Life with A Thousand Paper Cuts – What PTSD Feels Like with Cole Grace

June was Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) awareness month. And yes, even though it is now July, I am airing this interview with Cole Grace, who shares his story about what it feels like to have PTSD, and to recover and experience calm despite having a life going through chaos.

Bio:

Cole Grace had a difficult early childhood. His parents divorced when he was four years old. And although he was never physically or sexually abused, and never lost anyone tragically, he didn't think he had childhood trauma.

Cole joined the Army National Guard and went to Iraq as a combat engineer responsible for IED route clearance and convoy security in 2005. He was attached to multiple units and low ranking because he got in trouble for smoking weed. So he got the worst of the worst jobs. Through this, Cole repressed his emotions in the moment, but later realized he had trauma from his childhood and his combat experience.

Cole went back to school and ended up getting a high paying job for the government in 2012. He thought that meant that he was healed from the stomach episodes he suffered from while in Iraq, some of which led him to go to the emergency room after returning to the United States in 2006. When he worked for the government in 2012, it was in the midst of the opioid crisis. So that meant when he went to the hospital, many times they wouldn't give him pain medicine anymore. So he self medicated and eventually became addicted to opiates in 2015.

Cole went to rehab in 2017 and learned about childhood trauma, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), and started reading self-help books and books about trauma. He started trying different healing modalities and eventually putting together the outline for the book Internal to External - Calming the Chaos Within.

“Your external world can change in an instant, but you can’t take away the internal things.”

Timestamps

7:30 Cole tells his story

10:00 The Army / Combat Experience

14:00 Radiation Exposure in Iraq

16:20 “I just checked off this whole checklist and I still don’t feel good.”

19:10 “Unlearn your Pain and Depression” book by Howard Schubiner at https://unlearnyourpain.com/unlearn-your-pain-book/

21:47 “The Body Keeps the Score” and “7 Habits for Highly Successful People” and other self-help books helped him connect to the subconscious

23:30 What Cole does to monitor his subconscious mind

1. Awareness and Acceptance of Unhelpful Beliefs

2. Reframing these beliefs into truthful / helpful ones

3. Embracing more positivity

4. Breathwork, affirmations and gratitude practices, personal mission statement

27:00 Tracy says to focus on what’s both truthful and helpful when reframing beliefs and doing affirmations

Cole agrees…and adds, “What you say has to have the possibility of being truthful”

28:33 Tracy’s way of approaching Trauma with clients, and the benefits of addressing trauma that can benefit you in the long run

29:36 Why should we even address trauma, anyway?

31:32: “Between the stimulus and the response is a choice”

Cole tells how he’s done the work, and yet still has some challenges, he deals with them

“Heal Your Body” book by Louise Hay https://www.amazon.com/Heal-Your-Body-Louise-Hay/dp/9394613846

In his life, Cole had to push through a lot of fear, justifications, and excuses to publish this book. But he did it. He believes that the book is inspiring and that it gives practical ways and “tactics” to improve your quality of life without the expectation of perfection.

“I do not have it all figured out, and I don't pretend to. So I believe that makes me more relatable than some other people that write on the subject of mental health and PTSD.”

39:40 Cole’s Book https://www.amazon.com/Internal-External-Calming-Chaos-Within/dp/B0DZCXMVKY

“A mix of my story combined with helpful tactics and behaviors”

42:30 “It’s more powerful for me to be vulnerable and honest, and tell people I still struggle, than it is for me to say I’ve got it all figured out.”

43:57: A dialectical perspective of Acceptance

“You’re not alone”

Social Media Links:

You Tube: https://www.youtube.com/@cgrace21

Instagram: cgrace2180_

Cole’s Book: https://www.amazon.com/Internal-External-Calming-Chaos-Within/dp/B0DZCXMVKY

#mentalhealth #PTSD #Recovery

Do you want to learn about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) from a person who has actually struggled with it and is living his life after recovery? If so, then you can listen and learn from Cole Grace, who has written a book called “Internal >External – Calming the Chaos Within. In this interview, Cole tells us his story of having PTSD and recovery, plus the process of writing a book to help others who struggle with similar conditions.