Published on 12, July, 2020
I'm told PTSD is having traumatic events replay over and over - but what if it's not a single event - what if it's an entire lifetime's abuse and bullying that is constantly being triggered and replaying over and over - is that the same thing? Is there a measure of intensity? Do you just get used to it? What is the qualifier?
MDMA is used as Part of Psychotherapy to combat PTSD.
Give us an E! :)
Plastic said: I zone out staring at the HDMI plug on the projector
That's meditation!
Plastic said:I'm fitting external lights on the house. Job is either done or not.
Love it!
First one this morning - it's odd - I can't do the deep breathing exercise - too painful - so I zone out staring at the HDMI plug on the projector.
We had to set a goal for the week - the others have difficulty pinning something down - they want to do 'more' or 'less' of something - very hard to measure their success. I'm fitting external lights on the house. Job is either done or not. Fitted 2 so far - tired now - fit another tomorrow.
I need more hands. Many hands make light work.
I was thinking about you the other day, Plastic. You never mentioned the Hope course again. You said you were thinking about going to the first session to see what it was all about.
This where I don't fit. I started a 'hope' course for the terminally ill - I can see how broken most people are when bad things happen to them. This course is to redirect thinking into a more positive mode - but I'm already the most depressed but positive and motivated person in the room. I can see how different I am to the others.
This is so fascinating.
Yes, that sounds right. She says that no one is responsible for our suffering (not even us) but that suffering is a result of us believing our negative thoughts about a situation, person. Rather than trying to not believe what we are thinking, it's better to gently question the thoughts in our mind to test whether they are genuinely true for us or not. That way, we don't let go of our thoughts, they let go of us.
It is a pity we can't 'download' such feelings and remove them from our brains. I find that writing them out helps, or some type of energy work on my body e.g. EFT. I didn't believe in that sort of thing at all but found it really helps when I tried it. It is like getting the thoughts out of my brain somehow.
Autistics do need to ruminate more than NT's. I also heard of post traumatic growth but was triggered as I haven't grown from my trauma.
That is called complex PTSD. Most late diagnosed autistic adults have it and probably those diagnosed as kids too. I think autistics should be routinely screened for complex PTSD.
Yes, that's right, but my understanding is that it's not about 'small' events, it's about repeated traumatic events over time which ultimately impact on a person's ability to function well.
There is a therapy called EMDR (eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing therapy) which apparently has had success in treating some PTSD. I think the theory is the brain hasn't properly processed the memory of the experience and once it has, the impact of that experience lessens.
Given the way our Neanderthal brains still work, If an experience has been traumatic it makes sense the brain wouldn't want that filed away and I think this is what the EMDR is meant to do.
A complication is that people with an ASD are apparently more 'suceptible' to trauma because of how our brains process information anyway and it doesn't help that we have no filters so our brains are taking in absolutely everything from our environment all at once.
Yes, someone I knew went to see her in conference, they've lived her 'philosophy' for many years. We debated a lot about some of her work which I just couldn't understand.
They gave me their book to read, 'Loving what is' and I also tried to do the worksheets but always got stuck at the 'turning it around' part.
She claims no matter what happens to a person we are responsible for our own suffering, not the person who causes us the damage, they don't cause our suffering, they don't cause the damage, we do.
I gave up on it because I just could not get my brain to reason that.
PTSD is like being forced to watch Mrs Brown's Boys on a loop.
I'm not sure I understand this. All my life has been very, very real. There's not really a different way of looking at the experiences - they just happened.
Replaying over and over and not in control of it happening ,stress can be a trigger ,lots of anger /rage coming from nowhere . Excessively avoiding /anxiety over events that remind . I am not an expert but i would say more over individual events .
If you think about it i expect there are individual events that cause more of the issues ,the general becomes the fog that blurs the events . This is what i have found the problem sorting things out ,
https://youtu.be/b3oEZknx9u4
Have you ever heard of Byron Katie? She struggled for decades with suicidal thoughts, agoraphobia and paranoia. She developed a process of self-inquiry that has helped people get out of their mental ruts and overcome depression. You write your thought down on paper and then put it under investigation by asking four questions.
It's like putting your brain into safe mode while you detect and clean out the viruses.
One on my mini-traumas is a blood test that went wrong and ended up ripping my vein and there was blood squirting everywhere - the room looked like an abattoir and the nurse couldn't stop the bleeding - I passed out.
I have to go for lots of blood tests and needles.
It's hard to do.
Burn out sounds about right.
I used to walk alot that helped me, but now I live in a city and feeling that walking is a negative thing the surrounding environment is ugly concrete impediments to natural beauty and the litter strewn ground is almost as detestable as the exhaust smothered air.
The only thing available to us to break the cycle is to somehow view the event(s) through a more constructive lens and re-create more pleasant emotions. In other words, change the memory of the event. Not by some silly effort at positive thinking, but by rational investigation of our beliefs, assumptions and conclusions about the incident(s).