Elana Miller of Zen Psychiatry shares what veterans with PTSD can teach you about overcoming fear.
Episode 1442: What Veterans with PTSD Can Teach You About Overcoming Fear by Dr. Elana Miller of Zen Psychiatry on Therapy
Elana Miller is a psychiatrist based out of Los Angeles, California. She loves to write, read, and make music. Elana received her B.A. in psychology at Harvard University before studying at the Keck School of Medicine of the University of Southern California, where she was a member of the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Society. I completed my psychiatry residency training at the University of California, Los Angeles, where she was nominated as a UCLA Exceptional Physician.
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This is optimal living daily episode. Fourteen forty two, what veterans with PTSD can teach you about overcoming.
Fear by Dr Yolanda Miller, of Zen, psychiatry, dot com and I'm just a Moloch happy Friday, a welcome to the podcast, where simply red blogs to you for free coming personal growth and so
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what veterans with PTSD can teach you about, overcoming
fear by doktor. You Miller of Zen. Psychiatry cried treat come. Let me ask you a question:
how can you have a daughter more if you have a daughter, imagine her she's about five and one day, she's been by a dog, now she's, terrified of all
dogs and you notice her starting to avoid places she might run into dogs like the park or the neighbor's house. What would you do to help her
get back to the answer in a minute. The secret to overcoming fear is facing it.
As a psychiatry resident of the last year of treat many young veterans who have come back from Iraq and Afghanistan with post, traumatic, stress, disorder, PTSD
first session, as I see to engage them in therapy and can be
stem neither about to start the difficult process of getting better. I ask the same question: if you, anyway,
like my patience, he might have answered something like I'd. Get her a puppy or might take too
how'd and show her the cute dogs intuitive.
We understand that the way to overcome a fear is to face it in psychiatry.
More psychology? This is called exposure therapy. What is the science of fear before? I explain why exposure there be worse,
Let me tell you a little bit about the biology of fear will say: you're walking,
through the woods and all of a sudden, you come across a giant grizzly bear what happens your body? Will flood with stress hormones like adrenaline,
nor journal and also on his up enough for an enormous effort, activating the fight or flight response. Your heart will start a race you'll breathed more heavily your pupils with dilate,
your hands will shake as your scale the muzzles time and he might feel,
obviated as blood flow, guess, diverted away from your gut and two more essential organs like the brain heart and lungs of
sensations are mediated by the binding of
es hormones to receptors in your organs now
there can be a normal adaptive response. When you come,
also bear in the woods, you want to be prepared to fight or most likely run, fear becomes a problem. However, when you start to feel afraid in situations that aren't truly dangerous. How does fear hold you back from my patience with PTSD fear
and held them back in sad, but predictable ways. These young men has spent months or even years in combat zones where their lives were in constant danger, every
sound or movement could indicate the threat of
enemy, combatants or improvise explosive device. Many had friends violently killed
fun of them or were themselves seriously injured even further.
Back alive. They spent many sleepless nights, assuming they would not one of my patients.
Erin found himself unable to adjust to life back in the states. He was terrified to be around people
even though he wanted to go back to school fear setting foot on a crowded college campuses kept him from pursuing his dream. Whenever you
outside of his house, he would whip his head around every few seconds to see if anyone was behind him or following him, he rear
he left his apartment. We had to go to the grocery store for food. He choose twice
our stores and go in the middle of the night when
No one else was there. What stories does fear tell you
You may not have experience such an extreme version of fear, but chances are fear has held you back in small but significant ways. Maybe your
Alright, I'm making a mistake that you don't try new things:
if you're so afraid of saying the wrong thing and looking foolish that you know,
anything at all, maybe you're afraid.
What you want to create art writing a business will be good enough, so you procrastinating procrastinate where our fears start ever heard of Pavlov's dogs Ivan Pavlov
physiologist, who set out to study the savary glands of dogs, but inadvertently disk
over that pairing, a neutral stimulus, a bell within unconditioned stimulus, food, coolly, the dog
this- is our salivating when he rang the Bell, even in the absence of food, if there's something you're afraid of changes
are, there was a point in your life when you learned to be afraid, maybe at a specific scary experience
because many experiences over time- or maybe you just heard
stories from influential people in your life, your parents, teachers-
eighty etc. Like Pavlov's dogs, you may have
to associate something that did not dangerous, making a mistake, speaking in public with the emotion of fear,
trying to ask a girl out on a day by your body is acting like you, ve come across a bear in the woods, but there is good news. Fear.
Is often learned and what is learned can be learned, the process of facing your fears,
is an opportunity to learn a new story,
before a new way of interacting with the world, the science of exposures, Araby,
therapy? Teaches you teaches you a new story as your fear
start to realize o dismissing gonna kill me, your body stopped
releasing stress hormones and stars re absorbing the stress hormones that have already been released. In psychological terms, you activate the fear structure. Put yourself in a situation that makes you afraid can
hunting incorrect cognitions he may have. If I get reject it'll, be horrible or if I get a panic attack I'll die
Therefore, allowing the fear structure to be modified,
you learn a new story with systematic practice
situations that used to evoke fear and anxiety will no longer do so. I promise it. Science had successfully face your fears, don't go for broke on the first try one held
Aaron come up with his homework assignment. I didn't send into a crowded movie theatre to see a violent war movie on day one day
we have been too overwhelming out of most likely led him to feel discouraged and to quit. Therapy is much more important that you face smaller fears, but face them every day
Aaron and I created a fear hierarchy. Elusive situate
since he was afraid of ranked from one to ten mile one
when you feel board and a ten is when you feel your eminence,
you going to die, the sweet spot is to choose
is that ring around six to seven out of ten on your fear, scale for air and his men, going to the grocery store at six p M rush hour or sitting in restaurants, with his back to
door prolonged and repeated repeated and prolonged. When my supervises told me that there are four secrecy doing exposure
therapy right, prolonged and repeated repeated and prolonged get it. There are only two secrets. Whatever fear you are facing, you face, it
free day you face it over and over for as long as it can possibly tolerate. If its not working
because you're not doing it enough a minimum to the exercise for twenty minutes every day. More is
use. Narratives is not practical or say
to face your fear in real life, write it down right out
story of your worst fear coming. True, the more detail
then gory the better first, my business fails them
I please me, then everyone tells me I'm a loser
again and again, while you just cause.
Your very own, in vitro in the lab exposure exercise. After about six months of work together
Erin was a changed man. He enrolled in class
This is at the local college, was dating and had started going to parties and social events. Again he wasn't fear free
we no longer felt held back from living, his life.
You just listen to the post titled. What veterans with PTSD can teach you about
becoming fear by doktor you wanna Miller of sense. I treat our come. A real, quick thanks to anchor for hosting the spot cast anchor is the easiest way to make upon cast they'll distributor podcast for you, so it can be heard everywhere. Spot
by Apple podcast, Google, podcast and many more. You can easily make money from your bike ass to with no minimum listener ship aggregates you everything you need in one place for free, which you can use right from your phone or computer creation tools, light record and edit your podcast. So it sounds great download the anchor up or go to anchor dot fm to get started. They get to relaunch a great tips. I know how hard it is to take this very simple men. Useful advice, so are reinforced. The part about starting small one, tiny step of exposure daily can make a huge difference ass. She went
is ass. I started the show was forced myself to speak more daily, I think is held so stick with it. Keep it up that should do it for the Friday episode of a great weekend. If you listening in real time and I'll catch you,
the weekend where optimal life awaits.
Transcript generated on 2020-01-21.