Delayed Onset - I Just Don't Get It!

[Abstract]

If an experience is processed in a traumatic way, causes damage to the brain and is stored incorrectly then I just can't get my head around how the symptoms can come out after a delay rather than immediately! If an experience is traumatic how can it feel OK for many years and then the bottom fall out and it be destabilising to go anywhere near it?

It's hard for me to understand in the context of how PTSD is seen to happen. Any of you clever clogs have information?

 

[jd9900]

This feels familiar to me. I do similar things.

By that I mean, PTSD...the "D" part...it is a disorder. It will cause your mind to not make things of sense that should by the very laws of science make absolute sense.

In the recent past, it has helped me tremendously to forget the logical side of my brain when it comes to PTSD - if logic could have cured it by now, hell, I would be on Vulcan. (I'm still working on the star ship... :) )

For me it was a sad realization when I came to the conclusion that I could not solve for X, if X = PTSD. Now I am approaching it from more of a...theoretical physics standpoint...

What if the solution is there, but we just can't solve for it yet?

Okay, that is nice and all, but in the meantime...well, I guess I am stuck with this.

Logic pitched a real bitch. I mean, damn. Logic in my head was like, "Um...bro...yeah, have you finally started that meth habit you are always joking about?"

I was like..."No, bro...but...seriously, I can't deal with PTSD bullshit AND find a cure. So I am going to deal with PTSD bullshit now, THEN look for a cure."

EDIT:
So as a scientist, my question would be this: How do you live with PTSD if you cannot cure it?

My Hypothesis: It is treatable.
(I would appreciate any help with the next 6 stages. :) )

 

[digger]

I don't understand it either. I know it, and I live it, but I don't understand it.

 

[jd9900]

It requires a leap of faith. Something us scientists are not so good at.

 

[jd9900]

Something that has been helping me a lot is actually creating a dialogue with my PTSD. Here is the link to the posts I made earlier. https://www.myptsd.com/threads/an-open-letter-to-my-ptsd.38165/#post-616880

 

[Barconian]

It requires a leap of faith. Something us scientists are not so good at.

You're funny lol

 

[digger]

Sometimes I think analysing things can be useful - sometimes I think maybe it just serves as another distraction from dealing with the thing in question.

 

[jd9900]

Indeed, digger1. For a nice distraction I will PM you a fairly funny story about this. :)

 

[Barconian]

It isn't the hardware that's broken, it's the software and that doesn't have to be instant, when it comes to trauma, unless of course the brain has been physically damaged

 

[jd9900]

As a lifelong infrastructure engineer, I have NEVER trusted coders. All they do is release their poorly tested code into the wild and make me fix it. I never wanted to code, I had to to survive. *chuckles* It may be part of my PTSD. :)

 

[Mayday]

If an experience is processed in a traumatic way, causes damage to the brain and is stored incorrectly then I just can't get my head around how the symptoms can come out after a delay rather than immediately! If an experience is traumatic how can it feel OK for many years and then the bottom fall out and it be destabilising to go anywhere near it?

I think that things that cause PTSD, are likely to push our minds/bodies into survival mode, because that is the only way to cope with that type of situation. Because we're in survival mode, the symptoms get blocked because the priority is survival. Sometimes survival mode becomes our default mode, and we just continue on like that for years and years, even if the trauma is no longer happening. Then something may happen that triggers us to come out of survival mode, and suddenly those symptoms come out, seemingly out of nowhere (especially if our minds have blocked the actual events that caused the trauma but not the effects of the trauma).

For instance people in life threatening situations, may not notice that they have injuries, until they are out of that situation and in a safe place. I think it must be all related to being in survival mode. Especially when things happen at a young age, and there is no way out of a situation anyway, the child has to go into survival mode, because there is no alternative. I don't know if that makes sense, but that's kind of how I think of it.

 

[zaniara]

If a house is built with poles digged down in the ground to work as a stabilizing and steady ground for that house to rest on, and those poles are rotten, the house can seem and look fine for years. Until one of those poles break(or all of them) and it gets messy and that house need A LOT of support and re-building the ground(they can actually do that nowadays without destroying the whole house! ) until it can stand on it's own again. How it works inside the brain is something we still don't have all the answers to. But I know that I really never was 'fine'. There were a lot of lies, fleeing in so many ways and lots and lots of denial as well= rotten poles.