Some thoughts on PTSD and those that suffer from it

Some thoughts on PTSD and those that suffer from it

This is not a scientific post, not by any means, it is some of MY thoughts and concerns about PTSD and those that suffer from it. First, for those that don’t know or only have a partial idea about PTSD, let me present this from NAMI, the National Alliance of Mental Illness: What is post-traumatic stress disorder?

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can occur after someone experiences a traumatic event that caused intense fear, helplessness, or horror. PTSD can result from personally experienced traumas (e.g., rape, war, natural disasters, abuse, serious accidents, and captivity) or from the witnessing or learning of a violent or tragic event.

While it is common to experience a brief state of anxiety or depression after such occurrences, people with PTSD continually re-experience the traumatic event; avoid individuals, thoughts, or situations associated with the event; and have symptoms of excessive emotions. People with this disorder have these symptoms for longer than one month and cannot function as well as they did before the traumatic event. PTSD symptoms usually appear within three months of the traumatic experience; however, they sometimes occur months or even years later.

I personally know some folks that suffer from PTSD, friends and family, and you may not know it, but you know some of those folks too.

I guess I am lucky, I have never had a serious PTSD event, and I have been involved in several traumatic experiences over the years. 

Perhaps I’m just not prone to PTSD, maybe it’s true what I was told many year ago, “You are a COLD son of a bitch and you don’t have a conscience”, but I have had a couple of flashback experiences over the years and the reality of those flashbacks was as real and as intense as was the event itself. 

If that is what a person suffering PTSD feels then I offer my most sincere sympathies, if you have these episodes more than once or twice then I have no idea what to say to you other than to offer MY condolences and a shoulder to lean on.

I do, however, have some vivid dreams, full color, surround sound and a cast of thousands.

Strangely, for me anyway, none of these dreams are directly connected to any particular event, person, place or thing but are a hodge-podge and a mash-up of several events that weren’t even tied into one another except in my mind.

I have friends and family that are First Responders, Fire Fighters, Police Officers, were, or are in the military and have served from recently for some, all the way back to the days of Vietnam and a few other actions since.

I’m no expert on this topic, not in ANY way, but the folks I see that are hit the hardest are First Responders, Fire Fighters and Police Officers.

Certainly our military members have seen, and in so many cases, done the most horrendous actions simply because it IS in a combat situation and they have no choice, LIVE or DIE, and speaking for me, I believe in doing whatever it takes to bring yourself back home after your deployment is over and done.

Sadly, and I will NOT get into the reasons WHY, but so many of the military folks over the last 15 years or so have been subjected to numerous combat deployments and the horrors of war, with no substantial break. This is, in MY opinion, an open invitation to mental problems, personality problems and assimilation into society as a whole, at least for some former and current members.

Non-career military CAN walk away if the psychological strain becomes too much to bear but in so many cases the damage has been done and the scars last for a lifetime. The folks that are *Lifers* see far more than a human being should have thrust upon them.

That constant strain is why so many First Responders, Fire Fighters and Police Officers end up walking away. It’s why so many in the above named fields are divorced, sometime with multiple divorces.

The constant stress and strain are also huge contributors to the suicides that so many of our First Responders, Fire Fighters, Police Officers and Soldiers commit with all too frequent regularity.

If you suffer from PTSD, if you THINK you’re suffering from the effects of PTSD, seek help, get help, talk to a friend, a counselor, a Doctor, a minister, someone that has the experience to help you, and do all you can to maintain your own sanity and to save a marriage, and quite possibly, YOUR LIFE or that of loved ones.

Please, if you suffer PTSD, if you have a friend or family members that does, get them the help they desperately need and weigh in here with your thoughts.