Camila Williams | Living Well CBT

Lifestyle Changes for Better Sleep

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Hopefully over the past two weeks you have been able to add one soothing activity to your bedtime routine and make one change to your sleep environment that is conducive to better sleep. The last area that really affects the quality of our sleep is our lifestyle. I saved this for last because making lifestyle changes is one of the hardest things to do. If it were easy then every one of us would eat healthier and exercise more just like our doctors have told us to! My hope is that you have a better understanding of how the things you typically do during the day affect your sleep at night. Here is a quick run down of the major lifestyle changes you can make for better sleep:

  • Gradually reduce and eliminate caffeine intake (coffee, soda, many teas, energy drinks, chocolate, some medicines)
      • No caffeine after 12pm
  • Stop drinking fluids an hour before sleeping
  • No smoking in the hours before sleeping
      • Quit smoking or cut back if possible
  • Go to sleep 100% sober; no alcohol before sleeping
  • Get some exercise (not right before bedtime, morning is best)
  • Avoid large meals before sleeping
  • Avoid heavy, spicy, or high-sugar foods before sleeping (or anything else that triggers stomach upset or heartburn)

…read more

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Maximize your sleep environment!

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How many things do you use for 8 hours every day? How many places do you go where you stay put for 8 hours straight? You might have said your clothes and work but there is probably not much else. If we are aiming for at least 8 hours of sleep a night though we spend about that much time in our bed. So it is very important that we invest time and energy into making our sleep environment as conducive to sleep as possible. Last week I talked about how our brain is a creature of habit and how a good bedtime routine prepares your brain to expect sleep to follow. Similarly, it is just as important to teach your brain that the only activity you do in your sleeping area is sleeping (sex is okay if that is a part of your life). The brain is a creature of habit, and if you do other activities in your sleeping area, your brain will start to associate it with those activities. 

Go through the following list and check off any of the activities that you do:…read more

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Mental Health First Aid Kit

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You probably have a first aid kit somewhere in your home, car, or work. You are ready for any mishap from a paper-cut to a gash. Are you as prepared for a mental health emergency? You know when you feel that panic attack coming on, or your anger is going through the roof, or your depression is nose diving into despair. It is just as important to be prepared with a mental health 1st Aid Kit to help you survive those intense moments on that emotional roller coaster. Below are some suggestions of things to include in your 1st Aid Kit but you can be as creative with this as your heart desires. It is supposed to be a personalized grab bag of things to help you slow down the intense reactions in order to think more clearly. I previously wrote about making a soothing kit for coping with symptoms of PTSD, this is the same concept. The goal here is to remove the thinking part out of the equation when you’re in panic mode or despair. The last thing your brain can do when emotions are riding high is think clearly. So prepare a 1st Aid Kit with pre-planned things to do to help settle your mind and get back in control of your emotions.…read more

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Book Review: The 5 Ways We Grieve

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The Five Ways We Grieve by Susan Berger reviews the different ways that people respond to death and grief. I personally gravitate more towards Grieving Mindfully by Sameet Kamur when it comes to books on coping with grief. Both books stress that the healthy way to cope with grief is to find meaning from the loss and develop a new identity that incorporates the loss. What distinguishes Berger’s book is that she uses research to identify 5 main types of identities that people develop after suffering a loss (whereas Kamur focuses more on the process of grieving and feeling). The 5 identities are:

“Nomads – who have not yet resolved their grief and often don’t understand how their loss has affected their lives.

Memorialists – who are committed to preserving the memory of their loved ones by creating concrete memorials and rituals to honor them.

Normalizers – who are committed to …read more

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How to Cope with PTSD: Arousal Symptoms

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The arousal symptoms of PTSD most commonly overlap with the symptoms of Panic and Anxiety. Imagine your body is like a car engine. With PTSD (and anxiety/panic) your engine is always revved up and ready to go. It’s like you have your foot on the gas pedal and on the brake, this way all you have to do it let off the brake and off you go. The flight, fight, freeze survival system our body has does this on purpose so you do not waste precious time accelerating, which makes sense if you are in a life and death situation, the problem is when your body starts to react like this to regular day to day stress. Imagine what happens to a car engine if you constantly rev the engine while holding down the brakes. It gets worn down and starts to break down. This is what happens to our body when it is under the constant strain of anxiety. Fatigue and exhaustion are all common experiences for those who suffer from PTSD, anxiety, and panic. With PTSD, the body is always revved up and ready to go, aka it is in a state of arousal; that means muscles are tense, breathing and heart rate are fast, and blood pressure is high. People with PTSD often feel on edge, on guard, easily startled, and hyper vigilant. This also primes them to be more easily irritated and angry. It is also very hard to concentrate and sleep. So the primary way to cope with symptoms of arousal is slow the body down through 1) Breathing and 2) Soothing.…read more

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How to Cope With PTSD: Symptoms of Re-experiencing

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I previously wrote about understanding the symptoms of PTSD here and learning about how it develops and factors that maintain it here. Today’s focus is how to cope with the cluster of PTSD symptoms called re-experiencing or “intrusive” symptoms.

What are Re-experiencing Symptoms?

Re-experiencing or Intrusive symptoms of PTSD are symptoms where you feel as if you are re-living the trauma or being haunted by the trauma. The memory of the trauma plays out so vividly for you that you feel as if it just happened again. The most intense version of this is when you have a flashback and for awhile you forget that you are safe and you believe you are back in the trauma again. These memories are “intrusive” meaning they pop up and intrude on your day at the worst times. These memories also cause intense emotional and physical reactions, leaving you feeling very upset and very worn out.

Why do we Re-experience the Trauma?

…read more

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When Couples Grieve

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A lot of my work is focused on helping people work through trauma. An inherent part of the process is working through grief. Trauma brings with it so many losses. I previously wrote about these losses in another guest blog here. Recently, I contributed to an article that discusses loss within the context of a relationship and how you can cope with your partner in a way that brings you closer rather than drives you apart. You can check that out here. For a quick summary:

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How to help a Loved One with thoughts of Suicide

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The recent high profile suicides have left many of us with our heads spinning. Why? How? I don’t get it? In today’s world of Instagram posts and Facebook likes we have become accustomed to seeing a very curated image of other’s lives. We share and post the good images, the fun outings, and the exciting moments. Wealth, beauty, success become ever present standards by which we believe we “should” be living. And this can easily lead to the false belief that those things will bring us peace, happiness, and joy. What goes on behind the scenes, well, stays there. I’m reminded of when I posted a Christmas photo of my kids. Everyone liked and commented on how cute they all looked. I was thrilled. No one asked or talked about the 51 takes, bribing, crying, whining, and begging that it took to get that one shot. All they saw were the “perfect kids” having a “perfect Christmas,” when in fact it was far from perfect. So when we hear about someone who on the surface appears to have the things that many of us desire, it shocks us into remembrance that there is so much more going on under the surface of the public image we all carefully curate.

So what do I do?

You are not going to recognize the signs of depression and suicidal thoughts in your loved ones through a text message, tweet, emoji, or social media post. All the reading and googling in the world about the signs of suicide is no substitute for actual in person interaction with those we love. So what do I do? 1) Connect in person, 2) Listen, just listen, and 3) Don’t be afraid to talk about suicide.

1) Connect in Person

The only way to genuinely peak underneath the surface of the public image we all share is to connect in person with our friends and loved ones. A text, comment, like, or repost, is no substitute for a phone call, or better yet, a visit. …read more

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4 Stages of Emotions and Treatment After Sexual Trauma

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Although everyone responds differently after sexual trauma, certain phases of emotions are common among survivors. Therapy can help with each of them. Follow the link to read an article I wrote for Good Therapy on this important topic:

https://www.goodtherapy.org/blog/4-stages-of-emotions-and-treatment-after-sexual-trauma-0418185

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