Here's what happens

Whether your trauma is physical, mental, emotional, sexual, birth, medical or any other kind of trauma, your body responds by activating your basic survival mechanism, the fight or flight response.

It can now be clinically measured that when a trauma is great enough, you can actually get permanently stuck in a constant state of fight or flight.

After you've survived your trauma, this innate survival response is not only no longer needed, but may actually be causing many of your PTSD symptoms.

Here's what's important to understand

The symptoms of a nervous system chronically stuck in fight or flight are very often the same as those reported in PTSD!

This is not a coincidence, yet it is completely overlooked in most PTSD treatment regimens.

• Could it be that many of your post-trauma symptoms have less to do with your trauma itself, and more to do with your nervous system being stuck in fight or flight?

• Could it be that you might be spending your time and energy mistakenly treating your symptoms, and not the underlying cause of those symptoms?

The answer to both questions is an emphatic YES!

Here's a perfect example

After a lifetime of treating her PTSD, here is how Fight or Flight Therapy changed this
person's life.

CASE REPORT

Post-traumatic Stress Disorder

31 year old woman diagnosed with PTSD referred by her psychotherapist who specializes in trauma and EMDR

History
     very abusive childhood
           food withheld, high expectations, sexual abuse in the family, but not her?
      eating disorders (anorexia, bulimia)
      intense SAD (winter depression)
      "massive clinical depression" in college
           panic attacks, couldn't leave the house
           years of counseling and medications needed to graduate
      stage 3 breast cancer at age 27
           healthy for 3 years now

Symptoms and concerns

     extreme high stress
     anxiety: 9 out of 10 on the anxiety scale
     perceived as intense and hypervigilant
     nightmares:
          very light sleeper
          wakes 1-3 times per night and may not fall back asleep
          has vivid active exhausting nightmares
     fatigue and chronic low energy, due to constant:
          sleep deprivation
          extreme high stress
          9 out of 10 anxiety
     horrible driver:
          6 auto accidents
          totaled 3 cars
          constantly surprised by cars around her
     poor immunity due to chronic stress:
          chronic pelvic pain
          recurrent kidney infections
          can be on antibiotics for weeks at a time
     "I've been surviving since the day I was born"

Initial Fight or Flight Questionnaire Score: 250

Personal goals for therapy

     1. to be calmer and less hypervigilant
     2. improved decision-making and problem solving
     3. to be able to see the 'big picture' and analyze the individual parts
     4. improved ability to prioritize
     5. improved immune system

Initial comments

       "I've been working on these issues my whole life."
       "I don't see how looking at a light is going to help."
       "I'm only here because my therapist insisted I come."

Fight or Flight Therapy

one month later

"I'm able to see the big picture of my whole life"
     for the first time ever
several things came up during the light therapy sessions
     able to work through them with her therapist
     very helpful

two months

"exciting improvement!"
nightmares were almost nightly
now only one in the last 2 ½ weeks
packing for a trip used to take hours, now only 45 minutes
boyfriend says:
less startle, less vigilance, less 'pounce'
both think the changes have been "really impressive"

three months

more of the same changes
     even calmer
     more focused
     a lot mellower
     less head chatter
overall: "a lot more comfortable in my own skin"
hasn't felt the adrenalin rush since the first stage of therapy

Final evaluation (four months total)

handled IRS audit really well (would've been overwhelming before)
feels more integrated
a new sense of ownership over all these new changes with light therapy
major changes in close relationships (better, healthier)
better sense of how to take care of herself

Therapy Goals: final review

1. to be calmer and less hypervigilant: "excellent, huge change"

2. improved decision-making and problem solving: "dramatic"

3. to be able to see the 'big picture' and analyze the individual parts:
"definitely, very capable of now"

4. improved ability to prioritize:
"one of the biggest changes, exceptional"

5. improved immune system
"no medical issues for months, even fewer colds"

Final Fight or Flight Questionnaire Score

Before Fight or Flight Therapy: 250
After Fight or Flight Therapy: 41 !!!

The Fight or Flight Questionnaire

Is Fight or Flight Therapy right for you? These are a sampling of symptoms common in people stuck in fight or flight.

What's your score?
You might be surprised, or maybe just confirm what you already suspect.

Take the questionnaire

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