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| The best explanation of PTSD I've ever heard |
| 2011-09-22 |
| Here's what PTSD is like, and why people kill themselves over it. Think of life like a cave. If I send you into a cave with a lantern and tell you there are no bears in the cave, you feel safe. You will walk around the cave and enjoy yourself. Now what if I give you a lantern and a gun and tell you that there is a bear in there? You can still go down, but you'll be careful to look for the bear and ready to run or shoot if you see it. Now, what if I send you down there with a gun but no lantern and simply say "bear" to you? Pretty soon, you're in there, you can't see the way out, and every rock you bump into feels like a bear. After a long enough time being down in the cave, you realize you don't have enough ammo to shoot everything that might be a bear. It has nothing to do with running out of food or water or feeling like you're fighting some unwinnable battle with the bear. You just get sick and tired of the uncertainty. Are you going to live through the night? Are you going to wake up to a bear gnawing your intestines? You get to the point where you just wish the bear would come along and end it. And when he doesn't come, you decide to do it yourself. Suicide isn't a surrender, it's a reassertion of power. These guys' lives have spun out of control, and the decision over whether they live or die is the last thing they have the power to determine. Think about it. You ever met a Soldier that wasn't a "take charge kind of guy?" That's my warning bell. I've seen lots of "cries for help" where a guy said "life is meaningless." I don't put much stock in those. But when he says "life is scary"? That's the guy that's going to do it. Read the whole thing. I have no words. I want to say something supportive but I'll just come off like a civilian ass, which is what I am. |
| Posted by:gromky |
| #13 I was a second lieutenant company commander of an infantry rifle company. The stress and responsibility of the duty turned me into a blithering quivering mess that would slink into the Battalion Commander's tent and beg for relief. He said I was a fine officer and doing very well. He said that I needed was "a fifth of whiskey and a lewd woman...of course, if the woman is lewd enough you don't need no whiskey." |
| Posted by: Bill Clinton 2011-09-22 23:32 |
| #12 FWIW- LE's comment tracks my indirect experience. I have been part of discussions with the psychs who have been treating PTSD sufferers in NYC from 9/11. My technical knowledge of the psychological side is minimal, but the 'grand theme' of all of them was that PTSD results from a 'bad foundation' ... what LE called 'temperament and world view.' Basically a lot of people in the WTC went through hell, but returned to normal- based on their psychic bedrock, if you will. A minority however, though the had done fine in life and were successful on the outside, had foundations that were brittle (out of control childhood homes, etc.) and couldn't 'equalize' the experience. My contribution is an old saying: "If you're hysterical, it's historical." |
| Posted by: Free Radical 2011-09-22 22:28 |
| #11 Moshe Dayan at one stage was a correspondent for a newspaper on assignment in Vietnam. He used to accompany patrols on duty. What he found unbelievable was the tactics employed.Engagements were basically a series of ambushes. 80% of ambushes were Viet Cong initiated. Now if I were in a situation where the odds were against me 80% of the time I think my anxiety levels would be in a permanent positive mode. |
| Posted by: tipper 2011-09-22 22:07 |
| #10 P2k, to be candid, I don't believe in PTSD---I think it's all these Vietnam War movies. Not an opinion, g(rom), PTSD affects more than war vets--its an official diagnosis of many victims of violence. I also think this is an excellent description of PTSD and loss of control they perceive, I would suggest some are more susceptible to it not only because of the intensity of conflict but to temperament and world view. Some people are focused, with controlled strength and confidence, accepting God is in control of their lives (and circumstances) and taking a lot of uncertainty our of life. Death is a real possibility but with a promis of eternity, it looks a hell of a lot better than the life they are living. But those who don't have that focus, knowing who they are and where they are going, spin apart when in the centrifuge of uncertainty and react unpredictably. Kids raised in violent barrios and ghettos come to mind--I say kids but gang members tend to have a short lifespan, with 35 being old. Gangs offer the only consistent security they know--babies and children need routine and consistency to grow but chaotic homelife produces a out-of-control child. Or kids in Somalian and Palestinian refugee camps...I might consider being a suicide boomer and going to Paradise, too. They have no other hope of circumstances changing. Also, during Viet Nam, the draft took those without a college deferment and the 60's were chaotic times. Way too many clueless 18 year olds crawling through the jungles so I suspect there should be significantly more PTSD from vets from that era than current ones. |
| Posted by: Lumpy Elmoluck5091 2011-09-22 19:09 |
| #9 PTSD sounds like Depression. |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2011-09-22 17:51 |
| #8 P2k, to be candid, I don't believe in PTSD---I think it's all these Vietnam War movies. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2011-09-22 13:31 |
| #7 Soldier suicide, who does it? Generally not the females.Anyone care to venture a guess as to WHY they seldom do? We still have a significant amount. It's that they are a smaller percentage of the population, they don't tend to be as successful, and theirs are not so... dramatic. |
| Posted by: Pappy 2011-09-22 12:43 |
| #6 Marijuana is a major benefit for PTSD because you don't dream as much or as vividly. There are plenty of ex weed smokers who have stated once they quit they started dreaming again. I agree with Besoeker on the sex part. Facts are that the intimate companionship of women calm men down significantly. Note these seldom laid (if ever) whackos: Tim McVeigh, the Unabomber, Giffords would be assassin, and the Norway mass murderer. |
| Posted by: Penguin 2011-09-22 12:11 |
| #5 Soldier suicide, who does it? Generally not the females. Anyone care to venture a guess as to WHY they seldom do? A man needs his pipes cleaned and a stiff drink now and then. This cock-up of a war with Islam provides neither. You take it from there. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2011-09-22 11:06 |
| #4 One proven drug that helps many cases of PTSD is marijuana. This makes sense because as is known by many serious marijuana users, it is superb for making a user "not care". For a normal person, this is actually an effective way of persuading them to *not* use marijuana, because they will become indifferent to doing what they need to do to succeed, be it study in school, ambitiously work at work, actively court members of the opposite sex, and other things associated with "positive stress". However, for someone with PTSD, they need to break out of the "positive stress cycle". That is, if somebody tells them to go bear hunting in the cave, they just say "no". No reason in the world for them to do that. If they are forced to go into the cave anyway, they just find a corner and plop down with their rifle. No reason in the world to go bear hunting. Let the bear come to them. (Which is not a bad technique, if you think about it.) Eventually they break out of the "positive stress cycle", so normalize. Often they will just spontaneously stop smoking marijuana, because after a break, they are now able to rebuild some "positive stress", but at a lower, civilian level. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2011-09-22 11:01 |
| #3 Grom you missed out the solace found among the brothers and sisters that went through it too and the, now defunct, major ritualistic practices of the society/tribe that cleansed and gave absolution for the experience. They've outlawed your two traditions and have reduced the latter point to visits to councilors who hand out psychotropic drugs and a corner in some veterans administration cubby hole of their compartmentalized society. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2011-09-22 08:50 |
| #2 it is because of my ignorance that i always just tried to quietly be there... thanks for posting. |
| Posted by: abu do you love 2011-09-22 06:02 |
| #1 Armies been dealing with PTSD for a long time. The formula haven't changed since the Trojan war: get drunk, when get laid (and you can skip the drink if the prospective lay is presentable). |
| Posted by: gr(o)mgoru 2011-09-22 03:17 |