How Behavioural Neuroscience Helped Me Understand PTSD and Change What Was Possible

PTSD has taught me a LOT.

My interest in behavioural neuroscience didn't begin because I wanted another impressive subject to teach.

It began because the traditional psychology, counselling, therapy and coaching I'd experienced hadn't helped me understand what was happening to me in my own life.

Why I was having waking nightmares.

Why I couldn't sleep.

Why I had to drink 2 bottles of wine per night to get even a couple of hours of relief.

Why I'd gone from being a published author and world respected 'goals guy' to someone who sat staring at walls for hours and bursting into tears for no apparent reason.

And I can tell you, when you can't make sense of your own responses, it's very easy to believe there is something fundamentally wrong with YOU.

It gave me a way to make sense of experiences that had been confusing, terrifying and beyond my control.

Of course, that understanding didn't magically remove every symptom and make everything alright.

And it wasn't a substitute for doing the work I needed to do, either.

But it DID change the work I was able to do because I was no longer fighting an enemy I couldn't see or name.

That experience has influenced the way I coach ever since.

I don't use neuroscience to make grand claims or dress ordinary advice in clever language.

I use it where it helps someone understand the cause-and-effect pathway beneath a response, behaviour or decision.

Because understanding isn't merely intellectual when it changes the way you relate to yourself.

It can replace shame with context.

Confusion with clarity.

And helplessness with a place to start the journey back to being in control.

So no, an explanation by itself isn't transformation.

But the right explanation can make transformation feel possible again.