Article from my Sunday Paper ... on PTSD ..

[Flo 5]

Hello Everyone . !

I found this article on PTSD in my morning paper, and as I suffer from PTSD myself thought it was a very good explaination and wanted to share it ...

Most of us are familiar with the concept of post-traumatic stress disorder. This is a psychiatric condition whereby a person who has experienced or witnessed a traumatic event later develops symptoms such as flashbacks, nightmares, avoidant behavior, emotional numbness, hyper-vigilance and startle response. It's easy to understand how these symptoms could develop in a soldier who fought in a war, or an adult who was abused as a child, or a person who survived a tragedy such as a terrible car accident or house fire.

We all have battle scars

Although a relatively small portion of the population will meet the specific criteria to warrant the full diagnosis, many of us have painful experiences in our past and a current pattern of reactivity that are similar to the PTSD phenomenon. We can use our intuitive understanding of PTSD to help explain why we react the way we do at times.

Most of us have emotional wounds that go way back. These are the sore spots which can be triggered in current relationships. Because the wounds are old, often the level of pain felt is on par with the pain level experienced at the time of the original injury. This means a mild or moderate poke at an old emotional wound has the potential to elicit a severe reaction.

A matter of perspective

The casual observer will see this as odd and might call it an over-reaction. "Why are you getting so upset, all I said was ... ?" But when we take the time to listen, understand and empathize, we come to a new perspective. Then we say, "Given what I now know about what you've been through, and how what I said triggered that very wound, I completely understand why your reaction was so strong."

In this way, perhaps there's really no such thing as over-reacting. The war veteran who dives under the restaurant table when the waitress drops the stack of dinner plates onto the tile floor might appear to be over-reacting if you think he's responding to the sound of the plates, but he's reacting exactly as he should once you realize he's responding to the memory of the war in his head.

Yes, part of the healing involves getting better at separating the past injuries from the current triggers. In our relationships with our partners we want to move beyond past abandonments, betrayals and abuses and see each other as we are rather than as clones of the past. One way to facilitate this is to convey to each other that our painful feelings are legitimate and valid; they make sense. It never helps to say "You/I have no reason to feel this way."

We can't always know everyone's intricate history of emotional wounds, and we don't need to. Even without these details we can assume that if someone is in great pain because of something we've done, then there must be a good reason for that somewhere, even if we can't see it right now. If we can remember to make this assumption, it will invite the other to relax and feel less shame about feeling his or her pain.

Art Frenz, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist in private practice

I hope it helps a bit ,,we often hear the words over reaction, and what is the big deal ... when something triggers us and no one would ever understand unless they were in our shoes ... I hope you have a great day , and know that there are people who do understand... xx

Love ,

Flo xxxx

[dino 3]

Hiya Kathy

Sorry for my late response to this but i want to say a huge thank you for a very interesting article

A lot of the clips certainly hit home here , reading this will also help others

Again my friend for sharing

love dino

xxxxxxxx