Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

by Lady Lee 28 Replies latest jw friends

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  Lady Lee

  kls I totally understand that desire to push the memory away. We got those things for a reason. They were traumatic to us. But I compare that to breaking a bone. If we don't set the bone properly, cast it and allow it to heal then it sets badly and can cause a lot of pain at the site of the injury or sometimes further up the arm of leg along the nerve pathway.

  Those memories are hard to deal with but doing so helps us to move on without the pain coming out in other ways and in the long run hurting more than actually dealing with it.
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  talesin

  LL

  Thanks for posting this. I'm writing a paper right now on PTSD, and would like to read this book.

  kls

  We seem to have a lot in common. As far as the flashbacks, though, I would prefer them to come out. I'm so sick of nightly terrors, flashes of memory, and not knowing the faces of my abusers. It's hard to deal with the feelings created by the abuse, without knowing the events.

  But, otoh, the memories I do have are so horrendous that I cannot share them with others, except for my therapist. No one wants to hear that stuff, it's too difficult. Amnesia is the mind's way of protecting us from remembering details that perhaps, we cannot bear to live with at this point in time. At least, that is what I figure my own experience means.

  Be gentle with yourself, it's a process, and as LL says, by dealing with our abuse memories, we will become much stronger and healthier people.

  talesin
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  kls

  I appreciate your thoughts but i do remember all i want of my own mother, trying to kill me with a shot gun and banging my head against a wall till i passed out or having her throw knives at me and my sister, and that is the easy parts to talk about. No i don't want to remember any more then i have.
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  Undaunted Danny

  Thank you lady lee.

  Psychological and Recovery Issues

  related to Jehovah's Witnesses and other groups [ http://www.freeminds.org/psych/psych.htm ]

  Martin H. Teicher, "Scars That Won't Heal: The neurobiology of child abuse," Scientific American, March 2002

  . . . violence and abuse pass from generation to generation as well as from one society to the next. Our stark conclusion is that we see the need to do much more to ensure that child abuse does not happen in the first place, because once these key brain alterations occur, there may be no going back. [emphasis added]

  ---

  This was a ground breaking study regarding the ;"what came first the chicken or theegg". issue on pathology of depression and other mental illnesses. Simply put,;severe childhood trauma and/or abuse can induce harmful structural changes in the brain,which remain permanently. As the saying goes;"once you become a pickle you will never go back to being a cucumber again" { footnote from undaunted Danny:when the abuse is perpetrated in the name of God it amounts to soul rape and is the worst of all conditions to overcome ] see my home page regarding stockholm syndrome MORE on Stockholm Syndrome ] [ Danny's Sensible Suggestions
  
  for Managing Stress ]
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  talesin

  kls

  I wasn't suggesting you should feel as I do. Just sharing my [different] experience.

  It bothers me that I cannot see the faces of my rapists, that I cannot KNOW who they are. That I can't go certain places without feeling fear, and I don't know why. etc. etc.

  Sorry if I came off that way!

  tal
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  kls

  Talesen. i did not take it that way. I know better with you guys always trying to help. I am sorry you took it the way you did.
  
  BOY are we a bunch of sorrys
  
  My pmer don't work ,that is why i cannot pm back, i get them just can't send them
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  Lady Lee

  Studies have shown that trauma does indeed alter brain chemistry and in the young child alters the way the brain develops.

  I think each person has to decide for him/herself how much they need to know. I know I still have some repressed memories. Unless they are bothering me I won't bother them.

  My memory of the scar on my foot was one that always bothered me. I had physical evidence for it but no idea how it got there. I still don't have the whole memory - no details yet. Just enough to know what caused it and how it was done and by whom.

  Some things are buried for a reason and we need to respect that. My opinion is that we don't need to run around digging up old memories to retraumatize ourselves. There is usually plenty of known things to deal with without looking for more.

  BT and I and a few others had a fascinating discussion about this a while back - about repressed memories.
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  talesin

  kls

  It's all okay.

  Thanks for the reply. Actually, I think we are pretty awesome, don't you agree?

  t

  Edit: LadyLee, it would be fantastic to get together with you and BT, omg can you imagine the discussions we would have? ahhhhhh
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  kls

  Yes Talesin. the rubber rooms were full . LOL
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  Lady Lee

  LadyLee, it would be fantastic to get together with you and BT, omg can you imagine the discussions we would have? ahhhhhh

  Heaven or as close to it as I could get. I would so much love that sigh maybe one day