|
23 May 15 - 10:19 PM (#3711323) Subject: BS: PTSD From: gnu I haven't listened to Uncle Chic for a long while but a thread on Facebook about motorcycles brought me back to this. Listen to the whole thing if you please but please listen to the last moment. The last words are "... for one thing and another." Chic didn't know the term "PTSD" but he knew those who died from it. If we can't take care of our vets, we shouldn't send them to war. http://www.thememoryproject.com/stories/551:charles-thomas-chick-owens/ |
|
23 May 15 - 10:33 PM (#3711326) Subject: RE: BS: PTSD From: Rapparee There is help for PTSD, but no cure. You can only help yourself, guided by a psychologist or psychiatrist -- sometimes as an inpatient, sometimes not. But it's a long, ugly, tiring, road back to being socially ept. Those with PTSD are not maniac, drug-crazed, killers. That's Hollywood and the media. Those with PTSD are far more likely to kill themselves with drugs, drink, adrenaline-rush activities (such as driving too fast and taking too many chances), jumping off a bridge, smoking...or sucking on the barrel of a .45. Without help they can be spousal abusers, multiply married, unable to hold a job for long, fail at social relationships. Anger is a big issue, and anger management is taught. Depression, anxiety, hyperalertness, flashbacks, nightmares.... Imagine dreaming over and over the worst thing that ever happened to you, having it come over you because of a smell or because of terrain! Help IS there. It can be effective, but like all help you have to work to make it work. I know. I've been there and have the tee shirt. |
|
24 May 15 - 12:35 AM (#3711333) Subject: RE: BS: PTSD From: Donuel Hypnosis by a empathetic and seasoned therapist as well today as it did in WWI. 3 to 6 months is a reasonable period of time for resolution to the bulk of the symptoms. |
|
24 May 15 - 08:49 AM (#3711403) Subject: RE: BS: PTSD From: artbrooks Another thing to remember is that PTSD is not solely a disease of veterans. Any traumatic stress can cause it. |
|
24 May 15 - 03:04 PM (#3711483) Subject: RE: BS: PTSD From: Backwoodsman A song written and performed by my friends Kip Winter and Dave Wilson - the proceeds from the sales of the CD-single of this song were donated by them to the British charity 'Combat Stress' which caters for the mental welfare of veterans... A Soldier's Tale |
|
24 May 15 - 03:26 PM (#3711486) Subject: RE: BS: PTSD From: Jack Campin It's a good bet that there are MANY times more victims of PTSD who were civilians at the other end of those veterans' weaponry. And they weren't being paid to be there. |
|
24 May 15 - 05:31 PM (#3711508) Subject: RE: BS: PTSD From: Greg F. That's "Collateral PTSD", Jack - usually ignored as insignificant, just like "collateral damage". |
|
24 May 15 - 07:40 PM (#3711535) Subject: RE: BS: PTSD From: Ebbie artbrooks, I found myself to be one of them, although in a much milder form than battle induced trauma. A bit more than two years ago I was one of those burnt out of an apartment building. It is a night seared into my memory. For the last 2 years I have been living in a rent-subsidised apartment building. The unit to which I was/am consigned to is outfitted for the severely hearing impaired. In addition to (very) loud fire, phone and door alarms, strobe lights had been installed in each room. As it happens, I am not hearing impaired, so I don't need that assistance. However, it took just twice when a smoke alarm went off before I insisted to the office they had to either disable the features or move me to a different apartment. I had found myself, while getting my shoes on, putting a leash on my dog, getting my coat, bent over close to the floor, whimpering to myself; my head felt almost completely incapacitated. The strobe lights were worse than the sound; they were virtually screaming Danger! Danger! I was almost collapsing by the time I got outdoors. I had to jump some hoops after the office informed me that #1: they could not disable the system and #2: I was going to stay put. After getting outside advice they eventually allowed a friend of mine to put painters tape over the glass globes. They still flash but at least they don't streak over the walls and ceilings. We've had perhaps two alarms since then and I have discovered that at this level I can handle it. |
|
24 May 15 - 08:59 PM (#3711546) Subject: RE: BS: PTSD From: wysiwyg Ebbie, 'welcome' to the 'club' of Catters who have had home fires. Even if it warn't in YOUR apartment, it counts. :-( Your losses matter. ~S~ |
|
24 May 15 - 09:38 PM (#3711549) Subject: RE: BS: PTSD From: Rapparee Ebbie, that's the sort of thing that causes PTSD. A traumatic event -- fire, a car accident, rape, violent crime, you name it. The strobe lights are possibly a trigger for you, a reminder of the night of the fire, as is the fire alarm (yes, I know -- I've been in motel rooms when the damned things went off). You can put a bit of some sort of sound baffle over the alarm with the same sort of tape. Just be sure you can hear it and it will awaken you! If it continues to bother you, please see a psychologist who knows about these things. |
|
25 May 15 - 02:39 AM (#3711564) Subject: RE: BS: PTSD From: Ebbie Thanks, Wizzy and Rap. The flames didn't reach my apartment but I couldn't reach my friend and her two dogs. (Turned out they were already out of the building.) I stood in the fire door screaming her name while the oily, black, choking smoke churned its way to me and my dog. I didn't have the courage to go forward into the smoke- besides which, I knew it would be insane to do so. Two wings of the upper floors were gutted. My apartment was only sooted up and drenched. Nasty night. No one else has lived there since- it is a condemned building. |
|
25 May 15 - 07:59 AM (#3711623) Subject: RE: BS: PTSD From: Backwoodsman My folks, my li'l sister and I watched our house burn in 1957, when I was ten. The upstairs was gutted, the downstairs water-damaged. No-one was hurt, but we were poor and under-insured so the payout was only about 1/3 of the value of the stuff we had to replace. My wider family rallied round and the men repaired and re-varnished what furniture they could, while the women cut up damaged soft furnishings, bedding etc., and sewed undamaged pieces together to make 'new' stuff. My mother spent the rest of her life thinking she could 'smell smoke' - it never left her and she dreamed about fires very frequently. My dad always believed that the fire was a probable trigger for the paranoid-schizophrenia that took over her later life. Anyone who has suffered the dreadful trauma of seeing their home, workplace, or whatever, go up in smoke has my deepest sympathy. |
|
25 May 15 - 11:34 AM (#3711671) Subject: RE: BS: PTSD From: GUEST,wys-cookie For real fun, get your PTSD via Mudcat. Ah well, I suppose they didn't know what they were doing at the time. TBTG for peer counseling, then and still. ........ Eb, as you have experienced, 'only' soot is trauma too. Knowing others had worse doesn't heal your own loss. Just sayin. ~S~ |
|
25 May 15 - 12:02 PM (#3711678) Subject: RE: BS: PTSD From: Rapparee Back around 1957, at 2 a.m. or so, my Uncle, who was visiting, went downstairs and outside (it was summer and he was thinking of sleeping outside). Meanwhile, his cigarette dropped on the mattress and started a fire. My brother awakened and was shouting for help as he tried to beat out the smoke. I awoke, saw the smoke and saw what he was doing. I ran downstairs and ran into my Uncle, who ran upstairs and forced the mattress out the window and into the backyard. By now, naturally, my mother and the rest of the house was wide awake! For several years I slept with a large glass of water by my bed and so did my brother. That was PTSD, but I got over it (I still remember the sights and sounds, however). But the water helped both of us because we could then do something more if it happened again. A fire is one of those very traumatic events.... |
|
25 May 15 - 12:08 PM (#3711681) Subject: RE: BS: PTSD From: Backwoodsman It is indeed. Very difficult for the who haven't suffered a fire to understand the deep emotional scarring it can leave. Dreadful. |