HACKER Q&A
📣 b20000

Alternatives to Talk Therapy for PTSD


Interested in experiences dealing with and rising above PTSD via routes different from classic talk therapy. Also interested in hearing whether EMDR therapy works or not. I'm also interested in hearing about the effects of gaming on PTSD processing and healing.


  👤 Mezzie Accepted Answer ✓
I have C-PTSD, which is a little different, but I'm also not a fan of talk therapy/'conventional' therapy. I have also heard good things about EMDR, but haven't tried it myself (I ALSO have eye muscle control problems; go figure). I have tried and am working with a therapist who focuses a lot on somatic work, which is basically relearning and managing your physical responses. We don't spend a ton of time on my thought processes because for the most part those are fine: My problem is that my body hasn't gotten the memo that we're not in danger and I'm so dissociative that instead of dealing with my body's symptoms, I bottle them up until they hurt me.

So we go over things like what panic actually looks like/feels like in the body, physical actions I can take to ground myself and/or help myself mentally and why (what parts of the body are being stimulated, etc.)

Regarding gaming, there are some interesting studies about the impact of playing Tetris (and possibly some other puzzle games) on mental health and stress responses, but I can't remember if they addressed PTSD in specific or not.


👤 Arubis
Do you not include EMDR under "Talk Therapy"? If so, you may also want to explore practitioners of SFBT (solution-focused brief therapy) and somatic experiencing therapy. They do involve conversation, but not necessarily directly about the trauma trigger itself.

👤 Arubis