I Believe PTSD Is Curable - An Anonymous Source

[James B.]

You ain't antipathatec to me philostam. Props on your writing here and the way you presented it. Guess I need an eye patch...

Tried sketching with the left. Sketching is a highly developed commercial skill I taught myself. It was hard, child-like results. My ego got involved and I quit. Guess I better re-focus and get back after doing some still-lifes (perspective).

Your posts resonate within me philostam - guess I got some work to do. :-)

 

[Jline]

Before I started doing these exercises I was at a very numb stage in my PTSD, scared me more than the flashbacks, anxiety and all the rest of it... I felt so hollow. Today I feel a sense of peace within me. I have no anxiety and feel very balanced...it's wonderful!

 

[James B.]

Jline, could you possibly share the specifics of the exercises that you're doing?

 

[James B.]

Sorry Jline - I re-read this thread and your excersises - thanks.

 

[Jline]

A little to add... I usually watch a movie every night so I cover my left eye for a while as I watch, it doesn't really take any effort to do this, just chillin, watching a movie. Then I will switch eyes and cover my right eye. I went to a concert the other night and was the passenger for the 3 hour drive so I did it on the drive there and back, doesn't have to be for long either but I do it at some point everyday. I also started using my left hand more, example... picking up a cup with my left to drink, pretty basic . Seems too simple to be a cure but I swear I can no longer call myself a PTSD sufferer. j

 

[emmat]

I spent years distracting myself with art, with music, with work, with education and whilst I was distracted it helped. It didn't cure me though. It didn't make any of the underlying trauma go away.

When I throw myself into learning any new skill my symptoms always decrease until it gets to the point where it's no longer a challange and my mind starts to wonder again. The thing is it often comes back worse because instead of working through my issues I've simply been ignoring them - forcing my mind to concentrate on learning a difficult skill.

Something about all this doesn't sit well in my stomach, I've been reading this thread but not replying for ages. I wish any of you trying it out good luck and if anything helps making day to day coping a little easier then cool. But you should be careful that you don't confuse distracting ones mind from the PTSD with curing it.

 

[Jline]

I have also spent years distracting myself with art, music...ect but I have not experienced this particular feeling of calm in years. It feels like I do not have PTSD anymore. I do believe these exercises get my brain firing off in balance, I can feel it. My family can't believe the difference and neither can I. I agree with you emmat, distraction does help temporarily but this feels different. I have felt the benefits of distraction before but never like this.

 

[philostam]

I wanted to answer with almost the same sentences, but I was curious, if Jline will write the same. Well.

 

[philostam]

Normality is essentially out of your sight.

Oh, and another thing: don't you dare believe that you know what is calmness! You don't have a clue! All my life I wanted to be calm down at last, but now when it happened, I have to say, it's nothing that I could have imagined before. It's not "psychological" calmness, but something distinctly in the brain-functioning; there's no need to "achieve" it, you don't have to "calm yourself down", "act normally", "distract yourself" etc. Don't trust your opinions, don't trust your awareness, don't trust yourself, because normality, cure, happiness is something that you can't even chase, that's how much you don't know about it if you have a PTSD-brain.

But what am I doing anyway? Go check it out for yourself. You just have to lift your hand.

 

[Jline]

When a person has a weak eye, the doctor will cover the stronger eye to help strengthen the weak one, making it do some work on it's own. The result is the weak eye becomes stronger, more in balance. Our PTSD brains seem to be out of balance. Difficulty in making decisions, unable to deal with even a little stress, the past always in the foreground instead of where it ought to be ...in the past...flashbacks, insomnia, agoraphobia...ect. Having one side of the brain in a weakened state is the same as having a weak eye. The weak side needs a little help to get working and this is an easy and safe way to accomplish this.

 

[anni]

I've been following the thread also, and I think what emmat is saying is that one just can't be sure that what might be going on is possibly another way the brain reacts to a form of distraction. The dynamics of the damage is more that the brain has been re-wired than knocked out of balance, although chemistry is sure out of whack. For this to be permanant, the brain would have to have been somehow healed back to it's original routes of circuitry through these excercizes. Anything's possible, of course. There would have to be some long term studies to substantiate an absolute determination as to whether this achieves a cure, really.

Having said that, it's worth a try. Even temporary peace( if that's what it turns out to be- maybe not!) is something in all this chaos in our heads.

 

[James B.]

I agree anni - I'll take any amount of peace, tranquility or serenity I can find. The theory sure is interesting and seems to make a lot of down to earth sense. Am way on board with trying this out. Can't go to town today to get an eye-patch pirate style, but think going walking with the thing on might be good.

Just wanna be clear that what I am reading on this thread is a concept for treating PTSD, the anxiety disorder. Will still have my trauma healing work to do, regardless.

One more thing. There is a large body of information from Rolfers who've had people react to past truama (physical injury trauma) while being Rolfed. I can't imaging the brain hemishphere thing dealing with actual injuries that are bound up in the body. I had such a reaction, an involuntary hyperventilation, while being Rolfed. There may well be other injuries from abuse bound up in my body as well.

My Rolfer described her 30 years experience doing this work as exploring physical memory, and said she'd had people get, essentially, triggered and react very strongly, breaking down in tears and demonstrating other aspects of "physical memory" from injury/trauma.

This stuff suggests to me, in a completely grass roots way, that in my case for instance, my truamatic injuries from abuse may, even in a small way, reside in my body as well. And, in terms of comprehensive healing, makes me feel like this is another step for me that I will take on again, in a descending order of priority.

If this brain hemisphere stuff can help with my anxiety disorder, its for sure worth commiting real time and energy to explore. But the nug of festering rotten puke which is my unhealed trauma must still be dealt with, and I cannot imagine - being at "peace" or not - this step being under estimated in my overall recovery project, my own personalized healing "Tao".

Clearly, "trauma" and how we got PTSD is a widely varied thing.

Some may have gotten it from what they witnessed alone. Some may have gotten in from sexual abuse, emotional torment and so on. And still other may have gotten it from taking a severe beating to the body, or a combination of the above, etc.

So, when someone goes "hey, I am symptom free from doing this brain hemisphere training stuff," my first though is, that's awesome - what is/was your trauma caused by, to, at least in my mind, somewhat qualify their results/claim.

Thanks for letting me share these thoughts, great thread. Very exciting stuff. Looking forward to giving this a go.

Have a nice day everyone.
James B.