PTSD (Part 1)

Every person on this planet has experienced some form of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). It's not just the fight-or-flight response to tragedy or war trauma that veterans suffer from—it's the well-known and documented extreme form of PTSD. There is also an epidemic of post-traumatic stress disorder that people have been learning about ever since Anthony William started talking about it in his books.

This unknown form of PTSD, which is the focus of this article, is so common that almost everyone suffers from it. It is the result of unpleasant situations that we all have to deal with, ones that we may consciously forget about, but subconsciously they stay with us for a long time. Post-traumatic stress disorder stems from millennia of pain – its essence has been with us since the dawn of human civilization.

It is normal and even healthy to feel terrified when your life or someone else's is in danger. Fear triggers your fight-or-flight response, which floods your body with adrenaline, temporarily giving you more strength and heightened reflexes to deal with the threat. After the threat has passed, you may experience emotional upheaval. This is the classic form of PTSD that therapists and psychiatrists recognize.

History of the practice of the Healing Medium

The story was published in the book "The Healing Medium - revised and supplemented edition" .

"Once a patient of mine, Jerry, told me about the experience of his brother-in-law Mike, who was close to death when they worked together in construction. One day while at work, Jerry heard Mike screaming for help from the other end of the construction site. Jerry rushed over to see what was going on and found Mike pinned under a semi-trailer. Mike was fixing an axle when the blocks holding the trailer failed and the trailer pinned him to the ground, nearly crushing his chest.

Jerry realized he had no time to stop to call for help. So instead of dialing 911 and later telling her daughter she had lost her husband, Jerry went into survival mode. A rush of adrenaline filled his body. He lifted the huge weight off his brother-in-law's chest enough for Mike to get out. Mike survived.

Even though a miracle happened and everything was fine, Mike kept having nightmares in which he was pinned under something heavy and screaming for help. And Jerry couldn't look at any trailer without feeling sick. After years of such suffering, Jerry came to me for insight on how to heal. Both men had suffered from what could clearly be considered post-traumatic stress disorder.

Add to that the daily emotional wounds that pile up. Insecurities, trust issues, fears, guilt, shame, and more: All of these actually stem from past challenging emotional experiences. They are all the result of latent PTSD. For example, when a person has a fear of committing to a certain relationship, it indicates that something happened earlier in their life to create a certain level of PTSD. You never know what happened in someone's past that contributed to their reaction today.

PTSD can happen on so many different levels. I remember a walk I took once where I decided to veer off the beaten path. When I strayed from the path, the Spirit warned me not to. Yet, knowing I was meant to walk in the safe direction, I instead used my free will to follow my curiosity to a cliff. I crawled to the edge of the cliff and saw a terrace below that I could reach if I was careful. Without any safety gear, I started down the cliff. Just as I had reached the most treacherous ledge, and the ocean was 100 meters below me, a fog thicker than anything you have ever seen descended, and very quickly.

I could barely see my hands in front of me. The waves crashed against the rocks below. I knew that if I slid forward or to the side even a little, I would meet my maker. I was stuck.

For hours the fog lingered. By nightfall it was still thick. The temperature had dropped and the light clothes I was wearing were soaked with mist. Sleeping on the side of the cliff was not an option, so I remained on my feet, freezing, until dawn, when the fog lifted enough to see the footholds that would lead me to safety. I finally got back in the car, drove home and tried to sleep.

As soon as I closed my eyes, all I saw was the rock - with me on it.

I would see the same picture over and over and panic at how close I was to the end. For someone with a daring streak, for someone who likes to experience nature with a dose of adrenaline, the experience probably wouldn't have startled him in the least. I know people who wouldn't flinch at being surprised by mist in such a precipice - for example climbers who regularly risk their lives free climbing without safety gear. But that's not me. I was shaken.

Fortunately, I knew the secrets of recovery. With time, patience and application of the Spirit of Compassion healing program, it wasn't long before I moved away from the trauma.”

Unrecognized PTSD

In recent times, we have become a society that encourages open talk about topics that used to be secret. In the past we had to keep quiet and not say how we felt or they would think we were crazy. If we accidentally overdo it, we could even make an appointment for a lobotomy.

It took centuries for war veterans to finally receive attention and treatment for the lingering stress of the traumas they experienced in combat. In our culture, it is accepted to drown out our emotions with alcohol, drugs, food and adrenaline-inducing activities. Self-expression was not a real possibility until very recently, in the last 40 years. We live in an age of stress, but now therapists, counselors, and life coaches abound, allowing us to expand the definition and scope of PTSD.

As far as we've come, we still lack public (and scientific) understanding of trauma and how the vicious cycle of PTSD really develops. And while the stigma isn't as strong as it once was, it hasn't completely disappeared. We still need to make more progress in the way we treat and support anyone who has experienced trauma.

PTSD is something that emerges from any difficult experience. There are more severe cases of PTSD that we know of, ones that result from experiences such as violence, tragedy, kidnapping, or witnessing a violent crime.

There are also factors that are not well known. A child's parents' divorce may cause him to avoid marriage as an adult. A teenager who has been left without a prom date may begin to dislike all school dances. Air travel turbulence can make you never want to fly again. We've heard many stories of food poisoning acquired at a restaurant that leaves people squirming in their seats every time they walk past the place in question.

Other factors that trigger fear include being fired from a job, breaking up with a girlfriend or boyfriend, being betrayed by a loved one, small accidents that don't even result in injury, or a time in life where you feel like you've failed at something . There are no limits to what can cause PTSD.

Yet even in today's modern age of self-help, therapy, and emotional understanding, society is unwilling to label any of these under-recognized triggers as causing PTSD. Health professionals reserve the term PTSD mostly for life-or-death experiences. This ignores the hundreds, if not thousands, of other incidents that change (for the worse) how someone experiences life.

This is exactly what PTSD, regardless of scale, does: it negatively affects the choices we make and changes the fabric of who we are.

One of the triggers that is too rarely talked about is illness. Many people develop PTSD after only having the flu for two weeks, let alone chronic fatigue for three months or neurological problems for years. Experiencing these symptoms is part of the story. Another cause of emotional damage is the wandering around doctor's offices - the many tests, the constant MRIs and CT scans that reveal nothing, the imaging studies that do reveal problems (whether or not they are the real cause of the symptoms), the despair, that you find no relief or confirmation.

PTSD tends to pile on itself. After you've been sick for a period of time and you start to believe that your body has failed you, and you're lost in undiagnosis or misdiagnosis, or a diagnosis that doesn't lead to a cure, and the financial strain starts to pile up, and maybe you feel like you're slipping away from your career or relationships—making you a likely candidate for a unique blend of PTSD.

PTSD is a very real reaction to the illness of a loved one. Watching someone lose their vitality and cease to be able to fill the same role they once filled in your life can make you feel vulnerable and powerless. Too much effort to care for someone can also be exhausting. Even if your loved one recovers, the moment they later make a grunting sound or start sniffling, it can reawaken old fears and make you feel like you're reliving that dark time.

Now we have covid-19 PTSD. There are several varieties of this disease. This PTSD can develop from the fear of getting covid-19. It can arise from losing touch with our environment, friends and family as interactions change, drift away and life changes in many ways. PTSD can be a result of contracting and becoming ill with covid-19, whether it's a mild case or you've had to fight for your survival while you recover. There is also post-traumatic stress disorder after covid-19 - because not everyone who contracts covid-19 feels great after they recover. As we have mentioned many times before, it is common for chronic symptoms to develop or worsen after covid-19, although most of these symptoms are not caused by covid-19; they are caused by covid-19. (This means that existing pathogens in the body can take advantage of the immune system collapse from covid-19. This is the real cause of most post-covid-19 symptoms). Whether someone is struggling with a flare-up of chronic symptoms or experiencing brand new symptoms after covid-19, it can lead to this type of PTSD. In addition, PTSD exists when managing or working in businesses such as restaurants and retail stores open to the public. Cashiers and other grocery store employees, as well as flight attendants, transportation workers, healthcare workers, and those in many other public-facing occupations struggle with PTSD from encountering more impatient and stressed crowds. The list goes on - you can probably name other forms of PTSD related to covid-19 from your own personal experience. There is PTSD from managing childcare and elder care in this new landscape, as well as dealing with the blurred boundaries between home, work and school. Has PTSD from loss of job and/or financial security due to covid-19. Has post-traumatic stress disorder from losing a loved one to covid-19 or a covid-19-related circumstance.

You may have PTSD and not realize it. If it stems from a subconscious memory, you may experience inexplicable feelings of avoidance or closure in certain circumstances and not know why. Perhaps you find yourself driven to binge on sweets or seek out adrenaline-inducing activities. Or maybe people have attached the unpleasant labels "sensitive", "prickly", "fragile", "hurt", "annoying" or "oversensitive" to you. These are all signs that something once happened – or happened over an extended period of time – to cause a reaction now.

Medical science still doesn't know what PTSD really is. She doesn't know the extent of PTSD and she doesn't know how it manifests itself.

How to move forward

You don't have to deal with the unpleasant parts of your personal history. You are not doomed to experience the same patterns of trauma over and over again. People who hurt you do not have the power to haunt you for the rest of your life. Misfortunes and chronic stresses don't have to define you. There is a way forward.

With the right nutritional, emotional and spiritual healing support, you can regain your vitality and return to living life to the fullest.