c-PTSD: Chronic-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Trauma is Trauma. It does not matter how we became traumatized, the effects are the same. Some life event overwhelms us, our brain shuts down changing our thinking process and our personality.
Trauma happens when life overwhelms our training, experiences and expectations. If we are not prepared to handle these events we become traumatized. The degree of trauma depends on how foreign an event is and how long it lasts. If we are prepared, either by training or experience for an event, we will not be traumatized.
If we find someone to help us through a trauma, the damage caused by the trauma is diminished and the brain starts healing. Without help, a mild trauma may become cataclysmic as the brain goes into a defense mode, rewiring itself.
This website is a reflection of trauma I faced long ago. After forty years, I finally found someone I could trust and who would listen as I sorted through the tangled mess in my brain. Not everyone is capable of such a responsibility. The nicest, most sensitive person in the world may not be able to handle these stresses.
Trauma rewires the brain. Therefore, we need to relearn what we once knew. Sometimes memories will overwhelm us as flashbacks and haunting thoughts. I now realized this is good: it is the brain’s way of healing itself. Let it happen. Once sorted, memories and flashbacks will no longer bother us. Mixed up emotions and memories need sorted, that is why the brain keeps coming back to these memories. During trauma, parts of the brain may shut down. Memories are stored somewhere other than in our cerebral cortex, temporarily and out of sequence.
There is a lot in this web site. It is a big site. Take your time to learn it all. We will study how the brain works, why things go wrong, how to be healthy, and most of all, I will try to be available when you need someone to lean on. This is most important. Having someone when we need them. The brain will bury memories for a while, then, when it is ready, when it is safe, it will start sorting our experiences. When this happens, we need someone to listen.
I am not convinced that the “Contact” portion of this site is working properly. Feel free to contact me at charlesgutha@reagan.com. Use the heading “Trauma”.
ceg
PTSD, c-PTSD and RTS
Two foot notes to go up front:
After writing this, I came across an article mentioning c-PTSD. What is that? Chronic PTSD is the more sever type of PTSD. The PTSD described in this book/website is of the chronic type. I will not rewrite the site to make the distinction. The inventers of this differentiation state that PTSD comes from a single event. My interpretation of this falls under mild trauma: maybe a robbery or tornado or flood or something. The implication is that after a few months or years, we can shake it off and go on with life. C-PTSD are repeated events which happens over time. Some insist on making a distinction, but I think I have covered this in the Degrees of Trauma. Don’t skip to it now, it will come up soon enough.
Another footnote and distinction comes with RTS. The above mentioned and undocumented article indicated a slight distinction between RTS and PTSD. I did not bother to investigate the slight differences.
The effects of any trauma is to reduce the brains function then rewire the very core of our thinking. It appears that the subtle differences between RTS and c-PTSD are within the confines of the variations of c-PTSD itself. This is to say, when trauma goes deeper than mild trauma, the damage is so great that the differences are negligible.
It’s like comparing the damage of a car after it hit a tree to one that hit a deer. A lot of parts have to be replaced before either are back to working order. Keep in mind, we are not cars to be discarded after an accident. God is the great healer. The damage will be repaired and He will put us on the road again.
Whether mild or chronic, God knows the damage we experience and He promises to stay with us. Now, after forty years, I can see how He is using my pain for the benefit of others. I am certain He will do the same for you. This is one of His many promises to us.
ceg