Treating PTSD with Yoga

Using Yoga to alleviate PTSD symptoms

While medication and therapies exist to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), some veterans opt for additional healing through yoga. The ancient Indian meditative practice has been proven to reduce some PTSD symptoms.

Although it seems unlikely that the Department of Defense would endorse yoga, it actually funded a study last December to determine whether veterans with PTSD improved when they practiced yoga. In the fall of 2009, the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research collaborated on a different study that examined yoga’s effects on deployed service members. Some military installations even started yoga programs for veterans and service members diagnosed with PTSD.

Why Yoga?

Practicing yoga makes the sympathetic nervous system less sensitive. In turn, yogis and yoginis (men and women, respectively, who practice yoga) develop control over their heart rate and breathing patterns in stressful situations. While performing yoga, veterans focus on their body, their posture and their breathing. By thinking about and concentrating on the present, traumatic thoughts of the past are minimized. Sleep improvements and a relaxed state of mind are a few benefits that some study participants noticed. Again, yoga may not eliminate every PTSD symptom.

How Does Yoga Work?

Yoga emphasizes focusing on postures, breathing control and the physical body while meditating and being aware of the present. Practicing yoga bridges the gap between the mind and body, which are often disassociated due to PTSD. Physical postures, known as asanas, get veterans stretching and flexing in different ways. This emphasis on the physical and mental aspects of stretching, relaxing, breathing and meditating curb discomfort on mental, emotional and physical levels. With yoga, veterans may find peace with themselves and their environment.

Yoga may cause positive changes in the brain of PTSD patients, too. The fight-or-flight response is a primary symptom of PTSD. But yoga can help to retrain the mind and body to react calmly to stressful situations. Areas of the brain related to positive emotion and reward could change as a veteran routinely practices yoga.

How to Start Yoga

Whether it’s with a class or at home, doing yoga is inexpensive. Yoga for Vets’ finder lets veterans search for yoga listings by city or state. Search results there include places where veterans get at least four free yoga classes.

Yoga Basics offers a free, six-month premium membership that comes with audio instruction, higher quality pictures of poses, downloadable music and scholarships for prospective yogacharyas (yoga teachers). Practicing yoga at home is simple with help from the Veterans Yoga Project. That site’s resources range from sample postures to advice on finding a good yogacharyas.

Although therapy and medications are common treatments for PTSD, yoga may be a great complement for some of the roughly 20 percent of veterans with PTSD returning from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. If the resources above aren’t enough, it may be best to look for a local studio and find out if they have military discounts. Or contact a local VA medical center for help on locating military installations with yoga programs.

Tagged as: PTSD, PTSD Treatment