@mrsps - thank you for the suggestions. I think distraction is going to be key right now.
@Sammy - being extra scared and extra worried does seem like an effect of PTSD. Thanks for the reminders to take some time to do self care today. A long hot bath is on my to-do list today. :)
@Jane.l - I think you have a very good point. Our brains are wired to protect us from death, more than people without PTSD. My extra-robust fight or flight system is on high alert. I've begun having flashbacks to times I nearly died. My whole being is on over-drive, trying to protect me from this new perceived threat.
@Anarchy - Thanks for your information and encouragement. I agree that the news is highly overblown, disconnected from reality, and almost set up to be addictive for our brains. I survived a natural disaster in my area, and sure enough, weeks after our town was back to normal, the news still made it look like a war zone when things were actually pretty ok. Once we are scared, we do take in information very differently. It's why trauma can have a lasting effect.
There was a psychology experiment (I've still not found the ref to the original paper, the results are quoted often enough but never with the reference cited) where a class of university students were given a paper exercise with a cartoon mouse and a maze. It took around 90 seconds to find the way through the maze. Half of the papers had a wedge of Swiss cheese at the end of the maze, the other half had a cartoon owl, with its talons out at the start.
some time after completing the maze, the class were tested with a creative thinking exercise. Those who had had the paper with the owl, scored on average 50% lower than those with the cheese. IIRC that effect continues for an hour or more, after doing the paper maze.
I haven't heard of this study, but I have read of many like it. Enough threat of danger, enough fear, causes the executive functioning to shut down, and we even can lose verbal skills. The lower parts of the brain kick into full gear to help us be ready to fight, flight, or freeze to survive the pending threat. It's immoral the way some media outlets use this to try and pull readers in.
I had been avoiding the news. I never watch the news, especially not American news. They pretty much shout at people with so much alarm in everything. I stopped reading the news for the past two months, but I started reading the news again when friends started talking about Ebola again.
@Kas_Can_Fly - thanks for posting that graphic. There is much that is reassuring about this bug. It really doesn't get transmitted through air, food, or water. There are actually much more contagious bugs out there that we have been able to control.
- edited to delete info that I decided was too personal -
I did tell my therapist this summer when my first panic attack about Ebola come up. I told her, "I can't even think. All my brain is telling me is that we are all going to die."
My therapist said, "Well, we are all going to die someday. Probably not tomorrow." She did have a point.
At the heart of it, I feel so helpless. I feel like I felt when serious trauma was actually happening. It is shutting down all my critical thinking skills. I'm in a high state of alarm, and it's not doing anything helpful for me other than giving me really bad stomach pain.
