of these aspects around these traumas too. You see that person, they recognize, they see you, the eyes go wide, there's all kinds of sensory experiences that go along with it. There might be the the motion of the impact of the accident. There might be squealing tires, so there's a sound. There's a sound of a crash, breaking glass. There can be the smell of rubber if there is, you know, brakes applied and the tires get hot. There's all kinds of sensory experiences that go along with trauma as well. And so this is where a person can get triggered. I mean, we can talk a little bit more about that.

Yes.

That was going to be my next question about the triggers then. After that trauma, you know, the things that trigger, you know, PTSD.

Yeah, yeah. So again, trauma can happen to anyone. A person can be walking down the street in their neighborhood or on a city street out for a lovely dinner with their spouse or friends, and they can be held up at gunpoint. They can be assaulted and beaten up and mugged and robbed. So These can all be very traumatic for people. And then, like I say, the, the natural disasters, right? Earthquakes, tsunamis, being caught in a hurricane in a small boat, those kinds of things, right? So it can happen to anybody. But essentially, as far as the triggers, it will be related to the sensory experiences that they encountered during that trauma. So just like I said about the sensory experiences of a car accident, whenever they hear a sound kind of like that breaking glass or that crunch of the impact, that's going to prompt them to react exactly the same way that they did during that traumatic experience. The smell of burning rubber may have— may trigger them in that way. For combat veterans who have been exposed to explosions during combat, you're not going to see too many of them at fireworks displays. Right, right, right. Yeah. So it really, really, really does depend. And if I may just kind of explain the stress reaction and how the memory and the sensory, the sensory stimulus gets lodged into the subconscious. Absolutely. So let's go with, let's go with you're in 5th grade, you're 10 years old, and the class was assigned a book report that they had to give orally. And the teacher calls on you and you weren't prepared, but you have to get up there anyway. So now you're very nervous. So you, you know, your face is flushed, your palms are getting sweaty because, well, you just don't like to be up in front of people anyway. You don't like to be in the spotlight. So you're getting kind of anxious to begin with, and you get up there and you kind of stumble through the book report because you hadn't finished it. You really didn't know what you were talking about. And now the kids in the class are starting to make fun of you, and they're starting to laugh at you, and they're kind of talking to each other, kind of snickering and that kind of thing. And now you can see that the teacher is getting angry at you because she can tell that you were not prepared. So you're up there, you're completely embarrassed, you're humiliated because you're on the spot, all right, and you've done something bad in that not being prepared. Like I say, palms are sweaty, you're all flushed, you're probably sweating all over your body by now, right, and this is like the worst experience of your entire life. The teacher just says, "Eh, go sit down," obviously angry with you. So you go sit down and you make a vow, "I am never going to do that again." Now, that can go two ways because you can say, "I am never going to do that again. I am always going to be prepared and get my homework done so that I'm never put in that position," or a fear of public speaking may arise.

Yeah.

And the fear of public speaking is the number one fear next to death.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, so now what has happened, this experience, the memory of this experience, uh, and all of the sensory factors that go along with it are now going to reside in your subconscious mind. Because you are very stressed during that experience, what will happen is that when you feel threatened, okay, people are making fun of you, might have thrown some spitballs at you kind of thing, you're, you are personally feeling threatened in some way. So therefore the stress reaction is going to kick in for you. That's the fight or flight or freeze response.

Right.

And when that happens, there's a part in the brain called the amygdala, and it determines whether or not something is dangerous and whether or not it needs to release cortisol and adrenaline into the body so that you can either fight this threat or run away from it. Okay, so this little part of the brain called the amygdala is involved in this. So now The threat is over, but the memory of that experience, and like I say, all of those sensory factors now go into your subconscious mind. From that day forward, anytime you encounter during the course of your day-to-day life any of those sensory experiences that the subconscious mind, whose main job is to keep you safe and alert you to danger, right?

Right.

Okay, that subconscious mind sees that stimuli as, "Oh, that reminds me of that time," and you're going to react exactly the same way you did during that first experience up in front of your 5th grade class. So if you're called on in a meeting to stand up and give a short presentation about some aspect of work that you are doing and how that applies to a project, You are going to break out in a sweat. Your palms are going to get sweaty. You might hyperventilate. You're going to feel very, very anxious and uncomfortable, and you're going to be afraid that people are going to make fun of you and that you're going to be embarrassed and humiliated. Right.

Yeah.

So, so that— so those kinds of reactions in our bodies, the thoughts that go on, the emotional reactions that we have the beliefs, the latent beliefs that are created that kick in as a result of our experiences, all come back to life for us when we have those stimuli that trigger those reactions in us.

And you know, that happened when you were 5, but you could be 55 and it's still happening if you haven't kind of reckoned it, you know, or reckoned it, If you hadn't recognized it and worked on it.

Yes, exactly, exactly. And so that's why, that's why the reactions to these traumas never go away, right, until you go back to the root cause, the original experience, and you reduce the intensity of all of the stress factors that occurred at that time.

Yeah.

And when you do that, which is what I do, then you neutralize the emotional connection to that experience. It's no longer dangerous for you. And now the memory of that experience goes into your subconscious mind and it reconsolidates the memory of that experience. So the old memory now is gone away, doesn't apply anymore. The new memory is when I encounter those kinds of stimuli, it's not a threat. So the stress factor doesn't kick in.

Yeah.

And it's a non-issue.

Right. Right.

No longer triggered. Yeah. Now, what does it take?

What does it take for someone kind of to recognize in themselves that, you know, they actually are dealing with, you know, PTSD when it comes to a particular situation in their life?— I mean, what does it take for them to kind of see that in themselves?

Well, there's a lot of varieties of symptoms, and there may just be one symptom or there can be a combination of symptoms. A big one is flashbacks, and I know that there's some movies out there that, that kind of illustrate that, particularly for the combat veterans. But again, it can be if there is— I kind of had a personal experience where I had an accident I was towing our big 33-foot RV, and we came over a hill on a highway in North Carolina, and there was a row of backed-up people ahead of me, and all I saw was red lights, the red taillights, all right? And it wasn't a severe impact, but it was kind of one of those slow-motion impact sort of things. I won't go into the details of that, but I will tell you that from that time on, I, whenever I saw red, red taillights light up, even driving anywhere, even without the trailer, right, you know, I kind of went into that, you know, slow down, slow down, right, kind of mode. All right, now I've taken care of that. I have, I have abolished that reaction in me. But it can be the simplest little thing like that. So that, in a way, is a little bit of a flashback because there is that stimuli that takes you right back to that experience.

And that emotion, like you said, the emotion, the beliefs, all of it, you know. Yeah. Now, okay, so you brought up abolish, and I love that. Abolish. So, well, we're talking about shedding the bitch, but abolish. Um, so how can someone— they've recognized it now, they now recognize it.

How?

Okay, let's go through some more of the symptoms.

Okay.

All right. Okay, okay. So sometimes for, for people that have been attacked or that have been in combat, they might have a hypervigilance. They're always on guard, just waiting for something.

Okay.

There can be a level of anger, an increased level of anger. They're just mad at the world. Because they don't feel good. Something's wrong.

Right.

And so there's a problem with that. They may become socially distant because they know there's something wrong and they're just not comfortable around other people anymore. They don't want to be reacting in bad ways that are going to embarrass people or cause a scene. They may go into depression because, well, the social distancing— now they're withdrawing into themselves. So there's a lot of chronic anxiety, and there may be depression about that. Depression can also be as a result of, say, this grief, loss of themselves, loss of a way of life, loss of something that they may have enjoyed in their lives.

Yeah.

So all of these kinds of things can contribute to a depression. They may have nightmares, which will be interrupting their sleep. And so, you know, if they have a spouse or a significant other that they're sleeping with, then they're not getting any sleep either.

Right, right, right.

So chronic pain, chronic illness can come from this. They will become emotionally numb, and this is also part of that distancing from their loved ones or even social engagements, which causes them to kind of isolate themselves. So as a relationship, or as a result, relationships will suffer. Many times they'll end in divorce, either because the tension is so bad between the two parties, or many times they will, they will get the divorce because they don't want to hurt their family anymore. Then that also, these things can lead to substance abuse. And, you know, drugs and alcohol are the big ones, but there's all kinds of other behaviors. Those kinds of things. And then the ultimate, of course, is suicide, because when a person gets to that point, they've lost all hope. Yeah, they've had a lot of the other symptoms and they can't seem to find a way out of the mire, and so they've lost hope and they, they just wanted to end.

Yeah, yeah.

So, so yeah, so, so then as far as the symptoms Those can be some of the things. I mean, there's a lot. Sure. There's so many, but these are the most prevalent. Right. And so those are the things that for each individual to be noticing about themselves, that self-awareness, and the people that are around them, whether they're loved ones, family members, or even coworkers and employers.

Yeah.

To be seeing with these kinds of things.

Right.

And just be tuning into them, you know, because Some people, you know, somebody will have gone distant and yet the other person, it's almost like they delete that, you know, that observation quickly and they don't, you know, ever really pay attention to it and see it for what it is, you know.

Yeah, or they feel as though, oh, it's none of my business, or that's just the way that they are because particularly if they're starting a new job or something and they don't know the person very well. Then they don't know, right, what's going on with that person. So they may just not— okay, you know, he just wants to be left alone, I'll just leave them alone.

Right, right. Okay, great. I'm so appreciative of that. And everybody just pay attention to all of those symptoms and use it as a checklist for yourself and for others around you. All right, so now we have all the symptoms, right?

Yeah.

Okay, and someone says, yes, I'm dealing with this, this, and this. Kind of, you know, what can they do next to then, you know, figure out, okay, this is PTSD or it's not, or what do I need to do? What typically do they do next?

So as far as the therapy is concerned?

Yeah, as far as seeking help and support to address it.

They're having a stress reaction. So the first thing that we want to do is to bring down the stress reaction and to create a more of a state of calm. And so a very common thing that can be done very quickly and anywhere is deep breathing. And there's a lot of different varieties of, of breathing out there. And one of them that I've learned about is called coherent breathing or heart coherence. And essentially what that is, is you breathe in for 4 seconds and you visualize breathing in through your heart. Okay. Then you hold for 4 seconds and then you exhale and you visualize exhaling through your heart. So now this gives you a little visual to keep you occupied while you are doing this in and out breathing. So we'll just do it for a couple of breaths. So breathe in for 4 seconds, visualizing breathing in through your heart. 1, 2, 3, 4. Then hold it. And then exhale. 1, 2, 3, 4, out through the heart.

I love the whole heart thing.

Yes, and what this does is because your heart is communicating with your brain, you see, the brain is really only the processor. It's taking the information that the gut and the heart are feeding it as far as what is going on with the person environmentally, and it is categorizing it, and it is filing away the information. So this heart coherence begins to get the brain and the heart in synchronicity, into a coherent state where they are working together. So that's one kind of thing to do. Meditation is another kind of thing, and it can be just, just take a minute and, you know, just focus on something else, do a little bit of the breathing. You can elongate the meditation. You can meditate to tapes and things like that, and that will help as well. Everybody needs to find their own.

Yeah.

Meditate to tapes, did you say? Yeah, there's all kinds of recordings that you can meditate to that are instructional.

Okay, gotcha. Okay, now I— okay, all right.

All right. And then there's mindfulness, of course, being mindful or aware of your reactions.

Yeah, that's the hard end.

Yes, yes it is, yes it is. But I like to use the term awareness because I feel as though it's more powerful. And, and once you're aware of something, then you can make a decision as to what to do about it, right? How to act or react differently, right? Acupuncture has been very helpful for people with PTSD. I'm not exactly sure what it's doing for them, but because the meridians are associated with emotions and trauma can be held in the body, right, right, then acupuncture helps to open up those energy meridians and allow the energy to flow better. So that's pretty much what it does based on my experience.

Nice.

Then there's also music therapy and movement therapy. So listening to music that is enjoyable for you or dancing to music that's enjoyable for you.

Yeah.

And what the dancing will do, any kind of movement, it doesn't have to be, you know, a particular dance. It can be any kind of movement to music. And what that's going to do is it's going to start releasing the tension for you. And it helps to just lighten up the emotions and get you out of that heavy anxious state. Right, right. There, and then, you know, there's, there's things called nature therapy. There's getting out in nature, just being outside where the energy is different outside than it is inside.

Right.

And there's these other nature therapies where they use horses for therapeutic riding, interacting with animals, having a dog or a cat as a pet. So having that creature that can give you comfort in some way, and again, kind of taking you out of yourself and directing your attention onto another being. Right. That can be very helpful.

I love the whole pet thing because it's a heartbeat. It's another heartbeat that, you know, that you can use to— I love that. I absolutely love that. Yes.

So those are kind of some short-term sorts of things that people can do. Again, not only for people that actually have the PTSD, but some of the loved ones too. And we'll kind of go back into kind of what, how the loved ones, the reactions, the symptoms that they end up with.

Right.

Yeah.

And I want everybody to understand that because I think, you know, we kind of always focus on the person that is in the, you know, in the dark of it. And yet we kind of forget that you know, everything that's being projected from that individual is affecting all of those people that they come in contact with as well.

Yes, it's called collateral damage.

Collateral damage.

Yeah, because many times when a person that has had a bad trauma, there's a person that's associated with them and learns of it and, and stuff like that, and this person talks about their trauma the other person can become traumatized too. So that's kind of a secondary trauma.

Yeah.

But yeah, well, let me go through the long-term, some of the long-term things too, kind of while we're on that, and then we'll go back and then maybe review a little bit, if that's okay with you.

Okay.

A lot of the more common conventional long-term therapies, of course, are the medications. And the psychological therapy, whether it's a one-on-one thing or whether it is group therapy, group programs, those kinds of things. Those are kind of the long-term things that people can do. And then of course there's what I do, which is EFT.

Yes.

Do you want me to talk about that now?

I was going to bring it up. I was going to bring it up. Yes, go for it.

Okay. The EFT stands for Emotional Freedom Techniques. And, and it does exactly what it says that it does. It frees us from the emotions that we experience when we are traumatized on some level, whether it's a little t trauma or a big T trauma. Right. And as you recall, when I talked about when we have an adverse experience that we perceive as traumatic, the memory of that experience and our reaction and all of the sensory information goes into our subconscious mind. So thereafter, when we encounter a situation that our subconscious mind is reminded of those experiences, we automatically go right back to that traumatic reaction.

Okay.

That's the trigger, okay. The sensory experience is the trigger. So what we do is, because when we recall that memory of that adverse or traumatic experience, we're kind of right back there again, The amygdala is firing, it's sending the cortisol, the palms are sweaty, the, the anxiety is increasing, the fear or the anger, the emotions are there again. You are reliving the experience on some level.

Right.

Now what we are going to do in EFT is we are going to use our fingertips and we are going to tap on acupuncture meridian points. This is known as acupressure. So we're just stimulating these points while we are thinking about the experience, and we are talking about the emotions, any of the thoughts that occurred, any of the sensory experiences that were related to it, maybe something that someone said, a look that you saw from a person. So all of these things we are pulling in and, and, and kind of pulling back into memory as we are tapping. Now, as this— we are tapping on these meridian points, we are sending a calming signal to the amygdala part of the brain. And as the amygdala begins to calm down and sees that, oh, oh, that, that really wasn't a threat at all, now the emotional intensity of that experience, that, oh, there might have been fear related to talking in front of that, you know, 5th grade class. Now the intensity of the fear that maybe started out as an 8, even when you think back on it, we can bring it down to a 0.

Yeah.

Yeah. So now, see, the amygdala is calm. The situation is no longer a threat. There's nothing to be afraid of as a result of that. And so now that new memory of that experience is reconsolidated into the subconscious mind.

Yeah.

So when you encounter a situation, okay, boss calls on you, asks you to do a report and present it in front of the board. Oh, sure, boss. No problem.

It's so, it's so true because there's not a connection to that anymore.

It's a brand new memory.

Yeah. And it's so true, people. It is so true. I went to her and with a particular situation that I was dealing with, I guess about a month ago. And, you know, and I, you know, I'll be right up there. I, you know, I had some skepticism about the whole thing. And, you know, but at the same time, I'm going to consider, you know, whatever opportunities and whatever therapies are out there. And I am so happy that I did because I was shocked. I was pleasantly shocked, uh, because, you know, you sit there and you, you watch it and you're like, what could that be doing? But I know, I know, but at the same time, you know, I have to do a personal shout out to Chris, for Chris, because at the same time she also sends you through a process, you know, she sends you through a series of, um, you know, conversations of talking points of affirmations you know, to kind of, you know, do the magic, you know, and I love— make the miracle because I love the fact that, you know, people call her the miracle worker because I felt that way. I left and I walked away and I ran into a situation. I kind of experienced that same situation that I went for support on. Nothing. No trigger, no stress, no nothing. And so I'm very grateful, very grateful. So the whole EFT, Emotional Freedom Techniques, is definitely something that, you know, you all, y'all need to look into.

Everybody can benefit from it.

Yeah, everybody can benefit from it. I absolutely love it. All right, so we talked a lot about a lot. What is one last tip that you would give someone when when it comes to PTSD, whether it's understanding it or dealing with it?

Be kind to yourself or the loved one.

Yeah.

Yeah. You know, find— recognize the problem, acknowledge it, because that really has to be the first step.

Right.

And for the loved ones, you know, they need their self-care too. When, when the person with PTSD lashes out, they, they need to be in a strong place themselves, right? So they can get to a point where they're walking on eggs and they don't know what to do, and they lash out because they're being lashed out at. They're reacting. So, so the, the best things that we can do on, on both sides of the PTSD problem is to take care of ourselves because it can be emotionally draining. So, so identify that you have the problem and then take steps to find a solution. If the group support things and therapy and medication isn't working, then look for the other things that will work. There's a lot of information out there with a very simple internet search. The things that I've mentioned here today as well as many, many more.

And you can just reach out to her. You can reach out to Kris at huntforhopewellness.com. That's actually your best option. Trust me.

Yes, because the EFT actually gets to the root of the experience. And I will say one thing about— we don't have to go to the memory of the experience. There are techniques within EFT that you don't have to recall the memory, right? And the work can be just as effective with other variations of the EFT techniques, right?

And which is important for everybody to understand, because if you're sitting there getting triggered by just the idea of having to relive a situation and you don't want to, then definitely that's where Kris kind of shines and, and why she's the miracle worker, because she has ways that she can still work on it and address it with you without you having to, to go there again.

That is absolutely awesome.

I also want to mention, people, that she offers free, no-obligation consultations, and where she invests in you in order to really, you know, kind of figure out what it is that you need help with and what is the best technique and what's the best method for doing that. So please reach out to her at huntforhopewellness.com and definitely leverage that complimentary, um, you know, session with her or consultation with her, um, and