Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
John Lee LMHC has expertise in PTSD not only professionally but he has also battled PTSD for the last 37 years. For this reason it is John’s belief that he has had so many positive outcomes in “Healing the Hurting”! John describes his recovery with PTSD to others he has helped as learning to walk with a limp! Somedays PTSD Survivors walk better than others. John’s treatment of choice for PTSD is a combination of self affirmations and both learning and practicing self hypnosis/ meditation on a daily basis.
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder per the DSM-IV, American Psychiatric Assn., 1994, page 424, is “ the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor involving direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death, or serious injury, or a threat to one’s physical integrity; or witnessing an event that involves death, injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of another person; or learning about unexpected or violent death, serious harm, or threat of death or injury experienced by a family member or other close associate. The person’s response to the event must involve intense fear, helplessness, or horror (or in children, the response must involve disorganized or agitated behavior). The characteristic symptoms resulting from the exposure to the extreme trauma include persistent reexperiencing of the traumatic event, persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness and persistent symptoms of increased arousal. The full symptom picture must be present for more than 1 month and the disturbance must cause clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning….Traumatic events include, but are not limited to, military combat, violent personal assault…being kidnapped, being taken hostage, natural or manmade disasters, severe automobile accidents, or being diagnosed with a life-threatening illness. For children, sexually traumatic events may include developmentally inappropriate sexual experiences without threatened or actual violence or injury.”
I need to note that many people are resilient and bounce back. Not everyone who experiences trauma experiences symptoms of PTSD. An important factor not mentioned in the above is how one’s belief system has been violated. In the case of the following story the colleague was sexually assaulted at age 15 by his in-law who was put in the role of foster parent. In the 15 year old’s mind, his in law was supposed to take the role of a father by protecting him, guiding him, coaching him, loving him. When he was assaulted those beliefs of what a father was supposed to be were shattered. He felt like he was no longer a man, he felt no woman would ever want him, his self esteem was shot and he became emotionally numb. He would have years of escaping the pain with alcohol, years of nightmares, years of thoughts about being rescued, years of not being able to tolerate rejection, not being able to handle women who reminded him of his older sibling who was also supposed to protect him and keep him safe. He would be easily startled, became hypersensitive to sounds, and at times couldn’t stand to be touched. In his 30’s he reached out for help, became sober, and in time became able to help others He went to a conference in the mountains of North Carolina where he experienced an over reaction and became overwhelmed with fear. The following story better explains when he thought he was no longer affected by PTSD.
” When we pulled into the drive of a colleague’s mountain cabin, I became full of fear and had a feeling like I was going to be attacked!” This was an over reaction to symbolic stimuli. The house in the woods, the charm of the colleague driving the car, the sound of his voice all brought back the emotion of intense helplessness and fear I experienced 30 plus years ago.
Where did this fear come from?
There is a part of the brain called the Amygdala that stores both terrific experiences and traumatic experiences and their associated feelings. In this person’s childhood, the person was sexually assaulted in a barn in the woods. The smell in the air, the cabin in the woods triggered “the over reaction of fear” Luckily, the person had the skill to de- escalate the fear by using ‘Self talk” to cope when symptoms of PTSD flare up out of nowhere.