i'd like to know from people if the following that i will copy and paste was a descent thing to say to someone whose curious about PTSD or who suffers it. i understand that it's too long for some people who have PTSD but i guess i considered this bit of thoughts for someone whose curious about it.

i want to know if i articulated my understanding of PTSD in a good light. i'd be most interested in hearing from people who actually have it. basically a friend of mine asked me "what do you know about PTSD?" and the following was what i had to say about it. but i don't know if there were things i could of said that would have carried more weight and value. i guess i just want you guys to judge my analysis



"Sorry i haven't replied sooner. but PTSD isn't fully understood (yet). however we do know that PTSD is relative just like pain is relative. what traumatic experience through one persons eyes or heart might be different to another person. PTSD develops through witnessing or experiencing a tragic or traumatizing event. when a danger is presented to a "normal" person without PTSD usually the fear goe's away after the event is over. but with PTSD the fear doesn't stop and the person constantly goes into a "fight or flight" mode. oftenly the individual experiences years to even a whole lifetime of coping with PTSD. suicide (unfortunately) is sometimes a way out some people resolve in the end.

you might say to yourself "well if PTSD is that bad then clearly there's no hope for anyone who has it" well the thing is PTSD is very treatable. but the right kind of treatment and living environment is vital. it's not easy to treat and it's not easy to communicate with someone who has it under most circumstances but the best thing someone can remember when talking to someone with PTSD is that that individual is fighting a war and that you shouldn't be discouraged for loosing a few or even several battles.

PTSD is treatable and in some cases curable. the best source of information for understanding how to treat PTSD is a wonderful bit of information found in a PDF file i've been reading. it's a manual for treating PTSD with MDMA and what protocol to use. i would look there; it would give you a ton of information about PTSD as well as how to cope with it yourself if you think you might have it.

keep in mind that sometimes PTSD is confused with other disorders like APD or BPD (avoidant personality disorder and borderline personality disorder.)

i hope this is enough information to shed some light into what PTSD is. personally i'm no expert but i know how hard it is at times being a person who suffers from PTSD just because i had a friend who had it on a very severe level. i saw their constant struggle, the sadness and hopelessness, and the sheer frustration of having lived with it for a while and "nothing changing or getting better". but i also had one of the best friend ships i've ever had with that person and have had some of the best memories ever made and i do know for a fact that a person with PTSD can be happy. but yeah; it can also be a fragile state of life. the slightest thing could easily set a person off. i know that from experience; as i actually ruined that same friendship and damaged it permanently through having a borderline-insane episode and portraying very weird behavior that seriously upset that person.

i also know from experience about what it's like. i know that feeling of "flight" and that feeling of "fight" and how it consumes you in the moment. i know the skittishnes, the depression, the confusion, the loss of words. it's kinda like being in a sea and only slightly drowning; only enough to feel like you are going to drown. and i know there are moments when you really start to sink. but i'm also completely recovered and live a pretty descent life and show no signs of PTSD.

for me what caused it was a four year almost literal trial of being emotionally and psychologically abused and witnessing and stopping my mom from commiting suicide. i soon became a totally different person. there was this moment of "no turning back" where my life would never be the same.

exploration and confronting the problem is important. sometimes you have to do that in a creative way. for J.R. Tolkein the creator of the lord of the rings his way of confronting his PTSD caused from witnissing the tragedies of warfare (world war one) was writting. he wrote the lord of the rings which was essentially about war and fear and a lack of hope and trauma and all that good stuff that makes it a good read.

i like the idea of writting because life really is like a book. there are happy chapters and sad chapters alike. but you never know what the next chapter is like unless you're willing to turn the page."

what's your thoughts on what i said? thanks for reading! <3

-JSK

I'd say you represented PTSD fairly well to your friend. You covered pretty much all the basics that's understood. As someone who has been coping with PTSD since childhood, I can make a few comments to improve your description, not really to change what you've said, but to add to it.

When you mentioned how PTSD is sometimes confused with APD or BPD, while that is correct, often times (much like how I was initially) one can also be misdiagnosed with some form of dissociation disorder, or be comorbid with it.

I can definitely relate to the 'fight or flight' over-activity, you hit that nail right on the head. Often times what the cause for me has been because something in the environment has 'cued' a memory from what initially caused the PTSD, sure it might not be a full on flashback, but just to remember the emotions from back then can be enough to set off the fight or flight response. The more resembling the stimulus to what happened to cause the PTSD, the stronger the flashback can become. Flashbacks can be a difficult thing for one to overcome when they have PTSD, and it can consume their state of being, making them do everything they can to avoid remembering what happened.

Another thing I'd like to touch on is the fact that, for me at least, the most effective treatment for me in relieving the majority of my issues has been CBT or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Medications didn't really do much, and it felt more like I was trying to hide from my issues, rather than treat them while medicated (however I can only say that now that I'm no longer being medicated, if you asked me then I'd say it was working for me).

I hope this helps.

Yeah good descriptions, fear that is ever present, always ready to overwhelm and take control at the slightest association with the original trauma. Everything is viewed through that fearful lens and it guides all your actions. This decades plague?
As for treatments you should keep an eye on the studies that MAPS are doing, there is also EMDR that looks promising.
IIRC there is a theory that memory and emotional processing are too connected meaning the memory cant be processed emotionally , the brain on some level basically thinks its still in that situation.