What is PTSD
First and Foremost I’m not a doctor, I don’t have any special training (besides life) in telling you or anyone else what PTSD is and is not. With that disclaimer out of the way, here is my Translation.
Every behavior no matter how small or complex can be described as a relationship between the brain and the body connected by your nervous system or more specifically for the purpose of this post a neuro-pathway or set(s) of neuro-pathways. Many of you have probably heard of people who’ve had accidents or injuries and they had to “Learn to walk” or “Learn to write” again. These are two examples of someone who has had to develop new neuro-pathways in order to function again after a major body or head trauma.
PTSD can also be defined by sets of neuro-pathways. One behavior that I’ve had most of my life that is PTSD connected (*I’ll explain this in a moment) is something called Hyper-vigilance. Hypervigilance is the accumulation of my eyes, ears and other seneses probing my environment CONSTANTLY for Danger. I even do it in my sleep. So my body has provided me with a “tool” to “manage” my PTSD called Hyper-vigilance. The way my eyes participate in this process can be talked about in terms of neuro-pathways between the brain and the eyes. Same for the ears, same for the other senses that contribute to a PTSD Behavior described as Hyper-vigilance. Hypervigilance is just one of many behaviors that have coresponding sets of neuro-pathyways that define My PTSD.
*Explination of A Behavior that is PTSD Connected: All the different types of behaviors that I have (Hyper-vigilance being only one of)that form a vast network of Neuro-pathways that can be mapped out and understood even by someone who’s never heard of a neuro-pathway before, make up the structure of my PTSD.
PTSD in my layman mind is The well-trained response by my brain-body relationship defined by my neuro-pathways to past and or current Trauma(s) that were/are so severe the body’s danger-alarm has been going off continuously since the first Trauma was experienced. My body is literally “convinced” that it is ALWAYS IN DANGER. My mind continuously seeks ways to avoid or eliminate the Danger. This set of behaviors is so large that it consumes nearly all of my focus, attention, memories and ability to learn from one moment to the next. It is the totally loss of function that brought me to a point after 44 years of living with stacked Traumas to seek out help, treatment and a way to Erase My PTSD.
You may find similarities with my experience and knowledge of PTSD to your own. Mine does not represent the totality of what PTSD is or can be. Just with what I’ve learned I could fill page after page of What is PTSD. I don’t want to drown in that knowledge anymore than I want you too, so I go at a pace I can manage. I hope that my words are helpful.
Bruce