“It’s not that the person is refusing to let go of the past, it’s that the past is refusing to let go of the person” (www.ptsduk.org)
So then: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD for short. Once upon a time this was known as shell shock, back after the First World War when medical diagnosis wasn’t what we’re used to in today’s world. PTSD as a term didn’t actually come about until after the Vietnam War, and it’s only been the past 30/40 years that the public consciousness has accepted it as being a disorder that can affect anyone, from any walk of life, who has experienced trauma or a traumatic event.
PTSD develops after experiencing, being subjected to, or witnessing a traumatic event – hence the T in PTSD. Combat PTSD is relatively self-explanatory and I’m not going to do the disservice to members of the armed forces or emergency services by trying to describe it. Civilian PTSD comes from a different source of trauma. Any one or combination of the following can cause the symptoms of the disorder:
- natural disasters
- terrorist attacks
- serious road accidents
- violent personal assaults
- child abuse or assault
- witnessing the death of a loved one/pet
- psychological illness
There’s no time limit on suffering from the symptoms, which often include reliving the event/events through flashbacks and severe nightmares/night terrors. Isolation, irritability, insomnia, anxiety and depression are all common feelings and dissociation can often occur as a result. But in basic terms it is essentially a natural reaction to a deeply shocking and disturbing experience. In other words: a normal reaction to a very abnormal situation.
Complex PTSD is, well, PTSD but slightly more complex. It generally has similar but heightened symptoms and the causes are often more traumatic but also usually more sustained, over a period of a few years or more for example. One of the worst symptoms of both PTSD and C-PTSD is the re-living of the event. Intrusive and distressing memories crop up at seemingly random times although certain things can ‘trigger’ them (possibly where dickhead trolls get their “triggered” memes from?) including recollections, images, thoughts, even words or phrases like a news report. All of those can cause the brain to feel as if the event is recurring in real time, e.g. reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociated flashbacks and so on. You then reach the point of suffering serious psychological distress at exposure to certain cues that remind you of an aspect of the traumatic event.
PTSD is one of those psychological issues that can be contagious, like most of them are to be honest. Not contagious in the traditional biological/viral sense but more in terms of the risk of “secondary traumatisation” This means that spouses, partners, and family members of people with PTSD can develop their own symptoms. This can happen from listening to trauma stories or being exposed to scary symptoms like flashbacks and nightmares.
Standard practice for anyone suffering from PTSD is unfortunately pretty much the same as any other mental illness:
- Avoiding any thoughts, feelings or conversations that may be associated with the trauma
- Inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma
- Feeling of detachment or withdrawal from others
But, as I’ve said a hundred times before it’s something that needs to come out. Whether it is on a blog like this, a Tweet or Facebook post, and a chat with a friend or loved on or professional help – the past trauma needs dealing with. CBT and EMDR are two types of therapy that are really helpful in dealing with past trauma so I’d definitely recommend looking into them if you haven’t already.
Opening up about feelings and so on for a bloke is hard enough, opening up about a specific source of trauma can often seem like one step too far. I won't judge you either way and you have to do what’s best for you, what I will say is that the ‘walls of silence’ about blokes not being able to talk about something that caused us trauma are being knocked down all the time. It doesn’t make you weak for talking about this stuff.
It makes you fucking strong.
