Other Actual Or Immediate Threat Of Death Or Injury: How Does It Work?

[anonymous]

Ivan, I had an event (a stressor) that I was obsessed with and that triggered my symptoms kicking off hugely. I think it was the main thing that changed my general trauma symptoms to PTSD. It took me a long time to realise that it set off the preexisting trauma rather than it being a trauma in and of itself in PTSD terms. It was truly horrible and life changing for me. But I needed to deal with the preexisting trauma to get start getting better. I think its important to differentiate as it helps us focus on the area that will help the most. I had a quick look and it seems you have witnessed death, been physically abused and sexually assaulted. I hope its OK to say that here. If not I will edit. I suspect having been exposed to all that inevitably makes your response to this awful hospitilisation different. I struggle to accept that with various things but I keep being told that is the case and sometimes I can trust in that.

 

[Ivan the Elder]

It is OK to repeat what I have already posted before. Yes, I was badly abused as a child and when my parents finally divorced when I was sixteen I made a vow to never hurt anyone ever in my life. I have kept that vow but unfortunately it hasn't been reciprocal. I left home at 16 because I was being played as a pawn by both parents. I spent some years living in some very bad circumstances, sometimes with whores and shooters. I never did that myself and finally joined the US Army so I had at least a decent place to live. It was there that I was given Hep C from an injection of immunoglobulin. IG is made from the blood of up to 10,000 people and the infection rate back then was about 33 percent. I got the IG twice so had no chance. That has just been treated and I am fully clear of Hep C as of two months ago. That is helping a lot and I am feeling far better. But, I still have symptoms of PTSD, in particular startling so very easily.

I also have another major problem and that is my memory. I have a special type of memory called Hyperthymesia. I cannot forget nearly every single day of my life with the exception of some I must be blocking, mostly about abuse. Having such a detailed and exact form of memory is very much a bad thing now. It is hard to explain just how accurate it is. I can not only remember what I ate last week but I can remember exactly how it was positioned on the plate and nearly the moves I made to eat it. It can go on like this for virtually anything I do in a day. I must be forgetting some of the past but not enough to forget anything bad that has ever happened and that is the big problem.

Undoubtedly, these recent events have fired up a lot of past events too. I know it has because I can very easily feel the severe loss I experienced when my family fell apart at 16. I was essentially homeless then and that is how I feel now as well. I am sure that some of the PTSD is a result of how I was treated when young. The recent events have just added to it and multiplied it a great deal. I do have enough money to live comfortably, that is not a problem. I just don't have a home any more. The house we had is sold and she doesn't not even want to communicate with me now. She is gone from my life and so is the home I had planned to die in from old age. I now have an apartment that keeps the rain off my head. The only really good thing I have is the church I go to and the very good people there. I am so lucky to have God by my side and those that also believe in him. At least God has answered some of my most important prayers and things are looking better now. Getting rid of the Hep C is by far the most important and best thing that has happened. My life is finally looking like it will be better in the future.

 

[RussH]

I don't think that counts as a Criterion A trauma. I was threatened, but the threat had no immediacy.

I agree. I think for this situation to meet criteria A they would not only have to make the verbal threat, they would also need to have the means to carry out the threat. For example, if they said they were going to kill you, and had a knife in their hand, that would constitute an immediate threat.

 

[dnp]

@joeylittle I need to rush off to work right now so can't make a long reply, but I think the professor scenario is an issue of credibility, not immediacy.

 

[anonymous]

Hmmmm... yes, I wonder what would happen if the person had reason to believe that the professor had caused serious harm or killed someone in the past and if the professor had also emotionally manipulated and intimidated the person over time. Building a sense of them being a seriously dangerous person. That would probably be more relevant for a child come to think of it as the level of vulnerability and chance of harm is higher. Power dynamic too.,Some people are seriously off psychologically and its possible to tell that from a variety of input. Maybe both immediacy and credibility could be a factor. Not sure what I think.

 

[joeylittle]

@dnp - that makes sense, immediacy vs. credibility.

I think that immediacy creates credibility, and diminishes the number of times one would have to argue or debate credibility.

I also think, though, that if you've been fighting with someone who has proven to be violent, you're in a closed space - they say they are going to kill you and then actually move with speed (lunge) towards you so much that you react by trying to flee - it's a credible threat. Of death, no - but of potentially catastrophic injury, yes, unless you are an excellent hand-to-hand fighter, then no, it's different again.

 

[Milo's papa]

@joeylittle, when I went through my trauma therapy back in the early 70's they didn't diagnose me with PTSD, but they would today.

Is it possible that, while you remembered some of your trauma (prior to being diagnosed) you repressed part of it also? Or an alter lived with it? These are the things that happened with my wife, so I know they are both possible.

 

[joeylittle]

@Milo's papa - I repressed some details, but they come up as we work through things. No, I don't believe I have any alters. It was just me.

And some details I don't remember until we are working on them, but then I do. To me, that feels very different from the things that I believe I repressed. When the repressed gaps get filled in, it's been very shocking, both emotionally and physically (so far, anyway). Other things, I'll just remember a detail, but it's not disturbing to remember.

 

[Milo's papa]

@joeylittle, my journey home came to an end many years ago, but I still have the nightmares to remind me.

My wife on the other hand repressed all memory of her lifetime of trauma, or an alter stepped forward to respond to the threats against her life, for 26 years. It took another traumatic event for her repression to break down. Even now, 8 years into highly intense therapy she is still recovering memories that her alters were holding back so she wouldn't have to live with them. I have come to respect her "Tribe" for all they have done for her. If not for them, she could not have survived the memories..

DID can be good for something's.:)