trauma and recovery

this was sent to me and we wanted to share with you here.

From "Trauma and Recovery" by Dr Judith Lewis Herman

"Psychological trauma is an affliction of the powerless. At the moment of trauma, the victim is rendered helpless by overwhelming force. Traumatic events overwhelm the ordinary symptoms of care that give people a sense of control, connection, and meaning.
Certain experiences increase the likelihood of harm.
1. Being taken by surprise
2. Being trapped
3. Being at the point of exhaustion
4. Being physically violated or injured
5. Being exposed to physical violence
6. Witnessing grotesque deaths
Trauma occurs when action is of no avail--when neither resistance nor escape is possible.
The traumatized individual may experience intense emotion but without clear memory of the event--or may remember everything in detail but without emotion. Traumatic symptoms have a tendency to become disconnected from their source and to take on a life of their own. (Dissociation)
The Main Categories of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
1. Hyperarousal: Persistent expectation of danger2. Intrusion: The indelible imprint of the traumatic even returning unbidden.3. Constriction: The numbing response of surrender
In Hyperarousal
The system of self preservation goes into permanent alert as if the danger could return at any moment. (Symptoms: Startle easily, reacts irritably to small provocations, sleeps poorly). It is the constant arousal of the autonomic nervous system.
In Intrusion
Long after the danger is past, traumatized people relive the event as though it were continually recurring in the present. The trauma interrupts daily life. (Symptoms: Flashbacks during waking; nightmares during sleeping)
Traumatic memories lack verbal narrative and context; rather they are encoded in the form of vivid sensations and images. They resemble the memories of young children.
Traumatized people find themselves reenacting some aspect of the trauma scene in disguised form without realizing what they're doing (e.g., putting themselves in dangerous situations this time to make the end come out differently (a version of the repetition compulsion).
Seen as a possible attempt at integration--to relive and master the overwhelming feelings of the traumatic moment(s).
Attempts to avoid reliving the trauma too often result in a narrowing of consciousness or withdrawal from engagement with others and an impoverished life.
In Constriction (numbing)
The system of self esteem shuts down completely (a state of surrender). The helpless person escapes not by action, but by altering her/his state of consciousness.
Events continue to register in awareness but its as though these events have been disconnected from their ordinary meaning (similar to trance states).
Those who cannot dissociate may turn to drugs or alcohol for their numbing effects.
Adaptive during the trauma, numbing becomes maladaptive once the danger is past.
In an attempt to crease some sense of safety, traumatized people restrict their lives.
In avoiding any situation reminiscent of the past trauma or any initiative that might involve future planning and risk, traumatized people deprive themselves of those new opportunities for successful coping that might mitigate the effect of the traumatic experience.
Because post traumatic symptoms are so persistent and widespread, they may be mistaken for enduring characteristics of the victim's personality.
Disconnection
Traumatic events breach the attachments of family, friendship, love, and community. They shatter the construction of the self that is formed and sustained in relation to others. They undermine the belief system that gives meaning to human experience. They violate the victim's faith in a natural or divine order and cast the victim into a state of existential crisis. It is a shattering of "basic trust." A sense of alienation, disconnection pervades every relationship.
Damaged Self
Trauma forces the survivor to relive all earlier struggles over autonomy, initiative, competence, identity, and intimacy.
The developing child's positive sense of self depends upon a caretaker's benign use of power.
Traumatic events violate the autonomy of the person at the level of basic bodily integrity (Body ego -> first sense of "I")
The belief in a meaningful world is formed in relation to others and begins earliest life. Basic trust, acquired in the primary intimate relationship is the foundation of faith. Trauma creates a crisis of faith.
Damage to the survivor's faith and sense of community is particularly severe when the event themselves involve the betrayal of important relationships.
Survivors oscillate between:
Uncontrollable outbursts of anger and intolerance of rage in any form.
Seeking intimacy desperately and totally withdrawing from it.
Self esteem is assaulted by experiences of humiliation, guilt, and helplessness.
Vulnerability and Resilience
Individual personality characteristics count for little in the face of overwhelming events. With severe enough experience, no person is immune.

http://www.uic.edu/classes/psych/psych270/PTSD.htm

i am not an armed forces combat vetern, i apologise if my reply is inappropriate here... the article is very interesting

i got this far in reading it bebop and froze...

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The traumatized individual may experience intense emotion but without clear memory of the event

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brings up some memory of things past that when the event occurred, it happened just like that... couldnt recall details minutes after it had just happened... things spun so quickly thru my mind it was a total (raging) color blur.... a lot of fear and adrenelin..

thanks for sharing this article..

Same here NoWhereToRun...

I guess I have several incidents and an accumulated PTSD...some events I've always remembered, others appear out of the ends of my finger tips as I type.

When I was wounded, the bullet knocked me out. I awoke in the middle of a battle wondering what happened.... images, colors, and a flood of details swirl around the incident.

yeah Troy.. the colors hadnt occured in my memory of it til i read Bebops' articles.... i guess i automatically associate red with anger (and other emotions) but that is really the predominant color in those memories.... anger that i could or should be treated in the way i was at that moment....

i can only imagine your circumstances Troy when you have these memories, trying to recapture that flury of emotions and thoughts.... glad you made it here Troy... the words others have given me are soul medicine... people do care....

thank you Greatly for sharing here Troy...

You're exactly right, but I hope you don't give me too much credit for posting here. There is a lot of fear involved in the posting, but I'm getting better at it.

The color red ... sure...I see the red mixed with black, darkness, along with some flashes of light ... overhead flares and the flash of weapons in the night. And there's the sound of bullets snapping past my ears -- very unique sound if you've never heard it ... and in a sense, you're glad to hear it because it's the ones you don't hear that hit you.

This particular event is even more compelling for me in that a good friend died right beside me when I was wounded and knocked out. A young guy, newly married, baby on the way ... and he's dead ... in the night ... in some forsaken place without a name.

That night, I looked into the eyes of the enemy just a few feet away as we shot at each other. And I looked into the eyes of my dead friend.

So ... I know what happens when things are not done the way they should be, when things do not come off as planned. Maybe this is part of what causes our hyper frustration levels.

"When we do our best but it just isn't enough ..."

T.

growing up from about age 7 and beginning to understand a little about life and death and war, i wanted to ask my Dad about his war stories but didnt want to... i imagined they were horrible memories that he wouldnt want to recall... i wondered what haunted him... he was a kind and gentle, but strong man

having met a few vets as ive traveled, in homeless shelters and other places, ive seen upclose what has been done to these good people....

i think you are brave for reaching out to others Troy..

Thanks for understanding ... and thanks to your dad for his service. Maybe some of the stories here will help you get a sense of what he wasn't telling. I'm glad he was a kind and gentle, strong dad for you. I'm sure he is proud of you now.

T.

I am a wife of a military member who has been diagnosed with PTSD. He serviced in Viet Nam as a Marine. Over the years I knew he needed help to handle his memories but as most things like this the soldier needs to admit that he needs the help. His final straw was when his daughter joined the service and was sent to Iraq. It hit him hard and when she came home he finally admitted he needed help. Which is great and he is doing good. But what I want his some help so I can help him. The military has the help for the alcholic but it does not teach you how to handle when the PTSD side. I am not sure how to speak to him or do I do things to cause the problem to react again. I want to know how I can help.

I, too, am not a veteran of war. I am a 38 year old woman who was raped over and over again when she was five. He was sixteen and it happened for 180 days...a full school year. I repressed all of those memories until I was twenty-two. Everything that you wrote about in the article is true. I still deal with the images, the smells, the sounds, the textures of what happened to me as a child. I am also suffering from Bipolar I Disorder. In my manic episodes I become hyper-vigilant and the flashbacks and nightmares come flooding back. Sometimes it feels so real that I lose my breath and my heart feels like it is going to pound out of my chest. I can't sleep; I can't think. Fear rules me; my concious and unconcious mind.The artilce made me realize that what I feel and have experienced is real and that I am not alone. For that, I thank you.

well i am a combat vet and i just got out about 8 months ago. im here because i do not want to go to a shrink and my loving girlfriend is worried about me. over the past few months i been having this feeling of "no use" "no purpose" then depression comes into play and i have flash backs of my brothers who have died by my side. then i start wondering if i should be there with them..... theses thought have gotten stronger and stronger and i been getting angry and angrier. its killing me and ruining our relationship.

how do you deal with it? i just got out of the army and am having serious issues.

I have no military experience but I did experience a rape. I am in T and there is a posibility that I have combative PTSD not due to the military but fighting a 9 mo long battle w/ a rapist.

(((Big Mama))),

The initial information posted by Bebop is from Judith Hermans book Trama and Recovery. It is a very good book, you should see if you can find it at your local library or order it online.

Open Eyes

Amazing, I read the brief intro here just a second ago. It is me. Someone found me. What exists inside of me is real. I'm not alone, someone even wrote a book about it for others to read. I just can't believe someone witnessed this and it helped me find me.

It's the smells that are the worst, together with the images that aren't quite there...sort of like spectres that have a form but no voice, and my bones ache with wanting to stop remembering.

Hi Y'all, I am not a Vet,but some of my family served. I have so much respect for folks,who give themselves,to protect us. I can't seem to find a place to be here yet. Been through a life of a lot of others way of being cruel to others. Thanks--hope it's okay,I'm here! Just a lost soul! Trying to find what I need to do to heal and help others to be happy... Ptsd,sucks no matter how one comes by it...best regards to all oxox

I don't know if I have this condition or not but having spent several years with an NPD I feel that a huge part of me is missing - I am exhausted all the time which is showing up with work - I just have no energy and can't even remember what being really happy is I have little self-confidence and no motivation - I am literally struggling to cope with every day things - I do have better days but I am still not the person I used to be!

I agree to thank the veterans who have fought to protect Americans ( though, the last 50 years of fighting was not about protecting Americans) and have not served in an official role, but also suffer PTSD from the mechanisms of the American family court system. They currently have me living at 50% of the 2012 recognised poverty line (despite the state constitution) and continue to harass me despite the fact that my employer only has available work for half the year. I know, "Get a better job"; anyone who doesn't think I haven't tried is suffering from something else. In either case, I cannot afford healthcare despite the fact that for half the year I have health coverage, have been without medication for several years, earn a net salary of 5000$ a year, and get to see my son on a bi-weekly schedule for the cost of 35$ a visit (providing his mother is not on vacation during the entire week the visit is scheduled). I do not kill myself so that my son can have a father; in the meantime I survive on garbage and damaged goods.
Just looking for someone who's riding the same boat (he's five, so I'll be in this boat for another sixteen years).

Forgive me for my ignorance but are you thanking Veterans who have served in the past 50 years or are they excluded from the thank you's?

hey my name is xander and i am a combat vet from afghan. my mos was infantry. i went to basic and ait together. that was 6 months long. then went to airborne hold over for a month and then airborne school for 3 weeks. after all that was done i got 10 days leave so came home to arizona and pruposed to my girlfriend we got married then i left for ft bragg. i was in reseption for2 weeks then got to my unit and they said i was deploying to afghan right now. i got all my cif and rfi gear and got manafested and when they were calling out the names they didnt call mine. so i went on 10 days permisive leave for getting married flew to arizona got my wife and drove to nc. we got an appartment. i was stuck on rear d for awhie which sucked becuase i was pretty much a gardener or a paper pusher my unit got back and they had delta come threw and pick people for their pipeline i tired out but didnt get it because of a neck injurie i got while on a jump i got caught in somebodies shute and fell hard dont remember much. so went back to my unit which was a combination of rangers sf and other groups. i then found out my wife was pregnant. two months later i found out it wasnt mine so she left. and then i got picked for a special mission in afghan area. it was a hush hush mission i had to tell my ffamily that i was going to be doing training and woldnt have acess to a phone. it was about two months long saw alot of hairy ****. did some stuff that goes agains my moraL values but if i didnt three guys would have been blown up. when i got back to my unit some ******** happened and they kicked me out in ten days. now im in a civilian world that makes no sense to me i wish i was back in afghan. i have very bad anxiety. my heart rate is usually over 100 sometimes 140 just sitting and resting i cant sleep. i will wake up screaming or throwing my pillows thinking im in a fight. need help from other vets please reply with some help!!!!