I Got Through A Tough Patch

[user27357]

So many things have happened in the past year that I feel like I am spinning out of control at times. Loss of my past health care and my past therapists, new health care and new therapists, major changes in other important aspects of my life, all of it combined to send me into some very deep depressions that have dominated the past year.

After surviving the latest episode I remembered a few metaphors for successful approaches to difficult situations. I wish I had remembered them sooner, I might have gotten through easier.

If you have ever been white water rafting you might know what it is like to be thrown into turbulent waters. The surest way to drown is to flail and struggle against the current and many victims die clinging to rocks or branches when just letting go would allow them to drift onto a smooth shore just downstream. Guides will tell you to stay away from the rocks and shore, floating on your back with your feet downstream, going with the flow and saving energy for a safe rescue a little farther downstream on a calmer stretch of the river.

Another thought I wish I had remembered earlier comes from the US Airforce test pilot school. An unwritten code is passed from class to class and gained some notoriety in Tom Wolfes book "The Right Stuff". The pilots' mantra is: "maintain an even strain". Test pilots are expected to take new designs to their limits, making the airplanes they fly reach the edges of their performance. When things get hectic and it feels like an airplane is going to fall apart underneath them it takes smooth control to stay in the air. Sudden panic moves will make the stresses peak and rip the wings right off in the worst cases. Even though the strain is high, if it is an even strain it might stay within the limits of the airplane and the pilot can make it home.

I will try to be mindful of these ideas, sometimes just staying calm and waiting out the turmoil life throws at us is the only chance we get. I don't want to lose my last chance by doing something drastic when I might be in calmer water or smoother flight conditions just a little bit of time from now. There are no guarantees that things will get better but the odds go way way down if you do the wrong thing at the wrong time, thats for sure.

Hope I can help someone by sharing this, hang in there everyone.

 

[anthony]

Statistics for wait groups in PTSD studies often show around 40% - 60% of people who receive no intervention, are wait grouped for six months, no longer meet the diagnosis for PTSD. So what you say has a lot of statistical validity in relation to PTSD, and most often those just diagnosed with PTSD from recent trauma are the above percentage. Doing absolutely nothing but waiting it out, and they resolve their own trauma and symptoms with time.

 

[user27357]

Statistics for wait groups in PTSD studies often show around 40% - 60% of people who receive no intervention, are wait grouped for six months, no longer meet the diagnosis for PTSD.

Thats an interesting stat, and I have no doubt it is true, if not conservative. Having witnessed many victims of trauma first hand when I was a firefighter and EMT, I would be willing to say that most victims exhibit PTSD symptoms at some point soon after the event and then recover on their own shortly after. If you assessed everyone ten minutes after and again ten days after you might see recovery rates over 90%. Waiting and working it all out on your own is most definitely the most common reaction to traumatic psychological injury, no doubt.

But at this point in my experience, many years in, my PTSD isn't going to go away if I just wait.

My post is aimed at those of us that are fighting the long hard battle against this disorder, people that would be off doing other things by now if it was going to resolve itself. My hope is that someone out there that feels like things are going from bad to worse and headed for disasterous followed by catastrophic will take some hope from the idea that things will often get better in spite of the predictions they make while in the depths of a depression. Sometimes it feels like the only way out is to do the thing and be done, but I am here to tell you that if you are willing to stay calm in the face of overwhelming reason to panic, you just may be rewarded for controlling the urge to react in ways that would have just made the situation unsurvivable.

Don't be so sure that things don't work out, even if you have waited years for relief from the symptoms it doesn't mean you won't find yourself in a better place soon. Choose to resist the urge to flail about and make the panic moves that insure the worst possible outcome.

Hang in there.

 

[anthony]

I would be willing to say that most victims exhibit PTSD symptoms at some point soon after the event and then recover on their own shortly after. If you assessed everyone ten minutes after and again ten days after you might see recovery rates over 90%.

Please remember that the statistical window I gave, is after diagnosis, which means the person has endured the symptoms longer than one month. Within that remainder percentage, you then also have those with lifetime PTSD, you have those who take years to overcome PTSD, you have those who take decades. PTSD statistics are very hard to get hold of with exceptional relevancy, other than military statistics being a controlled common group. Mine is from the many studies of PTSD therapeutic treatment that use a wait group as a placebo, and trying to find the average. It is rare that I've read one with above 65% and below around the 40% range... hence the window, as each is inconsistent in relation to... well... PTSD being inconsistent.

That is an interesting observational statistic though @enough, from your experience witnessing EMT based events. To me, that shows just how resilient the human brain is to one-off traumatic events.