PTSD treatment

[Gary Turner]

Hi Butterfly, hope you are really well despite everything that's going on.

Because I have so many friends in the Army I am always being referred PTSD clients (so that it doesn't appear on their Army records, in some circles it is seen as a 'black mark' on a record, though to be perfectly honest it can be though of as a physical injury such as a pulled hamstring, and with the right rehabilitation nicely resolved), and get a fair few civilian cases too.

The first thing to realise is that no-one can understand what this is like for you - only you are going through this, and therefore only you could possibly start to understand. I do however see first hand the impacts of PTSD on lives and families - it isn't a great state to be in.

Best bit, with the right training, you can get through this nicely. So please have hope.

You will not be the person you were before. If you were the person you were before you are the person it is likely to happen to again. So accept the past has happened, and look to take the right step forward.

PTSD becomes 'encoded' during a traumatic event when the neurological 'architecture' combines for its formation. There is high emotion, usually centred around guilt, shame, regret, remorse or embarrasment - often mixed in with a dose of fear and anger too. At that point in time, when the emotion is at its peak, there will be no conceivable way out - no safe haven if you will. There is often a short sharp piece of self-talk right at that moment. If all these hit in at once PTSD can become encoded. Research shows that some people have more tendency to suffer from PTSD than others, yet, the key thing is that it can happen to anyone.

Following that trauma as in my last paragraph certain stimulus will set off that memory, which sticks in the point of trauma. Sounds, smells, anything that was associated with the trauma can set it off. You may suffer flashbacks, dreams or receive the associated intense feelings, and some actually completely re-experience the event.

Over time these stimulus 'generalise' to more and more areas, and it takes over more of your life. You may start to carry out avoidance behaviour to avoid places/situations that sets off the memories. Anxiety can often increase as a result of not knowing what will happen. This can lead you feeling 'hot', and making you seek to control your environment. This can lead to people 'breaking your rules' which will create anger - held internally as frustration, externally outbursted as temper, or even uncontrolled which is rage. Knowing this anger is perhaps misdirected it can lead to guilty feelings about your own behaviour, which fuels the anxiety, which fuels the anger...and so on in this cycle.

Adding to this the self-talk that may appear, such as "why can't I do what I want to do" and so on, and you can get caught in a negative spiral of emotions and feelings - leading to depression.

Hopefully this brief description will give you a greater understanding of the structure of PTSD, and help you understand that what you may be going through is actually a natural reaction and others have had the same.

Now the best bit.

Those skilled with working with PTSD can help you nicely through this by helping train your mind to just work a little differently. You've 'learnt' to have PTSD and therefore you can learn not to have it. The mind is plastic - it is liable to change. A skilled practitioner will help you learn how to be the way you want to be.

I would suggest that anyone working with you helped you accept that this has happened, yet, it is also in the past, and the past is called the past for a reason - it is the past. To help you leave it in the past you can be helped learn to let go of the emotional ties to the event - nicely leaving it in the past where it belongs, enabling you to be in the present and look forward to taking the right step. Associations with the stimulus can be broken, so your reactions become different. The depressive cycle of guilt/anxiety/anger can be broken - break one of these and the others aren't supported, and often just collapse nicely on their own. Then you can help to learn to be different, your thoughts actions and behaviours adjusted so that you can be the person you want to be.

I am of the strong opinion that drugs should only be given to show someone their is a better way, to stabilise a worsening condition - yet NEVER at the expense of treating the cause. All drugs have side effects and the effiacy of anti-depressants and so on is questionable - even the American Psychiatric Association has come forward and stated that there is no 'chemical imbalance' in the brain, and no pathology to test for it. The drugs will (generalisation) treat the symptoms - you need to have the cause resolved.

I would suggest that if you have been with the psychotherapist for a year and you are getting worse or staying the same then seek out someone experienced with success in working with PTSD. In my experience if there is not progress in a few sessions then seek out someone who can achieve that progress.

My suggestion for you to help yourself is to sit tall, take a breath, let it go and relax. And then get moving. Get moving and keep moving. Seek out those that are experienced with working with PTSD. Get that work. Become pushy cow all the time - push for the results. You do not have to be this way. There are those that can help.

What do you think?

[Gary Turner]

Hi, PTSD is PTSD whatever the source of the original trauma - the structures for each are the same, yet of course every person is an individual.

I like the fact that you are monitoring yourself - so time to take action! Perhaps get in touch with your GP again, and also take advice from your mental health team, and see if they can speed things up.

In the mean time, have you thought about doing different things? Move your rooms round a bit? Get in some physical activity? Read some happy books that you can get absorbed in? Wear some more colourful clothes? Mix with some people who are friends that you can just have a good time with? All may well help.