PTSD Seen in Many Besides Veterans Now; 'culturally Overdiagnosed?'

[steve2470]

http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBJY7X3CCE.html

GLENVILLE, N.Y. (AP) - For hundreds of thousands of Americans, mental illness is just a drive down the road. Ask Beth Puglisi.

The 45-year-old mother was out to fill her gas tank on a bitter-cold January day last year. She turned the wheel of her pickup, felt a wrenching jolt, and watched the roadway fly into a spin.

"No!" she heard herself screech. The rubbery aroma of spilled antifreeze filled her nostrils.

In the days after her crash with a car, she took to the couch, weeping - but not over her fractured vertebra and dislocated shoulder. Her mind was staggering.

"It felt like a death," she says.

<snip>

[Deja Q]

1. One car crash to diagnose PTSD is asinine...

try 12 years of unremitting horror in grade, jr high, and sr high school for starters... And I don't mean homework. I mean hell committed against peers.

There's every reason WHY I am so intimidating in approach. I geniunely am terrified.

[undergroundpanther]

3. A car careening out of control

Is as scary as gun pointed at your head. Both can injure maim and kill. Both kinds of things are traumatic.


I have been bullied relentlessly abused at home and at school. Abuse is very traumatic and have been in a car accident(without a car).

I have PSTD.I was diagnosed it before I was hit.

I still react to oncoming headlights and cars merging twords me with shudders sometimes I scream.I can't control the reactiuon and I always feel like an idiot after I panic.. I have recently stopped freezing when crossing roads.I was in one accident.

A car crash can kill you, injure you,kill your loved ones it is as violent as uncontrollable for the victim as any other trauma people perpetuate on each other..bullying gun violence,war crimes.

Our culture is sick,and the truth is coming out about what is making us sick.The uncontrolled violence,abuse ,cocercion,violent circumatances and death and threat of suffering all around us.

[Deja Q]

13. Our culture is sick. But as with war,

we often choose to take what we claim we don't want.

[undergroundpanther]

2. Trauma has effects

People react to traumas in different ways.
Everyone has a different threshold of pain they can endure,likewise a trauma yOU might be able to absorb another person might get sick from.

Abuse and violence is rampant in America, 1 in 3 women are raped http://oak.cats.ohiou.edu/~ad361896/anne/cease/rapestatisticspage.html
America is selfish, abusive,bullying,violent and full of bullies that do not care and victims in denial.

I do not think PSTD is overdiagnosed..It think it isa sign of a growing symptom of a culture that is becoming conscious of just how bad it abuses,victimizes and exploits people more than it cares,shares,relates,listens or helps people.

It is a culture of abusers, victims and bystanders,and the truth that domination,abuse,and coercion is the "glue" holding this violent culture in place is breaking through the cultural game of make believe. The TRUTH comes out as PSTD,when the truth is TRAUMATIC.

A car goes 60 MPH.on average. Did you know when the locomotive was built "scientists" doubted that humans could endure the TRAUMA of going 20 MPH? My how times have changed. And yes Car Accidents are VIOLENT,uncontrolled and life threatening situations they meet the criteria of a traumatic event.

[marions ghost]

5. unfortunately I think you are correct

it is a culture which rewards bullies of all kinds

[Syncronaut Seven]

6. Bingo! We have a winner!

Go ahead! Ask me about my own personal hell. the daily, often hourly struggle with suicide, the nightmares that come when I'm sleeping, and when I'm awake, the constant violent fantasies of retribution, the fruitless quest to make sense of it all. The hopelessness that comes with the realization that the condition is permanent, never going away. Clinically it is recognized that the best that can be hoped for is some sort of normalization, full recovery is impossible.

Ask me what it's like, only able to respond to lifes stressors (even the little ones) with two basic responses, flee and hide or come out both barrels blazing, prepared to kill or die.

Although I will admit, losing your fear of death can be quite liberating, sort of.

Can't wait for the revolution.

Here's an interesting link on the topic: http://www.biomedcentral.com/content/pdf/cr-wr3321.pdf

[Nikia]

10. I agree

We have a lot more to fear in Modern America. There are so many people who virtually alone too. They don't have safe reliable people to who they can lean on for reassurance. Often the people who are supposed to be their safe people are actually a source of fear.

[TheDebbieDee]

4. You don't have to be war veteran to suffer from PTSD.....

People are traumatized in all kinds of ways.

I'm a veteran of the Gulf War and I suffer from PTSD. But, my PTSD stems from living with an abusive husband (also military) for 3-1/2 years.

I realized several years ago that I was suffering from PTSD, but I am still not quite ready (emotionally or financially) to get help for this yet.

[Syncronaut Seven]

8. The best hope for mitigation is early intervention.

Get help now! I've lost 30+ years of my life to PTSD. Long term exposure to traumatic events IE: an abusive relationship is much more damaging than single event trauma.

A car accident can be rationalized, perhaps even rape. Long term victimization by a spouse/parent complicates things greatly. How do you rationalize repeated deliberate harm caused by a loved and trusted person in your life.

I'll tell you how I rationalize it. I truly believe that humanity is beyond redemption, that global thermonuclear war might not be such a bad thing, and by a steadfast refusal to admit that I am a member of the human race. But that's just me.

If your struggling seek help NOW! Later may be too late to mitigate the damage.

[woo me with science]

7. I am so pleased that this is finally getting attention....

The field of trauma and PTSD is one of the sickest in therapy today. Just within the past few years, several really good research groups have started to draw attention to the overdiagnosis of PTSD and other trauma-related disorders. Research is also starting to highlight and deconstruct the terrible therapies that are still in use out there for these diagnoses, and to try to develop more effective options.

Trauma therapists, maybe more than therapists in any other branch of psychology, are likely to be using techniques that make their clients worse rather than better. Historically, trauma therapists have encouraged sufferers to go back and revisit the traumatic experiences, sometimes multiple times, in the belief that "processing" them will help resolve the trauma. In fact, recent research is suggesting that such intense focus on the trauma itself, rather than building a more adaptive focus and helping clients move on, results in increased symptoms and poorer eventual adjustment.

The PTSD field is also the gold mine in psychology for crackpot specialized "therapies" that claim to be based in science but are actually so much voodoo. A good example is Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprogramming (EMDR) therapy, in which the therapist is supposed to help the client process trauma by wiggling her fingers in front of the face. There are also other "energy" therapies and "bodywork" therapies that claim to cure PTSD symptoms, but none of these are supported by any controlled research.

Probably the most common quackery out there comes in the form of bad talk therapists who believe in trauma as the root of all problems and encourage clients to focus on traumatic childhood experiences above all else. Too many therapists encourage clients to revisit even minor negative memories from childhood and relabel/reexperience them as "abusive." You know bad therapy is going on when you have adults claiming never to have realized they were abused until middle age, and then suddenly they "discovered" what monsters their parents were.

And a shameful number of therapists still support clients in going back to uncover "repressed memories" of abuse, even though research sheds serious doubts on the accuracy of such "memories." Most people would be shocked to realize how many people advertising themselves as reputable PTSD therapists believe in conspiracy theories like widespread satanic ritual abuse networks, or government mind control experiments designed to "program" children into becoming sex slaves.

There are therapists in every major city in the U.S. "helping" clients to "remember" abusive experiences that supposedly occurred throughout childhood but were "repressed" or "dissociated" until adulthood. Most of these therapists have been in repressed memory therapy themselves and choose to go into the field afterward. The saddest part is that clients who have experienced ACTUAL trauma run a serious risk of being referred to one of these "professionals" when they decide to seek help.

PTSD and trauma therapy is a very sick branch of psychology right now--it is really nice to see this growing concern about the problem. People need to realize that the industry (as it exists) often solidifies clients in a victim identity, rather than helping them to grow stronger and move on from trauma. The good news is that progress is being made. However, it will take time to root out the dead wood.

[undergroundpanther]

9. And guess what

SOCIETY IS SICK,It is abusive,violent exploiting,it is KILLING us.

The psychiatrists trying to ask why are not the problem it is the people who would run away from the reality that life in a society like ours is DAMAGING to people and it is traumatic.

Your post was not addressing ANYTHING about the effects of this way we exist,it was shooting the messengers.

Why are you so hostile to the attempts that people who are hurting and psychiatry might want to stop the pain of trauma, and stop the abuse and stop the violence that causes trauma and stop the bullies who create victims and bystanders..

So you want to deny others are traumatized based on how YOU feel about something YOU did not experience in THEIR brain and body? How presumptuous off you to declare who is or isn't hurt enough to have symptoms,that is arrogance.
In reality trauma has VERY SPECIFIC symptoms that happen afterwords. Trauma can also be seen in the brain as scars.The effects of trauma are real and they are somewhat preventable.But some people profit from others pain and this gets in the way of ever fixing the issue..

Reactions some people have against trauma research often has VERY SPECIFIC MOTIVES.

[Tsiyu]

12. Your last line says it all

This IS a violent, unsteady, dangerous world. For all the "emo-clear" Make-Your-Own-Reality types, I just have one thing to say:

If someone stands over you and pours a pot of boiling water on your head, please "make your own reality."

Use your superior self-control to render the boiling water harmless.

Use your fantasies about eternal happiness (if only you think correctly!) to make the scars go away.

Right.

PTSD affects so many because there is so much violence and so little justice. It's a symptom, like obesity.

I'm not sure about the best approach. As one who suffers from it, I'd love a snappy cure. It ain't gonna happen in this lifetime, and it took me a long time to come to terms with that. It HAS gotten better for me. I no longer jump out of my chair or from where I'm standing when people approach from a certain angle. The nightmares and flashbacks are much more infrequent.

But I spent three years on a mountain, mostly alone, screaming my guts out to no one. Venting all that confusion and betrayal and rage and pain has helped. Not everyone has the luxury of doing this, and I went through a lot of $$$ unable to work or to function "normally."

The best gift a psychiatrist ever gave me was telling me I had PTSD. I refused to listen, ignored his words, and tried to blame my problems on someone else. Years later, I realized he was telling me an important truth about myself.

undergroundpanther, your posts and others are right on :thumbsup:

[Nikia]

11. It is opposite of spontaneous chemical brain imbalances

Some people who suffer from various mental illnesses, especially anxiety disorder, have a good reason for having these disorders. They didn't just suddenly get a chemical imbalance. They learned maladaptive ways of thinking and behaving that arose from the way that they were raised or the people who who they interacted with. They may have experienced traumatic events which caused them flash backs or profoundly changed the way they learned about the world. Some people have chronic anxiety because they learned to be afraid. If you are abused for no reason (not that there is any good reason for abuse) and that the abuse can happen at any time, it might be naturual that someone would be afraid all the time. Even after they are away from the abuse and things seem to be alright, they might find themselves developing a severe anxiety disorder later in life when they face another abuser in life (partner or boss) or have other uncertain uncontrollable situations in life like illness, job insecurity, financial security, or even the current state of the country.
People need to learn how to deal with their anxieties, which are naturually conditioned in them. They have to be reconditioned and learn new paths of thinking to replace the maladaptive ones. I think that insite into why one behaves or thinks how one does can be helpful, especially for the already interspective person who is haunted by these memories anyway. Cognitive behavior therapy is helpful also. It is rational and does not rely on past trauma. It addresses maladaptive thought patterns and behaviors.