General Lets Try An Analogy

[Nicolette]

I have been thinking about this all morning; the fact that Carers are always struggling to understand PTSD. There is the Cup analogy which is very good but I want to try something different.

The thing which came to mind for me was cars.

Lets say you (Carer) and your suffer both start off with brand new cars.

You get up in the morning, go to your car which has been garaged all night, fill up your lovely new car with petrol and zip around through the day. You pick good car parks, usually find undercover places and all is well. Despite having a lot of driving to do you get good runs and even have time to pull into the service station and get fuel on the way home so that you don't have to do it in the morning.

Your sufferer gets up in the morning, goes to his/her car which had to be parked out on the nature strip (only one car fits in the garage), to find that someone has scratched it. He/she then goes to get petrol to find out that they have left their wallet/purse at home. They are now getting pretty annoyed. They don't have time to go back and get money so they go off with only half a tank of petrol despite having a lot of places to go. The only car park they can get is in the furthermost car park in the lot which is under a tree. When they return they find that the birds in the tree have made deposits all over the bonnet of the car. Ok, now they are starting to get pissed off. Then on the way home they get stuck in traffic and spend all their time worrying that they will run out of petrol before getting home. This just stresses them out more. They have to go home first as they don't have money to buy petrol. By the time they get home they are too tired and stressed to get petrol so they think stuff it I will get some in the morning. That night the sufferer has a terrible time trying to get to sleep as they are so worked up from the day they had so they can't get to sleep. After finally falling asleep at 2am they hit the alarm when it goes off and oversleeps. They wake up late, therefore are already stressed, get to the car and it has no petrol and so the cycle perpetuates.

 

[Thankful]

yes, good analogy, I've seen this one in action! :)

 

[2quilt]

I would add one thing: While the driver is driving without his or her wallet/purse, he gets into a confrontation with another driver carelessly changing lanes without looking around, the police stops them both, the drivers swear at each other, threaten violence, and the police then ask the drivers for their licenses...

 

[Jet]

Good analogy. I would say that about sums up my life a good share of the time.

Jet

 

[Shoka]

2quilt,

I would have added the same thing except that the sufferer gets cut off and by another driver, gets filled with adrenaline, ends up in a high speed chase, eventually pulls the other driver over and almost ends up in a fist fight on the side of the road.

Shoka

 

[2quilt]

Doesn't the car run out of gas at some point too?

 

[becvan]

I think it should probably overheat at some point.. making them wait on the side of the road for an hour while it's piping hot out...


Then when the day is all said and done, and they come home and the carer is talking about such a lovely drive to do errands they had that day.. the sufferer would be grinding their teeth and running for the nearest video game to get away from the happiness that is just irking them. LOL

bec

 

[Claire]

So to try and get a handle on everything the sufferer decides he/she'll walk and leave the car at home. Its slower walking (and not as convenient) but also less complicated and much less stressful. Maybe after a lot of walking, the car might be the right option again.