It’s a Small; Small World: PTSD as Self-Imprisonment. Video Lecture | Big Thinkers on Mental Health - Health & Fitness

war changes people and this is something
that we've known since recorded history
it's spoken about in literature
throughout the ages it's kind of a
brotherhood of combat veterans and for
many many years it stayed in the
Brotherhood and a lot of people came
back from World War two our fathers our
grandfathers didn't talk about what
happened because nobody would understand
but the thing is that you're transformed
inside you feel different you've seen
things you've seen death you see you've
experienced you've tasted fear you've
done things that you don't want to talk
about or you feel shouldn't be talked
about because it'll be too scary for
people to understand
PTSD is one of the most common mental
health conditions in the United States I
think it's might be the fourth most
common condition and that's because
trauma is so prevalent in our society
about 25 percent of women experience
interpersonal sexual violence which is
extraordinary there are accidents
natural disasters more than half of
persons will be exposed to at least one
traumatic event in their lives the way
that I like to describe a traumatic
event is an event that kind of divides
your life into a before and after like a
watershed moment that really kind of
changes the way you view the world
whether or not you get post-traumatic
stress disorder it's big Europe you're
leaving your life a certain way
something very big happens and it
changes the way that you look at
yourself and you look at the world so
those kind of events are certainly
transformative they certainly have long
lasting marks and one of those effects
of trauma exposure can be the
development of post-traumatic stress
disorder
imagine if you see danger everywhere and
that you're really worried for your
safety that is going to affect almost
every interaction that you have at work
you're going to be more on edge more
irritable it can get you into fights
with coworkers or with your employer the
idea that you can't really experience
pleasure or that you have a restricted
range of emotions is going to affect you
mostly in social and interpersonal
domains a lot of marriages have been
ruined by PTSD the spouse often really
wants to help the affected person but
they're used to a certain closeness or
intimacy that they find is now more
difficult to access
the hallmark of PTSD is that the memory
of the event becomes haunting it kind of
takes on a life of its own you start
thinking about what happened just out of
the blue or in response to triggers in
the environment and what's so
distressing about the memory is not that
you just have an image or remember what
happened
you have the physiologic feeling of fear
or horror that you had when the event
was occurring in real time so it's not
only a visual or or verbal memory out
there it is a physiologic memory and
this can happen while you're awake it
can happen while you're asleep in the
form of your dreams people that have
PTSD have trouble experiencing pleasure
and it's all about trying to become
small and not not allowing yourself to
be affected by the environment it also
includes really changing the way you
view the world and yourself the world a
bad place you might feel guilty or
worthless you might feel you're to blame
for what happened or others are to blame
and finally there are symptoms that
reflect increased arousal so people that
have PTSD are on edge their body and
brain chemistry is rigged for danger and
for experiencing threat and being very
very concerned about anything in the
environment that might threaten them so
the symptoms in this category include
being highly reactive to startle
responses scanning the environment for
signs of danger not being able to
concentrate I'm being very irritable and
angry
well nobody's gonna wave a magic wand
and say I'm going to cure you
Bing Bing and throw fairy dust on you
getting over PTSD is going to require
some hard work on the part of trauma
survivor and there's no getting around
that
it's it's work to look in the mirror and
know that there is some part of you
that's gone forever
there's work trying to understand
exactly what has and hasn't changed and
what can happen next
PTSD treatment can be very very
successful and I've seen it do wonders
for people I've seen people go from
being extremely symptomatic to having
very low symptoms for a very long period
of time but it's not something someone
does to you it's not in a little pill
box that you just swallow with water it
really involves confronting what has
happened and can sometimes feel it's so
much easier to just try to put it in the
past try to avoid it try not to think
about it try not to deal with it but if
we open ourselves up to perhaps even the
benefits or the ways that we can grow
the opportunities provided to us by
having these unique experiences then you
can get past that hurdle
you