PTSD Question?

[Southernscotty]

Does everyone that faces a "crises" in their life suffer from some sort of PTSD?
Just curious how long do some of you have to deal with the after effect and nightmares?

 

[step_by_step]

I'm not a psychologist or anything but PTSD can take many forms. I, for example, don't suffer from nightmares. Instead, I respond to things like yelling. When someone yells, even if it isn't at me, I go into fight or flight mode. I sweat, I get anxious, and I start thinking along the lines of "I'm stupid, I'm worthless, I wish I could die". This is a result of the emotional abuse I suffered in my childhood. I'm nearly twenty now and I still experience that.

I don't think that it's any sort of crisis...although again I'm not experienced in this area. So I don't know the criteria for developing PTSD. But it has to have a profound impact on you in order to leave you scarred like that.

 

[Dansiph]

Does everyone that faces a "crises" in their life suffer from some sort of PTSD?
Just curious how long do some of you have to deal with the after effect and nightmares?

I've heard it said that not all people will suffer from ptsd after an "event". I am not really qualified to answer but I'll offer some help hopefully. I did think I had some sort of PTSD after having psychosis. I didn't have the associated nightmares although the medication I was on had nightmares as a side effect.

I do know that anxiety/stress/depression can be accumulative. Sort of like the straw the broke the camel's back but obviously in some cases it's not a straw but a major event etc.

Nightmares and even dreaming can impact sleep because to my knowledge it's not deep sleep if you dream a lot during the night. Not sleeping enough impacts mental health, so there's a cycle.

I think it's vital to take care of your general health and also see a professional about PTSD.

With me I was confronting my fears incorrectly. This is the case with a lot of people. Carrying on can actually increase how scared you feel etc because you perceive the situation as dangerous. It's a difficult balance between avoiding and confronting.

God bless

 

[whereloveandmercymeet]

Although probably a very unhelpful answer I think it’s very unique person to person. For example, my dad died in his house, myself, my brother and my grandmother were all there, but it was unexpected, and for some time afterward they both had panic attacks when ambulances came to the house (for my asthma). For my grandma it only took a few months before that no longer was a trigger for her, it’s still a problem for my brother.

Sorry I can’t be more helpful.

 

[anna ~ grace]

Does everyone that faces a "crises" in their life suffer from some sort of PTSD?
Just curious how long do some of you have to deal with the after effect and nightmares?

Going on three years, and still dealing with emotional issues, dreams, and painful thoughts. The thing about trauma / grief, it can take a while to feel the backlash emotionally. Once the dust settles, the pain can start. The pain does diminish over time, but it is generally slow going, from our point of view. It's a process, Scotty. Give your soul time. You have been through something incredibly tough. Take it one day at a time, and let God in on everything. Bless you, friend.

 

[devin553344]

I fell off a cliff once and landed in the sticker bushes growing out to the cliff wall a couple feet down. My friends pulled me back up to safety. But I was sure I was dead since it was a 100 foot cliff and rocks below. It was snow covered and for some dumb reason we were sledding near the cliff edge.

I now have kinda chronic fatigue which I sometimes wonder if its PTSD. I've had other near death experiences. But if there's a "threat to your life" experience then it may be PTSD. At least that's my understanding. And I've had this condition since a surgery of mine went bad back in 2006 and I passed out from the pain. Its steadily and slowly got worse.

You can however get help for PTSD and I've heard it can get easier. But I'm not sure about that since I see a counselor regularly.

 

[anna ~ grace]

.

 

[Dave-W]

Does everyone that faces a "crises" in their life suffer from some sort of PTSD?

No

 

[JCFantasy23]

Does everyone that faces a "crises" in their life suffer from some sort of PTSD?

Hello Scotty,

This is not a medical opinion, but I'm of the belief that sometimes people process and grieve over the trauma right away, which makes it less likely for them to have PTSD later. Other times, you cannot handle all of it all at once, so your mind deals with it in pieces over time, or sometimes you can't deal with it at all right now (too much already going on or just not ready to face it), so it can come out years later. There are so many differences with PTSD, but none of it is in control of the person. You cannot control the way you react to trauma and when you react to it, just like you can't control the first feelings of grief and what hits you with it. Hopefully I'm explaining this well enough where it makes sense.

 

[EzekielsWheels]

This might be helpful to better understand PTSD: NIMH » Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. I think the development of PTSD depends a lot as I believe JCFantasy said on how you did (or did not) process a potentially traumatizing event initially. I am not a psychologist but my personal experience is that some things are so overwhelming that we don't process them immediately and so they play out later on after the original tramautizing event. There are counselors that help through talk therapy and a lot of helpful books on how to process trauma out there.

 

[Paidiske]

I can only really talk about my own experience; and for me, nightmares wasn't a symptom I had much. And I find that it comes and goes; I'll be really "well" and have no symptoms at all for a time, and then something will set things off and I'll have a lot of symptoms for a time. From childhood abuse, I didn't have clear enough symptoms to get a diagnosis until I was 28... but the depression and anxiety had definitely been there before that.

I don't know if that's helpful. I hadn't seen your recent thread but went back just now and had a look; what I can tell you is that when I was really unwell, when I was first diagnosed, there is no way I could have been safe or effective in ministry; but with time and grace and some help from others (professionals and friends) I have been in a good place for quite some years now. How you feel now is not how it's going to be forever.

Have you done much reading on trauma and how it affects a person? I found having a bit of an intellectual understanding did help me to navigate what often felt like total chaos.