The Day I Realized Ptsd Was A Life Long Condition?

[Digz]

Pahahahahaha!
Yeah, I know - weird to post laughter on a PTSD forum, but Gary's post is just so ridiculous, it's laughable.
PTSD = curable. Yeah, sure that makes sense. Let's take me - I combine my PTSD with DID. This means, still 6-7 years on from my initial trigger (which I still have no idea what that trigger was), I also still have only partial memories of some traumas. I don't know how many more there are, I don't know what the possible new triggers could be that could one day bring forward new memories. Just last year, after thinking I was doing so well, I came across a trigger that caused new flashbacks in which I learnt I had a second abuser.
So, Gary... oh incredible, super-human shrink... come, cure me and my invisible future flashbacks!

I mean, I could go into the research and the rest, but it seems everybody else has already kicked your butt with that.
As for the elevated anxiety baseline... well, according to your reasoning, I must have had that elevated anxiety from the age of approximately 9 or 10. Was I an anxious child? I'm not sure. Being that I can't remember due to my condition, you know, due to the TRAUMA. I suppose if I was an anxious child, it would make sense seeing as I was living in constant danger - you know, because of the TRAUMA. Hey, do you think there could be a connection to elevated levels of anxiety and people who have experienced trauma? Remarkable find there. You should make sure to get that sh*# published.

All of these things are fixable and it does not have to take a long time

Is it just me, or does it just get more ridiculous, the more you read? The fact that you not only seriously think PTSD is curable, but also that it doesn't have to take a long time.... There - are - no - words.

For those people who said they derived some comfort from the realization that PTSD is a lifelong condition - that is what makes sense. It also makes sense to feel angry, ripped off and what I feel a little of when I think about that notion - scared. I also, however, feel some comfort. I think the comfort comes from the idea that if this is a lifelong condition, like diabetes or other illnesses, then if it flares up, then you are not a failure and you don't have to feel incompetent for not having 'cured' yourself, or ashamed. Hacks, like this Gary idiot are not only stupid, but dangerous because they give false hope and they can lead suffers to wonder what is wrong with them, why can't they 'beat this' forever.

I think the realisation comes after a fair while, once you've had those moments of believing you have, or have almost, go this thing beat, only to find yourself later eating your words. The idea still scares me. The image of me when I'm sixty years old, potentially have a relapse - not a pretty sight. But then I think, it being a lifelong condition, doesn't mean its effect and negative impact cannot be improved. The impact that PTSD has on my life and emotions now, just 6 years down the track, is a million times less than it was in those first years. So, in five more years, in ten more years, if I keep working at it, how much lesser will the effect be then? THAT is what I find truly exciting and that is what I hold on to when the notion of PTSD being lifelong scares the crap out of me.

Lifelong means forever, but it doesn't mean with the same impact or without change.

 

[Deleted member 27340]

I'm neutral. I view my own and other's existence as objective, not subjective. In short, we're floating around and bumping into influences pushing us wherever we end up going. We do not have free choices; we're only a result of things gone right and things gone wrong. A huge bump, such as trauma, will alter your course so much that you will forever be affected by it, unlike smaller bumps and changes in course where you might return to your original track or be perfectly fine adjusting to the new one.

This way of thinking is seemingly confusing and depressing to many people, but to me there's an odd comfort in not having free choices. For me it's natural, and life-saving. Whether PTSD is life-long or not is to me irrelevant. Regardless what my symptoms will be, the incidents -- the "bumps" -- will always be there and I will have to simply suck it up and deal or take the consequences of being a crybaby as they come around. I do imagine symptoms can be minimised as your brain slowly reprocesses and makes sense of what happened.

 

[Kintsugi]

I am very confused about @Gary.Johnston is referring to with this elevated baseline anxiety stuff. My trauma occurred at around four years of age, and I've been presenting symptoms since then. I got the whole gamut of PTSD symptoms when I was 12, after my primary abuser left the home for an oh so brief spell, but I've had night terrors since before I can remember, always been hypervigilant, always had paranoid delusions, always had dissociation... the list goes on. Insomnia, fully developed depression, and flashbacks were really just the last pieces of the puzzle to the whole PTSD cocktail I'd been sipping all my life. Nevermind that prior to that, I had all the classic signs of an abused child. Repetitive play, isolation, and night terrors are just a few I can think of off the top of my head.

Can you explain how this item relates to such an experience, Gary?

And yes, I am laughing, bitterly and with the shadow of compassion for someone who clearly feels he can CURE US, guys! Heart in the right place. Yes. I see that. But it's difficult to hold onto in the face of this post. It reads like an ad for the wonder food you've been looking for to get rid of those extra pounds.

 

[anthony]

I think people shouldn't focus too much on a guest post versus the primary post and topic of this thread.

 

[obewun]

Ok, I will keep my 38 years of specialization in anxiety disorders and trauma to myself, since it seems everyone wants to continue doing the same things that most of my clients have done until they finally get referred to me.

The only reason I appeared as a guest here was because I had forgotten to login. I have been a member for six years. However, I now have cancer and recently made a decision to stop my work and do something for myself for the first time in my life and look after my own well being. So I won't be back and will delete my profile on here.

The post was not an ad Simon, since I am no longer seeing clients - and I don't wish to cop the abuse the traditional models like to heap on people who do get results for their clients. I have no barrow to push and no benefit to gain by being here apart from knowing there is a better way to deal with trauma and the anxiety, depression and multitude of symptoms you suffer through. I have also had personal experience of it.

Just to clarify, the 20% of people I was referring to relate to a % of people with diagnosed PTSD, not the general population. My client base has always been people who have come from the traditional models after years or decades of ineffective treatments. This effects the underlying conditions presenting.

If you believe PTSD is life long then it probably will be. But there are reasons that PTSD triggers in some and not others. I am not going to go into those here in a negative environment, but when those issues are dealt with the only time anxiety symptoms ever return is when the causes have not been properly dealt with.

Simon, baseline anxiety levels can be high even from birth, and can feel like that is a normal state, so go unrecognized. Unconscious emotional memory encoding often includes anxiety states felt by a mother while you are in womb.

As for trauma causing anxiety, there us no question. The trigger event/s always raise anxiety, sometimes increasing over time, to a point where PTSD only meets DSM criteria for the diagnosis after many years.

As for current research and the science that is rolled out to support the existing traditional methodologies. I understand the principles of research better than many. I spent 8 years in research labs in my younger days and have continued with research ever since. I read hundreds of research papers every year. To be considered valid research needs to have a substantial cohort and be treated in exactly the same way, half with the treatment methodology and half without intervention of any kind. When it comes to social science research everyone is unique in the way they process information, memory and emotional encoding. The different circumstance of people's lives, their education, family and environment are all unique, as are emotional, behavioral and thought processes. By definition therefore it is impossible to do research that uses the same standardized treatments across a broad population and expect any level of consistent results, unless your desire is to prove a certain outcome using standardized drugs, or investigate a small piece of the puzzle. When you do that the research is irrelevant across an entire population. I base my comments on the results on thousands of highly anxious clients, each one treated uniquely.

Remember, continue to do what you have always done in the same way you have always done it, and you will continue to get what you have always had. Deal with the underlying cause to remove the symptoms, not the other way around.

I wish you all luck and best of health.

Gary J

 

[Recovery4Me]

@obewun ...

Deleting your profile may not be wise (with all due respect sir). You may need the community as you face your struggle with a most sad as well as unfortunate disease...Cancer. As you know, PTSD can ensue from such trauma and this community would embrace + support you in your personal challenge in time.

Surely, you have better skill sets than taking your marbles and trotting off home. Stay and grow when you are not in charge of a session...but just a viable part of a community.

Welcome to the board.:hug:

 

[obewun]

Thanks Recovery4me for your thoughts, but for me cancer is neither sad or unfortunate, it just is and is treatable like any other disease. I will beat it and it causes me no anxiety. If I don't I die - again, no anxiety around it. As for taking my marbles and trotting off, I intend to take time out, sit on the beaches or mountain tops and contemplating my navel, to enjoy life. Yes it is totally selfish, but I have already given most of my life to everyone else.
Namaste

 

[SurvivingWarrior]

I was just diagnosed on the 25th of March so I'm still letting it all settle in. I can accept it, however I feel a new sense of shame. I think it has more to do with the events that have caused my PTSD more than the actual diagnosis.

My meds had to be adjusted after I started suffering severe dissociation. Now things seem to be going smoothly. Hopefully I will be able to lead a fairly normal life but we will see.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

@obewun,

If you're not practicing, I think the self promotion bit is out. Can you please enlighten us with your treatment methods? I'm curious to know them.

I also find it a bit sad that you apply blanket statements to all of us in a pitying sort of fashion. Most of us here are trying to accept what has been dealt to us. It is a long process to say the least.

Your messiah complex is a bit off putting, I must admit. You seem to think you hold the secret to curing trauma, yet hold it over our heads as some sort of great secret.

You spout things like "remove the underlying cause to remove the symptoms". Sorry to sound snarky, but I think that's something most of us learn at the beginning of treatment! Its in no way, shape or form profound or groundbreaking. (That is, if you would take the time to read our posts, you'd see that's what most of us are doing!)

I'm bowing out at this point. Arguing with you is futile because you don't understand the basics of PTSD. You believe its ALL mental, when I know for a fact that it indeed has a VERY physical component. Removing my triggers isn't going to fix the fact that my nerves are fried or that I have a lower tolerance for stress.

You might want to reassess your assumption that your models are advanced. I disagree.

I'm not sure why a former practitioner is coming on here and telling us all that we're wrong. (And people wonder why so many of us have issues with therapists.)

 

[Ron J]

I was doing real well for about 20 years after Viet Nam until one day my wife was attacked and I ran the person off. My PTSD started at that time but I did not relise it. It was a couple of mounts later that she forced me to go and see someone about it. It has been over 10 years and I am still trying to deal with it. I finally found the right people at the VA to help me. They have been a good for me, I have started doing things that I did before PTSD took hold of my life and mess it up. I am still trying to deal with it. I now know that this is a lifetime perment condition, but it still does not help. I still get very down sometimes and start crying and want to be left alone and retreat into my little corner of the den. When someone say that I did a good job at something, I know they were just being nice, I did not do that good of a job.

 

[The Albatross]

Just curious @ Gary Johnston, what you might have to say about co-occurring behavior people... PTSD and Substance Abuse Disorder. I'm open to whatever you may have to share. I got where I am today not cuz my shrinks were particularly helpful, but by peer support and self education and/or goal challenging.

 

[Digz]

@obewun
Perhaps I misjudged you, and if I did I'm sorry for that. I am also sorry to hear about your current predicament with cancer.
What I find confusing, however, is that the therapy I have undertaken has improved my health markedly since I was first triggered. I have been able to progress from a complete mess, not working, barely interacting with society - to going back to work fulltime, having a baby and moving to the other side of my state.
I'd really like to know what you mean by treating the underlying anxiety. I don't think I fully understand what you mean and am curious if my therapists might have been doing this already, but perhaps I didn't really understand it. For example, in the early days of therapy I talked a bit of my emerging memories etc. Lately now in therapy, I have been working on managing stress resulting from work and other areas of my life a lot. Is this what you mean by underlying anxiety? The idea that things like work are more likely to make me stressed? Like I said, I don't think I really get what you mean.
I guess for me, when I say PTSD as a lifelong condition, that doesn't mean I don't see it as a condition that can be improved upon markedly and I am very hopeful that one day it has little to no effect on my life, as in the last 5 or so years of therapy it has improved a thousand percent. For the first three or four years I thought of it as curable, but now that concept scares me I guess, because when you think of something like this as never coming back and then it does, it can make it harder to handle. Would you treat somebody diagnosed with PTSD and DID the same way? Treat the underlying anxiety to fix the problem? This is what I have been diagnosed with. Although, my DID is a lot better than it was once and I don't have a lot of problems with in nowadays.
I also have binge eating/ eating disorder issues. Have you had experience with treating underlying anxiety and it helping this? I certainly know that when I am anxious is when my binge eating is at its worst.
I know I've asked lots of questions, but it's not very often you get to pick the brain of a therapist online, and I live in a place where my access to therapists isn't easy. There are none in my local area - the government has travelling therapists that visit a doctors near me every 2 weeks, or I must travel 250km if I wish to see a private therapist of my choosing. It makes being selective quite difficult!!