Showing posts with label emt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label emt. Show all posts

Thursday, January 28, 2010

FREE Learning To Relax Audio

Hey everyone,

I just posted my last Teleclass, Learning To Relax, for FREE at destressyourself.com.

Check it out, you can listen now or right click to download it to your computer.

I hope you enjoy....


Elizabeth

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

HOW TO DESTRESS YOURSELF

I have five major web sites, Destress Yourself, Destress Yourself Blog, Destress for the EMS, Elizabeth Stanfill (which is our newsletter archive), and Frazier Park, CA.  I also have some research tools to each of these web sites, that show me what people type into the search engine to get to my web sites.  Really cool huh?  I love that stuff!

The number one phrase that is used, everyday, to get to my websites is, "How to Destress Yourself."

Everyday, I am helping people to 'destress yourself'.

If I only had a few minutes to talk with you and you really needed help to Destress Yourself, this is what I would tell you.

There is a stress response, better known as the 'fight or flight' response, that is activated when we face stressful situations.  When the stress response is activated it increases our heart rate, respiration rate, blood pressure, blood circulation, and causes our blood-flows and many other body functions to shift.

Now, not everyone reacts to each situation the same way because we all think differently.  Our reactions (thoughts about a situation) are what causes this stress response.  So, a situation happens (it could be anything), we see it as stressful (we think doubt, fear, and worry), and then our stress response kicks in.

Negative emotions like anger, frustration, disgust, sadness, anxiety, irritation, aggravation, hatred, misery, depression, grief, and nervousness, imitate the stress response.  So every time you have a negative emotion (for some, this could be all day long) you are creating wear and tear on your body.

SIDE NOTE:  these negative emotions are standard and repetitive for many (the stressed) and that is why I call them habitual ways of reacting.  These habitual ways of reacting can be decreased and eliminated.

So, in order to Destress Yourself, you must discover how, when, and why you are activating this stress response, and then learn how to decrease and ultimately eliminate it.  Or, you could just change your negative reactions.  This may be very easy or this may be very difficult, it just depends on your willingness and commitment.

Let me give you and example of activating the stress response.  A very stressed out person has a habit of worrying about everything because of the way they look at the world and a very relaxed person has a habit of having faith about most things because of the way they look at the world.

So, if I were to ask a question like, "I wonder what is going to happen to our economy?"  A stressed out person would think and talk about all the things that could go wrong, all the while experiencing the negative emotions mentioned above.  A relaxed person would think and talk about all of the positive things that are in store for us and experience more positive emotions.

When the stressed out person starts to think and talk about all the things that could go wrong, guess what?  That's right, the stress response kicks in.  The stress response may kick in all day long for this person because of the way they think.  Their thought process is full of doubt, fear, and worry (stressful).  Not only does this person have a very habitual and stressful way of thinking, they also have a very stressful habit of kicking in the stress response.

This stress response is causing emotional illnesses like depression and anxiety, mental illnesses like a racing mind, the inability to concentrate, and indecisiveness, and physical illnesses like gastrointestinal problems, head aches, neck aches, and shoulder aches from the tension.

This stress response is causing individuals to do things, that they think make them feel better, like binge eating, drinking, smoking, numbing through drugs and medication, as well as immoral behavior like addiction to pornography or inappropriate sexual behavior.

This stress response is wearing out the mind and body and therefore, causes exhaustion and fatigue.  This causes mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual exhaustion, also known as Burnout.

STRESS IS THE NUMBER ONE CAUSE OF EVERY ILLNESS!  I believe this with all my heart and if you knew what I know, and see the things I see, and have seen, you would believe it too.

The best way to Destress Yourself is with education and action.  Last week we discussed that "IT IS TIME' to take responsibility for your life.

Take responsibility for your life by learning how, when, and why you are activating the stress response.  The best way to do this is by learning to relax.  I mean really learn how to relax, which is the opposite of the stress response.  We can call it the relaxation response.

Once you learn to relax, or activate the relaxation response, you will be very skilled at noticing when you are activating the stress response because of your awareness.  When you learn to relax you become more aware of your mind and body because of your ability to implement the relaxation response at anytime and anywhere.

You have a choice, you can activate the stress response, which is unintentional, or you can activate the relaxation response, which is intentional.  That is the difference between a stressed out person, who lives their life unintentionally, and a relaxed person, who lives their life full of intention. 

With that said, I would like you to join me for our FREE Tele Class on, you guessed it, Learning to Relax.

This Wednesday, January 27, 2010, at 7 am Pacific Time (10 am Eastern).

Dial in number 1-213-289-0500

Access Code  205356#

Meet You There!

Have a wonderful week!!!

Don't forget to have fun and be playful!

Please email me if you have any questions, I would love to hear from you. 

elizabeth@destressyourself.com


Friday, January 22, 2010

DSM-IV-TR CRITERIA FOR PTSD PART II

DSM-IV-TR FOR PTSD Cont.

CRITERION D:  HYPER-AROUSAL

Persistent symptoms of increasing arousal (not present before the trauma), indicated by at least two of the following:

1.  Difficulty falling or staying asleep

2.  Irritability or outbursts of anger

3.  Difficulty concentrating

4.  Hyper-vigilance

5.  Exaggerated startle response

CRITERION E:  DURATION

Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in B, C, and D) is more than one month.

CRITERION F:  FUNCTIONAL SIGNIFICANCE

The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of function.

Specify if:

Acute:  if duration of symptoms is less than three months

Chronic:  If duration of symptoms is three months or more

Specify if:

With or without delay onset:  Onset of symptoms at least six months after stressor.

REFERENCES

American Psychiatric Association. (200).  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR (Fourth ed.).  Washington D.C.:  American Psychiatric Association

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

DSM-IV-TR CRITERIA FOR PTSD PART I

DSM-IV-TR CRITERIA FOR PTSD

In 2000, the American Psychiatric Association revised the PTSD diagnostic criteria in the fourth edition of it's Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV-TR).  The diagnostic criteria (Criteria A-F) are specified below.

Diagnostic criteria for PTSD include history of exposure to a traumatic event meeting two criteria and symptoms from each of three symptoms clusters:  intrusive recollections, avoidant/numbing symptoms, and hyper-arousal symptoms.  A fifth criterion concerns duration of symptoms and a sixth assesses functioning.

CRITERION A:  STRESSOR

The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following have been present:

1.  The person has experienced, witnessed, or been confronted with an event or events that involve actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of oneself or others.

2. The person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.  Note:  In children, it may be expressed instead by disorganized or agitated behavior.

CRITERION B:  INTRUSIVE RECOLLECTIONS

The traumatic event is persistently re-experienced in at least one of the following ways:

1.  Recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions.  Note:  in young children, repetitive play may occur in which themes or aspects of the trauma are expressed.

2.  Recurrent distressing dreams of the event.  Note:  in children, there may be frightening dreams without recognizable content.

3.  Acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashbacks episodes, including those that occur upon awakening or when intoxicated).  Note:  in children, trauma-specific reenactment may occur.

4.  Intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolizes or resemble an aspect of traumatic event.

5.  Physiological reactivity upon exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.

CRITERION C:  AVOIDANT/NUMBING

Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma), as indicated by at least three of the following:

1.  Efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the trauma.

2.  Efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma.

3.  Inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma.

4.  Markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities.

5.  Feeling detachment or estrangement from others.

6.  Restricted range of affect (e.g., unable to have loving feelings).

7.  Sense of foreshortened future (e.g., does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span).


REFERENCES

American Psychiatric Association, (2000).  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-IV-TR (Fourth ed.).  Washington D.C.:  American Psychiatric Association.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

DESTRESS FOR THE EMS TELECLASS INFORMATION FOR APRIL




Please join us this Wednesday morning, at 6 am Pacific time/9 am Eastern, April 29, 2009, for our Destress for the EMS (Emergency Medical Service) Teleclass. We will talk about how we can Destress by discussing our stressful habits that we have and turning them into successful practices.

Dial in Number 1-309-946-5100

Access code 205356#

Please be on time for class because there are limited number of lines. Although this class is free, long distance charges apply. If you miss this class, it will be available in our store within a few days for a small fee.


I am very excited about this class because stress in the EMS is very common and there is no reason anyone should not live with happiness, energy, and vitality. This is gonna be fun! I can't wait!


Just a reminder, the majority of Destress Yourself Products, in our store, will be 50 to 75% off for limited time. Enjoy! :-)


Elizabeth



Friday, March 6, 2009

HAVING LUNCH WITH OFFICERS

I was having lunch with three public safety officers today and something came to my mind. When there is a Critical Incident and the emergency personnel seek out help I see four things.

1) The department is the organizer of the intervention.

2) The personnel, almost always, say that they are fine and they don't know why they need to participate, at the beginning of the meeting.

3) Once we get started, and everyone is involved, the personnel are okay with, and perfectly willing to participate.

4) After the intervention, the camaraderie with the officers is very close and jovial.

There is, nearly always, resistance to this sort of intervention and I will share my theory with you as to why.

When emergency responders have a critical incident, they are sometimes unwilling to participate in the intervention because it is seen as a weakness to indicate needing help. These personnel are heroes, they help people for a living, and needing help is not seen as part of the role.

I have met thousands of emergency workers, and many of them are truly emotionally stable individuals but, sometimes, when they experience an extraordinary event, that may be deemed as critical, they may experience mild, moderate, or severe signs and symptoms of stress.

Everyday there are police officers, paramedics, fire fighters, and emergency personnel, including doctors and nurses, that experience critical incidents, and then they have signs and symptoms that affect their ability to cope with everyday life.

They experience lack of sleep, too much sleep, anger, irritability, moodiness, increase in unhealthy habits, anxiety, depression, and/or an increase in physical injuries or illnesses.

Sometimes, the most happy, emotionally stable person can experience disruption due to a critical incident, which is totally normal. We are human, we have emotions, and therefore, experience stress.

If you are having a hard time with signs and symptoms of stress, chances are you need assistance. With that assistance you can become you again. What I mean by that is, when we experience this stress, we do not feel like ourselves because our life seems disrupted.

For a free audio on stress management, please visit our store. And for help with your happiness, energy, and vitality, please visit our website and sign up for our free newsletter, and free teleclasses.

Don't forget to have fun and be playful, it is in your nature.

Elizabeth

Monday, February 16, 2009

ACUTE STRESS DISORDER; TREATMENT

Cognitive behavioral therapy is the treatment that has met with the most success in combating ASD. It has two main components: First, it aims to change cognitions, patterns of thought surrounding the traumatic incident. Second, it tries to alter behaviors in anxiety-provoking situations.

Cognitive behavioral therapy not only ameliorates the symptoms of ASD, but also it seems to prevent people from developing post-traumatic stress disorder. The chance that a person diagnosed with acute stress disorder will develop PSTD is about 80 percent; the chance that they will develop PTSD after cognitive-behavioral therapy is only about 20 percent.

Psychological debriefing and anxiety management groups are two other types of therapy that have been examined for the treatment of ASD. Psychological debriefing involves an intense therapeutic invention immediately after the trauma, so that traumatized individuals can "talk it all out." In anxiety management groups, people share coping strategies and learn to combat stress together. However, both types of therapy have proven to be largely ineffectual for the treatment of ASD.

Sources:

  • American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition
  • Anxiety and Its Disorders: The nature and treatment of anxiety and panic (Guilford Press)
  • Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
  • American Journal of Psychiatry
  • Journal of Anxiety Disorders
  • Journal of Traumatic Stress
  • Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
  • War Psychiatry: Textbook of Military Medicine
  • Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
  • National Institute of Mental Health
  • National Center for PTSD
  • Department of Health & Human Services

Monday, February 9, 2009

ACUTE STRESS DISORDER; DEFINITION

Acute stress disorder develops within one month after an individual experiences or sees an event involving a threat or actual death, serious injury, or physical violation to the individual or others, and responded to this event with strong feelings of fear, helplessness or horror. The diagnosis was established to identify those individuals who would eventually develop post-traumatic stress disorder. As far back as World War I this condition was referred to as "shell shock," in which there are similarities between reactions of soldiers who suffered concussions caused by exploding bombs or shells and those who suffered blows to their central nervous systems. Civilians may also suffer from it. More recently, ASD was brought to light as it became clear that for a short period, people might exhibit PTSD-like symptoms immediately after a trauma.

Trauma has both a medical and a psychiatric definition. Medically, trauma refers to a serious or critical bodily injury, wound or shock. This definition is often associated with trauma medicine practiced in emergency rooms and represents a popular view of the term. Psychiatrically, trauma has assumed a different meaning and refers to an experience that is emotionally painful, distressful or shocking, which often results in lasting mental and physical effects.

Psychiatric trauma, or emotional harm, is essentially a normal response to an extreme event. It involves the creation of emotional memories about the distressful event that are stored deep within the brain. In general, it is believed that the more direct the exposure to the traumatic event, the higher the risk for emotional harm. Thus in a school shooting, for example, the student who is injured probably will be most severely affected emotionally; and the student who sees a classmate shot or killed is likely to be more emotionally affected than the student who was in another part of the school when the violence occurred. But even secondhand exposure to violence can be traumatic. For this reason, all children and adolescents exposed to violence or a disaster, even if only through graphic media reports, should be watched for signs of emotional distress.

Sources:

  • American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition
  • Anxiety and Its Disorders: The nature and treatment of anxiety and panic (Guilford Press)
  • Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology
  • American Journal of Psychiatry
  • Journal of Anxiety Disorders
  • Journal of Traumatic Stress
  • Journal of Clinical Psychiatry
  • War Psychiatry: Textbook of Military Medicine
  • Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry
  • National Institute of Mental Health
  • National Center for PTSD
  • Department of Health & Human Services

Friday, January 23, 2009

DSM-IV-TR CRITERIA FOR PTSD Part II

Criterion D: hyper-arousal

Persistent symptoms of increasing arousal (not present before the trauma), indicated by at least two of the following:

1. Difficulty falling or staying asleep

2. Irritability or outbursts of anger

3. Difficulty concentrating

4. Hyper-vigilance

5. Exaggerated startle response

Criterion E: duration

Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in B, C, and D) is more than one month.

Criterion F: functional significance

The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

Specify if:

Acute: if duration of symptoms is less than three months

Chronic: if duration of symptoms is three months or more

Specify if:

With or Without delay onset: Onset of symptoms at least six months after the stressor

References

American Psychiatric Association. (2000). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders DSM-IV-TR ( Fourth ed.). Washington D.C.: American Psychiatric Association

Monday, January 19, 2009

Acute Stress Disorder & PTSD

For those of us in the EMS, existence may be easy or it may be hard, depending on where we are in life. Life tends to go in phases, easy sometimes and hard other times. Let us take responsibility for our lives and move towards a life we truly desire no matter where we are. We have the power.

If you are having a hard time with moving forward in life you may have Acute Stress Disorder or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. There are many signs and symptoms for both disorders but you may want to ask yourself if you are happy. Or you may ask yourself, "when was the last time I was happy?"

When we have Acute or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder we may be very unhappy. If this sounds like you then you may want to seek professional help. These are very serious disorders and can disrupt our ability to function in life.

We have been talking about moving forward and setting goals. If we are unable to do this, chances are we may have Acute or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I have met many individuals who have overcome these disorders, including myself.

In the next couple of posts I will share the information from the DSM (Diagnostic Statistical Manual) on both disorders.

This is information that is very helpful.

Stay tuned...

If you would like support in learning to destress yourself then follow this blog.

If you have any comments or questions please use the comment function on this blog and I will comment in return:)

Have fun and be playful.

Elizabeth

Saturday, January 17, 2009

DREAMS

In the last post we talked about dreaming big and making it specific. Well, did you do it? Did you have any trouble? If you had trouble let us fix that right now. Get a pen and paper. Ready?

Let us begin the process of Destressing Yourself.

If I were a Magical Warrior Queen (I love the sound of that, sorry I tend to fantasize), I waved my magical wand over your head, you woke up the next morning, and your life was perfect, what would it look like?

Let me help a little more.
Where would you live?
Who would you live with?
What would you do for a living?
What would you do all day, every day?
What would you look like?
What kind of habits would you have?
What kind of habits would you eliminate?

Write the answers down! Let us create a miracle.

Don't just write general things like you would buy a house, be specific and write what the house looks like and where it is.

For each question above be specific.

Whether you want to dream big or small, whether you want to get rid of your anger or create happiness, whether you want to quit smoking or loose weight, whether you want to make money or be famous, you have it within you. You have the power to create your miracles. Decide what you want, today and let us begin the journey of destressing ourselves and making miracles.

We are setting goals so that we may move forward in life because if we are not moving forward we are moving backwards and that will cause stress. Let us set goals so that we have something to look forward to in life and so that we have something positive to focus on.

Your in the EMS and life may be easy or it may be hard, depending on where you are in life. Life tends to go in phases, easy sometimes and hard other times. Let us take responsibility for our lives and move towards a life we truly desire no matter where we are. We have the power.

Just a reminder, sign up for our free teleclass by signing up for our free weekly newsletter.

Have fun with this and keep it handy for the next post.

Don't forget to have fun and be playful, it is in your nature.

Elizabeth