A little over four years ago, I was sitting in a car during a thunderstorm and it got struck by lightning. There was an incredibly loud boom right above my head, which caused my threshold of tolerable sound to drop drastically. For about two weeks after this incident To fix this issue, I had to go out and “relearn” how to handle sounds. It took some time, but I got to the point where I was able to handle most everyday sounds without issue. But for years after, any sort of alarm or other loud or high-pitched sound would cause an intense physical and emotional reaction. My heart would race, I would start shaking and crying and feel a strong need to leave the situation as soon as possible. After I escaped from the sound, I always felt a lot of fatigue and wouldn’t feel completely better until a few days after the incident.
What I didn’t know was that the reason behind this problem was PTSD. I just thought that I was stuck the way I was, good for most everyday life, but affected greatly when exposed to certain situations. A few months ago, after having to leave work due to a fire alarm, Dr. Pravel was recommended to me. He immediately understood that my issues were due to PTSD and came up with a plan to help me get better using CBT and exposure therapy. We started with exposure to small sounds that bothered me, such as certain songs on the radio, or a blender. As repeated exposure to those triggers caused less and less anxiety, I was able to begin exposure to louder and more troublesome sounds. The most difficult trigger to overcome was thunderstorms, but the exposure therapy combined with the CBT techniques allowed me to become desensitized to them!
With each trigger that I became desensitized to, I gained more hope and confidence that this was an issue that I could overcome. After only about three months of seeing Dr. Pravel, I was having trouble coming up with new triggers to desensitize myself to. I went to the movies for the first time in years without feeling any anxiety; the fire alarm went off in my house and I felt nothing more than a normal startle. These sounds would have previously caused an intense reaction, leaving me feeling bad for several days after. I honestly couldn’t believe the progress I was making and I was so happy to not have the constant low-level worry that I might encounter a situation that would set me off. To date, I have been completely fine during multiple fire alarms, an extremely loud wedding reception, and several other situations that would have been very distressing previously. Those months of therapy were truly life changing, and I feel so much freer because of it!