HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY AND PTSD

Today, the 4th of July, seems a good time to post about Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which the Mayo Clinic says is a mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event. Many soldiers returning from the Middle East wars suffer from it, but it can affect many others for various reasons.

Many people who go through traumatic events have difficulty adjusting and coping for a while, but they don't have PTSD — with time and good self-care, they usually get better. But if the symptoms get worse or last for months or even years and interfere with your functioning, you may have PTSD.

Getting effective treatment after PTSD symptoms develop can be critical to reduce symptoms and improve function.

You can develop post-traumatic stress disorder when you go through, see or learn about an event involving actual or threatened death, serious injury or sexual violation.

Doctors aren't sure why some people get PTSD. As with most mental health problems, PTSD is probably caused by a complex mix of:

• Inherited mental health risks, such as an increased risk of anxiety and depression
• Life experiences, including the amount and severity of trauma you've gone through since early childhood
• Inherited aspects of your personality — often called your temperament
• The way your brain regulates the chemicals and hormones your body releases in response to stress

Most web sites recommend those with PTSD see their doctor about it. But as we who know about TMS also think that the condition can be cured with TMS techniques.

The Structured Educational Program is an excellent way to deal with any psychological problem. It is free in the subforum on this web site and has helped thousands to heal from their pains caused by their emotions.

 

Clancy MacKenzie thinks PTSD and schizophrenia are the result of what he terms a "two trauma process":

http://www.naturalworldhealing.com/mckenzie_ptsd_schizophrenia.htm

MacKenzie's theory certainly seems in parallel with what Dr Sarno says about early childhood stressors leading to TMS when the patient is confronted with stress events he or she experiences later in life. Interesting how all this stuff ties together after a while. It's all one brain! Interesting too how soldiers with unstable family backgrounds are much more likely to suffer combat fatigue than those with happier childhoods.

 

Bruce, very interesting. I didn't know about soldiers with unstable family backgrounds being more prone to combat fatigue.
That makes sense to me. And it's all interwoven as TMS.

I was in the U.S. Army for two years, after the Korean War and before the Vietnam war, but when I was serving in Germany for a year and the Hungarian Revolution and the Suez Canal blockade both happened at the same time and the Cold War looked like it was going to be Red Hot, I was scared, as were my pals. We expected our division, the 3rd Armored Division, to be sent to either war zone. War and combat can give anyone the willies, whether our childhood was happy or troubled. But combat stress could very well be worse if the childhood had been troubled.

 

Yes, Walter, that's exactly why the US Army does psychological evaluations of soldiers liable to be placed in high-stress combat situations. The 3rd Armored! They have a distinguished service record I seem to remember and were very likely to be placed in the thick of it if things heated up. I remember talking to an MD down at a PT place I went to for my so-called "herniated disk" who told me about his experience with back pain when he was drafted and was about to be sent to Vietnam. About a week before he was to be shipped out, he suddenly came down with excruciating, debilitating back pain. The Army gave him an operation but the pain just wouldn't go away and now over thirty years later he was still suffering periodic episodes of what we would both describe today as TMS. That doctor was obviously so afraid of going into combat that TMS provided a socially acceptable way out of being labeled "chicken". Interesting how that response became chronic too throughout his life, which just goes to show how hard it is to eliminate a programmed behavior once it's been learned and assimilated into the unconscious mind.