How do you know?
I turned 44 a few days ago and I suppose I’ve been toying with the fact I “might” have PTSD for at least a decade perhaps as many as two decades. That comment sounds simple enough but the truth of PTSD is far from simple. On the surface you have 20 years + the idea I might have PTSD + Me. I’m a trained Interventionist and I’ve worked with people ALL of that 20 years. Here’s the kicker, I’ve had PTSD since before birth. Pre-Natal. So it took me 25 years to start to consider I had PTSD. Then another 20 to begin to take responsibility for that. My point PTSD touches and often consumes every part of your existence. There is no being “objective” about it. You can’t “think” away PTSD.
Often one of the training guides I would give my clients in Intervention was “You can’t think your way out of desperation, you have to behave your way out.” Oh and before I go any further my references to Intervention does NOT include helping people with PTSD. I am at the very beginning of the road to ERASING the impact on the the neuro-pathways that the letters PTSD represent.
How do you know? You hear the letters “PTSD” enough when you have it sometimes you have to add PTSD to the long list of things you HOPED were wrong with you so you could treat it and get on with your life. Contrastring that phenomena is that perhaps almost everytime you heard the letters “PTSD” you wanted to ignore it, disregard and I know why.
You Don’t Trust! You don’t trust me, my words, this website or anything else you are aware of. You pretend to trust because normal people require that from you. So, even if you are pretty sure you have PTSD, you don’t trust that you have it, you don’t trust that this could be the hurt that defines you well enough to DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!
How else do you know? Well for myself I left huge clues strewn in nearly every room in my life. By the time I was 6 years old I couldn’t go to sleep UNLESS I had made the room completely dark and eliminated any sounds. I didn’t know why I did this, I just knew sound and light irritated my little boy mind at night.
Today in order to get a good night sleep I wear ear plugs before going to bed or any time during the day when I feel the decades long established PTSD pattern begin to close off my ability to do the most basic things. This pattern often emerges as I suddenly loose focus and can’t remember what I was doing or why I was doing it or what I’m supposed to do next.
I will certainly add more as the days go by. Thank you for reading this far if you have.
Bruce
June 29th, 2008 at 7:41 pm
I am a hypnotist who uses several techniques to help people erase phobias and other disturbing emotions. One of those techniques–Time Line Therapy–is a speedy and effective way to unravel and erase the bundled emotions involved in PTSD.
I offer a 50 percent discount to veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan. I am especially interested in working with veterans who would be willing to help their fellow soldiers/marines both recognize and erase their PTSD. Why? The need for help for vets with PTSD is huge and far outstrips the current military resources to handle the problem. Plus, Time Line Therapy (TLT) is far quicker than standard talk therapy.
I believe the technique is relatively easy for clients to learn along with some background about the subconscious mind and how it works. And I am willing to train a group of 6 or more interested vets who have erased their PTSD through TLT how to use it for other vets FREE OF CHARGE in a classroom setting.
What’s more, TLT is a very handy tool to have to deal with a myriad of issues that pop up throughout life…such as attitudes you may have that block success or abundance in any area.
None of our emotions arise out of a vacuum; there is always a perception or belief behind them…and it’s most often subconscious. TLT allows you to shift that unhelpful perception/belief…often without even being aware of it. And some of these unhelpful perceptions occurred long BEFORE the PTSD manifests. As Bruce mentioned, his started before birth! That’s why dealing with the recent trauma that precipitated PTSD symptoms often doesn’t erase them. You have to get to the root cause (perception), and TLT is a great tool for that.
Judy McBride, Cht
For more information, contact me at:
http://www.judymcbridehypnosis.com
judy@judymcbridehypnosis.com
410 757-2576
June 30th, 2008 at 7:07 am
Dearest Judy,
Thanks for your excellent comment. And to anyone else that might be reading my startup-blog at the moment - I’m not a vet of either of those wars, when I was in the Military, I fell between Grenada and The Gulf War (late 80s). I wish all the men and women from still living WWII vets to the young men and women who stand in harm’s way today health and recovery. Furthermore, PTSD is not limited to the Military. It may be easier for the average lay person to point a finger at a man who saw his entire squad brutalized and it’s easy to get behind a cause to “fix our soldiers” HOWEVER - whatever the cause of the PTSD, whatever the context however noble or common if you cannot take a break from the danger signals, if you are in “ready mode” 24 hours a day, if you are trying to “get safe” and the only ways you know how to do that in “normal society” cause you to react as if you are back in the jungle, the desert, the ghetto, the basement where the parent tortured you and so on, then your inappropriate response to a common stimulus (like waiting in line, paying your bills and all the other daily pressures of “nomral living”) will cause pain to you and to others. The non-PTSD person that observes you will NOT understand what you are feeling and NOT comprehend what you are responding too. I am grateful for any comments even if they do not parallel my own understanding of the painful neurological burden of PTSD.
Bruce - taking it all in