Celebrating Armed Forces Day
As a veteran myself I love the fact that Armed Forces Day openly celebrates the service of the men and women who chose to join up and do their bit. As a therapist and mental health expert I often get ask about how I help ex service personnel with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and I can confidently tell them that I and my associates get great results helping people cope with PTSD and to stop the symptoms most often completely.
However, although PTSD is something veterans can suffer with, the biggest challenge ex-service personnel experience is anxiety and depression.
Many of them find it very difficult to resettle in to civilian life, they’ve lost their identity, their forces family and their routine. All this can be incredibly destabilising for them and their families – remember their families are just as part of this as the service person. Everything they know changes in a blink of an eye. They often find it hard to fit into the new community they find themselves in, relationships suffer, job security has often been left behind. They have lost their direction and purpose. That can create all sorts of negative beliefs about the future leading to anxiety and depression.
Ex-service personnel tend to replace their security blanket of the regiment, order and uniform with other coping mechanisms such as drink, drugs, gambling and even self-harm, all of which are symptomatology of anxiety and depression.
The positive spin on this is a simple one. People who have served have a keen ability for structure. Using the solution focused approach that we use at Inspired to Change Hypnotherapy means that we can very quickly create the conditions and environment where they feel more in control very quickly. We enable them to continue to build the new lifestyle that they not only desire, but they can thrive within. Leaving them able to function at their very best.
If you’re ex-services or you know someone who is struggling with the change of leaving our armed forces, get in touch to book your FREE initial consultation with your local Inspired to Change hypnotherapist. Inspired to Change Hypnotherapists are based across the UK in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridgeshire, Devon, Essex, Fife, Kent, Leicestershire, Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire, Norfolk and Somerset.
Inspired to Change Hypnotherapists are all recognised by the National Council for Hypnotherapy, the UK’s leading not-for-profit hypnotherapy professional association.
To find out how you can train as a solution focused hypnotherapist click here for our hypnotherapy school information
About the Author: Gary Johannes is the founder of Inspired to Change Hypnotherapy and an ex-RAF serviceman. When he isn’t helping to empower individuals to overcome mental health issues like stress and anxiety, and teaching the next generation of solution focused hypnotherapists, Gary campaigns to raise awareness of mental health issues and suicide prevention in men.