PTSD Archives - Page 2 of 3

February 22, 2025May 22, 2025

My Un-healthy Existence

Chronic pain and PTSD: Mental Illness and the toll on the human body

I should have put this down earlier, just to illustrate my insanity or that of the medical community. Both probably. I say my insanity as I realize the physical pain is exaggerated by my mental illness. Depression and chronic pain feed on each other.

My health is not great, not even good really. Yes, I realize some of it was simply caused by lack of exercise and proper nutrition, but more likely by consuming enough alcohol to kill millions of brain cells.

February 16, 2025May 22, 2025

EMDR: Positive…or pure hell. Post 1

EMDR is short for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. That’s a mouthful in itself, EMDR is much easier. The best I can describe from my experience is that it is very similar to hypnosis.

In a nutshell the therapy is intended to have you review the traumatic event in baby steps and process your thinking of what actually happened and how you react to it.

I can only relate my own experience and to be truthful it had a horribly negative effect.

February 12, 2025May 21, 2025

Missing the signs: parental intervention

I don’t know how to phrase this, but after enduring 60 years of…what?…life? I’m finding myself angry, disappointed. Not surprising, the anger that is. SARA…Shock Anger Rejection Acceptance. If those are the stages of trauma I’m still stuck in stage 2.

I hate to even go down half these paths in fear of sounding like a whiner. But I’m angry.

Somebody could have helped me a long time ago, my parents is a good place to start.

February 2, 2025May 22, 2025

Traumatic childhood events

There are a myriad of causes or potential situations that can be traumatic in a child’s life. Those events in a child’s life that might leave a deep enough wound or scar to trigger PTSD, and the symptoms as described in the DSM V.

I write about childhood trauma probably because I’m still angry over my parents inability to see the signs and symptoms that something was deeply wrong with myself. They simply didn’t catch it.

The information below is from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network.

January 26, 2025May 21, 2025

PTSD – suggested treatment options

Here’s the list of currently available treatments recommended by the American Psychology Association, the approved methods of correcting or managing the illness to reduce symptoms of PTSD.

I’ve included the full link below, I simply wanted to share the fact that the types of treatments recommended are seemingly non-ending. *not a doctor!

I’ve simplified the list for ease of reading, but have included the Abstract below.

January 25, 2025May 21, 2025

INTRO TO CBT

I’ve been doing some initial research into Cognitive Behavior Therapy, aka CBT.

It seems the primary goal is to rewrite the memories of the traumatic event, and as a result rewire the defective part of the brain. It works on connecting your thoughts to your feelings and in turn your actions so you can understand how you end up spiraling and ending up in depressive episodes.

In theory.

January 13, 2025May 22, 2025

PTSD and Me

So this is the easiest way for me to demonstrate the effect of PTSD on me, and which of the criteria I have experienced.

My qualifications so to speak.

If you’ve taken the time to read through each description, you need to tick X amount of boxes for each of the criteria listed below. Some criteria require one exhibited attribute, some two or more.

December 15, 2024May 21, 2025

PTSD: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Not surprisingly, the outline for the blog made sense to me at the time, but as I learn more about myself through research the more I find the emphasis shifting. A change in the level of importance, revisions to the rank.

Ranking them has been difficult, but if I divide the key topics of Mental Illness into Diagnosis (ever changing) Symptoms and Treatments I think I can get my mind around this.

So let’s start with the latest diagnosis stemming from my ordeal with the new psychiatrists.

November 21, 2024May 21, 2025

A Basket Case Study

Maybe trying to use myself as a case study is in itself a symptom of PTSD, but since I consider myself a bit whacked, why not?

The trouble I’m going to have is looking backwards, and trying to move forward at the same time. I have to make sure I don’t trip too many times anyway. It’s not quite like going blindly forward, which I have done more than once in my drunken days. Wonder I can still see at all.

Why even look back, let sleeping dogs lie and move on? That’s the issue, I can’t.

October 21, 2024May 2, 2025

Childhood Trauma

Why do I hold myself to blame for my first years of existence?

I need to stop.

I was born in 1957, in late March to be exact. The third and last son of a career military man, who was sent to the Korean conflict 2 weeks after my birth.

For 3 years…

Maybe he wanted to stay away, maybe he was needed there. Who knows, and everyone who might have known why are long dead.