I think this is a bit of a joke. I'm a member of ASCA (Adult Survivors of Child Abuse). That anecdote at the start about the river flooding feels like an experience I had in my forties. I was on Regent Street, walking north, against traffic. A London City bus traveling south passed me. The mirror, which hangs out past the side of the bus, ruffled my hair.
Now, a London bus weighs several tons and could have killed me with that mirror. It didn't, and I don't have PTSD from the event. It was a near-death experience, but it wasn't a traumatic event. Like riding a bike while visiting NYC (my home), it made me wonder how many tourists are killed by buses annually, killed, not traumatized.
The speaker talks as if trauma or PTSD is caused by an event, ie, a fire, 9/11, etc. My experience is that numerous experiences over time cause PTSD. One can be resilient if trauma is an event. Think instead of Virginia Giuffre.
ASCA membership is dominated by women, the vast majority of whom were sexually abused. That abuse tends to occur later in childhood, though not entirely. Mine was non sexual, beginning when I was a toddler. I'm male.
As a group, our trauma arises from various events that have occurred over many years. Each experience contributes to a cumulative effect, creating a complex web of PTSD. I have undergone several therapies aimed at addressing the specific issues caused by my trauma.
Back to the joke. This clinician is less than authentic to me. Yes, he has interviewed many identified trauma survivors. But, just as the map is not the terrority, interviewees are not the experience.
Ponder Virginia's experience: multiple abusers, each causing unique trauma, all in a particular sequence, resulting in her distinct PTSD. She never had the opportunity to sit high on a riverbank and reflect on what was happening below.
What a too long load of crap! I know what trauma is because I had what was the typical surgery in the 50s with what is now called ether insufficiency.
I promise you that left me deeply traumatized.
Trauma is very real but since science does not yet understand the brain you are not going to find out what you're looking for. You're looking in the wrong place.
A friend once asked me: "Where does your self-assurance come from?"
I told them: "I have not only succeeded but excelled - for weeks at a time - in circumstances so.. unpleasant.. that the vast majority of the people I've known would have been reduced to sobbing in the fetal position within hours." One benefit of being a former Sergeant of Marine infantry..
I like to say that there is "no yardstick for trauma", and what affects one person might not affect another, but our brain "records" its experiences by making a physical change, and among other things, reinforces certain neural "circuits". The degree of plasticity these circuits have varies from person to person and from brain region to brain region, but as someone who suffers from both PTSD and Musician's Focal Dystonia, at this point, modern neuroscience can't necessarily "rewire" these maladaptive changes.
I think this is a bit of a joke. I'm a member of ASCA (Adult Survivors of Child Abuse). That anecdote at the start about the river flooding feels like an experience I had in my forties. I was on Regent Street, walking north, against traffic. A London City bus traveling south passed me. The mirror, which hangs out past the side of the bus, ruffled my hair.
Now, a London bus weighs several tons and could have killed me with that mirror. It didn't, and I don't have PTSD from the event. It was a near-death experience, but it wasn't a traumatic event. Like riding a bike while visiting NYC (my home), it made me wonder how many tourists are killed by buses annually, killed, not traumatized.
The speaker talks as if trauma or PTSD is caused by an event, ie, a fire, 9/11, etc. My experience is that numerous experiences over time cause PTSD. One can be resilient if trauma is an event. Think instead of Virginia Giuffre.
ASCA membership is dominated by women, the vast majority of whom were sexually abused. That abuse tends to occur later in childhood, though not entirely. Mine was non sexual, beginning when I was a toddler. I'm male.
As a group, our trauma arises from various events that have occurred over many years. Each experience contributes to a cumulative effect, creating a complex web of PTSD. I have undergone several therapies aimed at addressing the specific issues caused by my trauma.
Back to the joke. This clinician is less than authentic to me. Yes, he has interviewed many identified trauma survivors. But, just as the map is not the terrority, interviewees are not the experience.
Ponder Virginia's experience: multiple abusers, each causing unique trauma, all in a particular sequence, resulting in her distinct PTSD. She never had the opportunity to sit high on a riverbank and reflect on what was happening below.
What a too long load of crap! I know what trauma is because I had what was the typical surgery in the 50s with what is now called ether insufficiency.
I promise you that left me deeply traumatized.
Trauma is very real but since science does not yet understand the brain you are not going to find out what you're looking for. You're looking in the wrong place.
A friend once asked me: "Where does your self-assurance come from?"
I told them: "I have not only succeeded but excelled - for weeks at a time - in circumstances so.. unpleasant.. that the vast majority of the people I've known would have been reduced to sobbing in the fetal position within hours." One benefit of being a former Sergeant of Marine infantry..
I like to say that there is "no yardstick for trauma", and what affects one person might not affect another, but our brain "records" its experiences by making a physical change, and among other things, reinforces certain neural "circuits". The degree of plasticity these circuits have varies from person to person and from brain region to brain region, but as someone who suffers from both PTSD and Musician's Focal Dystonia, at this point, modern neuroscience can't necessarily "rewire" these maladaptive changes.