Sufferer I know the cause but what helps most are ways to cope.

[Michael Lastname]

Hi everyone,

Sorry for what has brought you here but I'm glad to be heard even by strangers.

:)

I am a male former science teacher and found the cause a while ago. It is chemical exposure that does neurological damage that reduces your threshold to fight or flight response. Try to stay away from pesticide, herbicide and cigarette smoke if you can. These are the likely causes environmentally (I can back this up with the science if you are really keen).

Physiologically / mentally the trauma is different for each of us and needs different strategies to reduce harm to us and out loved ones. This is the most helpful path to take I feel.

One almost universal aid is music. I have found that making collections of music based on emotional effect and then playing them as needed is the most effective for me. Not just "listen to music" but make an effort to sort your songs into folders that are all calming and another folder that are all fun or happy and another folder for songs that are all uplifting or motivating etc. like that through your music library.

This way they are like pills you can take to address specific needs you feel at the time you feel them. Just a few songs can snap me out of some pretty dark moods.

Anyway I hope that helps a little.
Thanks again for reading my post,
what's the worst that can happen?
Mike.

 

[EveHarrington]

Welcome!

 

[Freida]

Hi there

I used music too - have some great stuff I use at night to settle down that is amazingly effective

 

[Deleted member 28403]

Welcome to the forums :)

Could you explain a bit more the chemical exposure thingy? What did it really do and how?

Do you have PTSD?

 

[Michael Lastname]

Hi All,
Thanks for the welcome and supportive comments.

OK. It is complex and I am not a biochemist /neurologist/ endo... or qualified other than understanding some basic organic chemistry and yes I have PTSD.

Before I explain this you should know that understanding this kind of helped me to blame myself a little less, but if you said this to a doctor, even though it is all backed up by chemistry, they will look at you like your a freak.

So When you are having an episode or whatever people are calling it now, you are experiencing a fight or flight response. Something you have recently experienced is close enough to something you experienced when you were traumatized to activate the most primitive most base part of your brain in order to keep you safe.

Part of your brain believes, rightly or wrongly, you are mortal danger and you need to get away or hide or fight for your life like right now.

Your brain stores memory in different parts in different ways, all your visual memory in one part, all your muscle memory in another...etc. The way you process these memories is mostly just by what they are most likely associated with eg if you smell fried chicken, you think of eating fried chicken (damn you colonel Sanders). Anyway special chemicals get released at certain times to alter the way your brain processes thoughts. eg if you are sleepy, your brain has lots of sleepy chemical and you are less likely to want the chicken even if you smell it.

One of these chemicals is Acetylcholine. It does other stuff too but Acetylecholine signals the fight or flight responce - stops you from learning some stuff, amplifies remembering old stuff fills you with energy, makes you want to leave or fight or hide... all the fight or flight stuff.

it turns out that Organophosphates formally used as chemical weapons / nerve gas, now used as weed killer and bug spray active one of the Acetylcholine pathways in people (the chemical structure is similar enough to fake out your brain). it does other stuff too like kill you, but only in higher doses.

It also turns out that Nicotine activate the other Actylecholine pathway.

Further - these two very toxic but completely unregulated poisons are cumulative, so even a very low concentration will build up over time and start to do some damage. This is one of the reasons smoking is so hard to kick.

So when you get nerve gas (weed killer and bug spray) together with Nicotine (2nd hand smoke or regular smoking) together your brain is primed to have a fight or flight overload.


Memories you form when you are full of adrenaline - sometimes called flash bulb memories - are super intense, and when they are recalled for some reason they are invasive / push everything else in your mind aside. You get enough together and that is PTSD right there.

So there you have it - you don;t need to have these things together to form intense intrusive memories, but if you do have these things together with a traumatic event / events then you will get PTSD.

if you are thinking we should ban smoking and nerve gas... well someone is making some money off them I hear and would probably object.

Feel better?

 

[anthony]

Try to stay away from pesticide, herbicide and cigarette smoke if you can.

Are you trying to say PTSD is caused by this?

 

[Michael Lastname]

It is certainly a cause. But in my experience it is more of a primer.

I mean the cause is the event. without the event there is nothing to flash back. If we lived safe lives in supportive environments this forum would not exist.

These two chems together will sensitize you. Due to neuro plasticity each time you remember things there is the scope to adjust the intensity of the memory for next time.

That is how exposure therapy helps phobias. But it can go the other way too, if you are more debilitated by a memory due to being chemically impaired the memory gets intensified. This can be a feedback loop.

So kinda I am saying it is a cause, but mostly I am saying these chemicals lower your threshold and diminish your resilience. and that the dicks in charge should have banned them by now. I mean I can't get a machine gun but I can buy nerve gas at the gardening store? Seems like a double standard.

 

[Justmehere]

I mean the cause is the event.

What is the event you are having “flashbacks” to?

 

[Michael Lastname]

It is a dangerous question to ask about specifics. But I guess for each of us it is different. Not just a different event but the way you get intrusive memories differs from person to person.

it was a very long time before I realized I was flashing back. it is not like on TV when they have a flash back and just replay a section of a previous episode. For me it is sense memory, the feeling of fire on my skin, the smell of my attacker, sometimes a sound or sometimes a memory of a thought process. Never a complete - this is what happened in last weeks episode- type thing but very real feeling of sensations, sometimes pains even, like old wounds made fresh.

Sounds bad when I say it like that, sometimes it is bad I guess, but always incomplete. As I said in a different post, I have missing time, events I have no procedural memory of that I know happen only through logic or others telling me I was there. I think that is pretty common for PTSD, not fully remembering and at the same time never being able to forget little pieces.

I believe that my PTSD came from a number of misadventures. Each changed me a little, broke a piece off, I think I am more than broken pieces though.

Thank you for giving me the chance to share and for reading my posts. I am doing some research into TMS and think that as it stands it isn't very effective, but when better coils and a better mapping / targeting system, it really could bring a lot of relief to a lot of people for low low price. Ow and I have tried some supplements and medicines that worked quite well. I will read the post rules again before I drop that info though - I already got a spam warning when I tried to list a URL.

If you truly know a man you can never be enemies. One day I will know myself, I hope.

 

[Justmehere]

of my attacker,

So you were attacked by someone? Being physically assaulted by someone is what can lead to the development of PTSD.

Are you working with a good trauma therapist and/or doctor for a diagnosis and treatment?

 

[Michael Lastname]

People can get very upset about their own personal circumstances. Rightly so too.
I think you are trying to be helpful and I appreciate that. But reconstructing traumatic events needs to be done in a safe space with trusted and experienced people. It is a mistake to ask about trauma specifics in an open thread.
Sadly, not everyone is going to be a force for good. There are some antiquated ideas around that are counter productive along with some people who for whatever reason feel they need to manage you without really grasping the problem.
This is a complex issue with many competing factors. Once you have identified PTSD the path ahead is long and filled with u turns. There are coping strategies that help a little, there are medicines that help a little, and there are people around you that want to help and can help if you can set some boundaries and honestly assess your needs.
I do not have an agenda to push. I just made some logical connections that helped me solve some of the puzzle. I felt like sharing, maybe it will help someone.
Thanks for reading everyone. I know I ramble a little.

 

[EveHarrington]

People are questioning not because they want to dig, but rather there is an exclusion saying that drugs cannot be the cause of PTSD, and it seems that chemical exposure would be along these same lines.