Managing Stress

Question: A family member has come back from Afghanistan with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). I heard that you came back with that when you returned from the Lower Underworld. How did you overcome it?

Almine’s Answer: The same way a smoker giving up cigarettes will turn to chocolates instead. They replace one undesirable trait with a more manageable one instead. Then they wean themselves off the more manageable addiction.

I replaced the terror with a milder form of obsessive/compulsive behavior to pretend I could manage my environment, staying fully aware of what I was doing.

I started arranging everything in my environment in a very orderly fashion, stocking up on personal need items, labeling everything, etc. It made everything feel a little more in control.

I avoided anything tense; for six months all I could watch was the cooking channel, anything else was just too tension producing.