11/20/2025
Psychoeducation: The “Your Brain Isn’t Broken, It’s Just Doing Parkour” Edition
PTSD isn’t a sign that you’re weak, broken, or “dramatic.” PTSD is what happens when a normal human brain gets hit with abnormal stress and does whatever it must to keep you alive. The problem? Those survival tricks don’t shut off when the danger does.
What’s Actually Going On?
Your brain has three main characters in this little sitcom:
1. The Amygdala – The Fire Alarm.
It detects danger and screams about it… loudly… even when the toast burns.
2. The Prefrontal Cortex – The CEO.
It handles logic, planning, and “calm down, buddy.”
With PTSD, the CEO keeps getting shoved in a broom closet.
3. The Hippocampus – The Librarian.
Files memories neatly… except trauma memories, which it dumps in a chaotic pile labeled “EVERYWHERE FOREVER.”
What does this create?
Flashbacks, anxiety, hypervigilance, emotional shutdown, avoidance—AKA your brain trying REALLY hard to keep you alive… long after the danger.
So Where Does CBT Come In?
CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) teaches you to notice the mental booby-traps PTSD leaves behind and rewire them. It’s like debugging faulty emotional software.
CBT says three things drive PTSD symptoms:
1. Your thoughts about the trauma (“It was my fault,” “I’m unsafe everywhere,” “I’m broken now”).
2. Your behaviors (avoiding people, places, feelings, memories, responsibilities, pants).
3. Your body’s conditioned reactions (heart pounding, fight-or-flight flare-ups).
PTSD twists thoughts into catastrophizing, shame, guilt, or permanent-doom predictions.
CBT teaches you to catch those distortions and say:
“Hold up—brain, you’re doing the thing again.”
