The Ptsd Cup Explanation

[GG-love]

This is very helpful. Thank you. It makes the last several weeks make a lot more sense.

 

[SeanCharles]

Another "ah ha!" moment... From this thread I do see how my PTSD is definitely impacted by my work stress, life stress and the coping mechanisms of 'past' (i.e. my disassociation and the DID).

I really like this analogy. When I saw the 'cup' reference my initial thought was along the lines of the cup half-empty/half full. I am glad that this analogy uses a three cup comparison and I see how I have been reactive (through disassociation) to the littlest things that are false perceived 'threats'. I feel ready to attempt to start preparing myself for PTSD Therapy (using this forum initially until I can find a suitable therapist to work with in addition to doing the self-help stuff) so that I can at least begin to reprocess some of the reoccurring under current which is my PTSD within my cup. I feel like my past therapy sessions has helped to deal with the bad stress while totally avoiding the PTSD which I feel has been lingering for too long. The more I explore this site, the more "ah ha" moments I am having.

 

[anthony]

@Geordie, I still use the cup analogy to this day for my own daily healing adventure. I use it to assess myself whether or not I'm stressed based on my reaction to something.

 

[SeanCharles]

Ah! Last night I started a dialogue in the chat that now has a single memory I need to 'process' It's been with me all day and I was doing my best not to let that affect me negatively. It is like a very graphic YT video of me being pulled into a sexual situation with an older male (6-7 yrs my senior at the time.) Who I looked up to as an older brother kind of figure. How wrong I was... :(

I will have to refer to the cup analogy the same way for both working situations and memory processing... Thanks, Anthony.

 

[SeanCharles]

I had an interesting thought hit me (while I was done with work) which may be helpful to me... Typically some use a straw with a cup... So I thought, "What if I sip (an acronym of course which I define as Siphon, Identify, Process... (That is better actually I had originally came up with Increase which at the time seemed to make sense...) as in Sip away the bad stress from letting that overflow the cup! The application of this will definitely be challenging at first, but I think I have something here! I will definitely keep you posted...

 

[SeanCharles]

I am glad I found this... This helps explain a few times I have gotten irked at work and had a few explosions while also disassociating.

Thanks, Anthony!

 

[SeanCharles]

I had a great day and got a few things done that I missed from yesterday! (oops!) I think my boss wanted to say something but I noticed and took care of that task and got it done... My 'sipping' stress away worked. Interestingly I had forgotten what the I was and checked when I got home. I am going to have to amend the note I had written in the notes on my iPhone! I did notice after my shift my mood did change to agitated. I suspect now that waiting for my mom to finish working and maybe going over the stress may have triggered that, I am not sure really. Just thought I would post this before bed.

 

[RussH]

I was thinking about this and found this thread, so I thought I would chime in.

Our brains are computers. They have various operating systems and programs that enable it to function in a wide variety of situations. One example of a computer program would be the fight or flight program. This program is specifically there for our brain to respond to danger.

However, something comes along, and your computer program develops a programing glitch. It causes change in the program, and allows all kinds of pop ups on your computer. So now when certain keystrokes are entered into the computer instead of the expected result, you get an entirely different response, you get all these horrible pop ups, so you cannot use the computer in the way you need, or want.

So PTSD is a malicious pop up that shows up when certain keystrokes, triggers, are entered, and instead of a reasoned response to the keystroke, we have an unreasonable response, but the reality is, our response is not to the trigger, but to the original situation that caused the glitch in our computer programing.

 

[Julie50]

Thank you for this illustration. This captures well what happens to my husband..I just showed him and it’s not only what I see but what he feels. Its why I can start the day with one guy but depending on his stressors he can be dissociated and then sleeping from late afternoon until the next morning when he “resets”. It's so consistent and confounding to me because he actually becomes "impaired". I bet the effects of overflow look different in different people but here’s my question….is this something that you depicted to help explain what you feel or is this representing some neuroscience/PTSD research? If so, could you reference any studies that support this as we have an appointment to get a second opinion and to review medications and the background to this would be helpful. Thanks!

 

[RussH]

….is this something that you depicted to help explain what you feel or is this representing some neuroscience/PTSD research?

@Julie50 Can you please reference, use the @ and the person's name or tag, to specify who the question is for? This will ensure that you get the proper response to your question.

 

[Julie50]

Sorry @RussH .that was directed to the originator of the cup explanation which I believe is @anthony

 

[RussH]

@Julie50 Perfectly ok.
Anthony will respond, and will be able to give you a lot of research information