Last night my friend and colleague Sue Hanisch from Cumbria, sent a text to me. She's in the area, could she visit on Saturday afternoon? In all day, I replied.
This morning I woke to the senseless tragedy that has happened in Norway. A bomb blast in Oslo and a massacre of teenagers on an island.
Is there a connection? Sadly, yes. Sue was in Victoria Station on February 18th, 1991, when a bomb went off in the waste bin next to the telephone booth she was standing in. http://theforgivenessproject.com/stories/sue-hanisch-england
I have mentioned Sue before. http://emotionalgrowth.blogspot.com/2011/07/dont-panic-being-birdbrained.html I wrote about panicking in a thunderstorm. We were travelling in Australia, giving workshops in three states. I first met Sue in 2001, when I was facilitating on the diploma course that she was taking. I was present when she underwent a de-traumatising therapeutic session with one of the tutors. It worked.
I have spent fifteen years being involved with people showing various degrees of reactions to trauma. It could be 100% Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), developed from exposure to a very frightening or threatening event. Or similar symptoms arising from a lower level of exposure to something that the person found frightening. It can have been real or perceived.
Extreme fear is the common emotion.
Most people have heard of PTSD, but few will know the diagnostic criteria.
PTSD is the development of characteristic and persistent symptoms along with difficulty functioning after exposure to a life or integrity threatening experience or to an event that either involves a threat to life, integrity or serious injury.
In some cases the symptoms of PTSD disappear with time. Whereas in other cases they persist for many years. Why this happens has a great deal to do with the person getting other needs met healthily.
The symptoms required for the diagnosis of PTSD may be divided into 3 clusters and should be present for at least 1 month.
- Intrusion or re-experiencing - memories of the trauma or "flashbacks" that occur unexpectedly; these may include nightmares, intrusive mental images or extreme emotional distress and/or physiological reactivity on exposure to reminders of the traumatic event
- Avoidance - avoiding people, places, thoughts, or activities that bring back memories of the trauma; this may involve feeling numb or emotionless, withdrawing from family and friends, or "self-medicating" by abusing alcohol or other drugs
- Hyperarousal - feeling "on guard" or irritable, having sleep problems, having difficulty concentrating, feeling overly alert and being easily startled, having sudden outbursts of anger
PTSD can often go unrecognised and undiagnosed. Panic attacks can be misdiagnosed as a symptom of physical ill health, rather than emotional imbalance.
A friend M had suddenly married her long time partner. I rang to give her my good wishes. She explained that she had been due to undergo a brain operation and they thought they should legalise matters beforehand. I was shocked and asked her what happened.
She told me that she had gone for an eye test. The optician had mentioned that there was some age related deterioration in one eye. The word blindness was mentioned. Going blind had always been M's greatest fear in life. M left the shop and felt very dizzy and sick. A trip to the GP revealed that she had high blood pressure and needed further investigations. There was a suggestion of a brain tumour. M's parents are very wealthy. They paid for her to go the best doctors. I believe the USA was involved.
The decision was made for her to undergo a brain operation, just one blood test was remaining. She got married. The blood test proved negative. The operation was called off.
I said, " Forgive me saying, but it sounds as if you had a panic attack outside the shop." She agreed that was being suggested now. She asked me how I knew.
In previous blogs I have mentioned 'emotional memory matching'. I haven't yet mentioned our built-in, personal safety alarm system.
Houses have fire alarms. The alarm makes a loud noise. Our brains have an amygdala. It switches on or 'fight, flight or freeze' reaction. We can also make a loud noise...or just crumple in a shaking mass...or do something anywhere in-between.
The house alarms are more sophisticated than they used to be. The alarm couldn't tell the difference between life threatening smoke from a fire and someone smoking a cigarette or the sausages being well grilled. Our safety alarm sometimes can't tell the difference either. "What's that smell?" Heart rate increases, we becomes breathless, feel nauseous, palms become sweaty etc..
If you have ever experienced PTSD or known someone that does, the diagnostic criteria may be familiar to you. But look at the criteria again and think about a behaviour that you may have. Maybe a phobia? Maybe an over-reaction to something or somebody? Perhaps an avoidance of some sort? You are unlikely to be experiencing full blown PTSD, but what about something called sub-threshold trauma?
E.g: Many people will have a strong reaction to their school uniform colour, avoiding it at all costs in their life, in all manner of objects, even decades later.
Phobias are built on these foundations. Which is why so many people think their fears will be judged as illogical by others. Because, generally, they are. The fear is real, but in the majority of cases, will be built on an emotional memory match that has become distorted in time. The past mixed up with the present. I find phobias fascinating to work with, as the original memory match is discovered.
So that's it is it? Got it for for life? No!!
As previously stated, the symptoms may go away. They may not develop fully. Hundreds of people can experience a similar horrifying event, such as a train crash or bomb explosion. Some people will develop PTSD, some won't. Why? The whole of the person's life needs to be looked at. Those people getting their needs met in a healthy way are less likely to develop PTSD. http://emotionalgrowth.blogspot.com/2011/07/i-want-it-are-you-sure-you-need-it.html
My friend Sue, developed PTSD, mainly due to the legal process after the bomb attack. The years of continually re-telling and re-living of the events lead to the memories becoming toxic. The continual emphasis was on everything she had lost and couldn't do any more, due to the injuries to her legs.
I'm sure most people think that medical people know what they are doing in psychiatry. Not necessarily. I worked on an acute psychiatric unit. I had learnt about trauma and 'emotional memory matching' elsewhere, but was only a nursing assistant. There was an ex service man with PTSD. He was terrified...and medicated.
He was encouraged to attend a group relaxation session. He lay on the floor with the others. A very pleasant woman put on some soothing background music. She started to ask people to imagine themselves in a restful place...imagine a green field...
The man shot up, shaking like a leaf and ran out of the room. In the staff room, it was assumed that he was attention seeking. I was horrified, but impotent. The man had served in Bosnia and had been blown up by a land mine in a field.
It was incidents like that that made me qualify and set up my own practice. I sometimes use relaxation techniques, as part of the therapy. But I would never use a 'one size fits all' script. I use the client's own suggestions and am permissive with the language used, not prescriptive.
Other people who trained with me, have taken the injustices in treatment further. They have set up a charity specifically for servicemen: www.ptsdresolution.org Please pass the link on to anyone in the services you may know who could benefit.
I will still see people with PTSD, but have become far more interested in sub-threshold trauma. I believe that I have seen evidence of sub threshold trauma in a great many clients.
Something happens to a person in childhood. They feel in danger or at the least frightened. It might be physical or emotional threat. It may be real. It may just be perceived, but no less of a threat. (A child's brain doesn't see the bigger picture.)
As they mature, they grow up physically, intellectually and chronologically. But emotionally? Are they stuck sometimes? Are there certain 'buttons' that can get pressed that cause the emotional brain to regress and behave as if the 'fight, flight or freeze' button has been pressed? Could they be 'frozen in time? I believe so.
Meanwhile, Sue turned up. She's gone now, but not before she told me how she's attempting to get a unit for homecoming service personnel opened in the Lake District. She's seen the building. It would cost £1,500,000. She is seeking backing from Help for Heroes and is going to the Big Lottery Fund.
Sue told me that The Big Lottery Fund has £43,000,000 earmarked for research into PTSD. Forces in Mind. http://www.biglotteryfund.org.uk/prog_forces_in_mind This is both good news, but shocking too.
£43,000,000 for research. But the research is already out there. We know about PTSD. We already know about therapies that work and those that don't. The evidence is available.
Put the money into therapeutic centres that sick service personnel can come home to. Places away from military bases and associated memories. Employ therapists who know how to treat PTSD quickly, without making the trauma even more toxic.
The money is sitting there now. Please let's use the money to help now. Not prolong the agony for sick people and their families.
Time may be a healer, but time can run out for us all.
#RitaLeaman2011
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