Thursday's Therapy - How Is Your PostTraumatic Growth?

Thursday's Therapy

How Is Your PostTraumatic Growth?

Click here to take the Post Traumatic Growth Inventory

Managing traumatic stress: Tips for recovering from disasters and other traumatic events

Disasters are often unexpected, sudden and overwhelming. In some cases, there are no outwardly visible signs of physical injury, but there is nonetheless a serious emotional toll. It is common for people who have experienced traumatic situations to have very strong emotional reactions. Understanding normal responses to these abnormal events can aid you in coping effectively with your feelings, thoughts and behaviors, and help you along the path to recovery.

What happens to people after a disaster or other traumatic event?

Shock and denial are typical responses to traumatic events and disasters, especially shortly after the event. Both shock and denial are normal protective reactions.

Shock is a sudden and often intense disturbance of your emotional state that may leave you feeling stunned or dazed. Denial involves not acknowledging that something very stressful has happened, or not experiencing fully the intensity of the event. You may temporarily feel numb or disconnected from life.

As the initial shock subsides, reactions vary from one person to another. The following, however, are normal responses to a traumatic event:

• Feelings become intense and sometimes are unpredictable. You may become more irritable than usual, and your mood may change back and forth dramatically. You might be especially anxious or nervous, or even become depressed.
• Thoughts and behavior patterns are affected by the trauma. You might have repeated and vivid memories of the event. These flashbacks may occur for no apparent reason and may lead to physical reactions such as rapid heartbeat or sweating. You may find it difficult to concentrate or make decisions, or become more easily confused. Sleep and eating patterns also may be disrupted.
• Recurring emotional reactions are common. Anniversaries of the event, such as at one month or one year, can trigger upsetting memories of the traumatic experience. These "triggers" may be accompanied by fears that the stressful event will be repeated.
• Interpersonal relationships often become strained. Greater conflict, such as more frequent arguments with family members and coworkers, is common. On the other hand, you might become withdrawn and isolated and avoid your usual activities.
• Physical symptoms may accompany the extreme stress. For example, headaches, nausea and chest pain may result and may require medical attention. Pre-existing medical conditions may worsen due to the stress.

How do people respond differently over time?

It is important for you to realize that there is not one "standard" pattern of reaction to the extreme stress of traumatic experiences. Some people respond immediately, while others have delayed reactions — sometimes months or even years later. Some have adverse effects for a long period of time, while others recover rather quickly.

And reactions can change over time. Some who have suffered from trauma are energized initially by the event to help them with the challenge of coping, only to later become discouraged or depressed.

A number of factors tend to affect the length of time required for recovery, including:

• The degree of intensity and loss. Events that last longer and pose a greater threat, and where loss of life or substantial loss of property is involved, often take longer to resolve.
• A person's general ability to cope with emotionally challenging situations. Individuals who have handled other difficult, stressful circumstances well may find it easier to cope with the trauma.
• Other stressful events preceding the traumatic experience. Individuals faced with other emotionally challenging situations, such as serious health problems or family-related difficulties, may have more intense reactions to the new stressful event and need more time to recover.

How should I help myself and my family?

There are a number of steps you can take to help restore emotional well-being and a sense of control following a disaster or other traumatic experience, including the following:

• Give yourself time to adjust. Anticipate that this will be a difficult time in your life. Allow yourself to mourn the losses you have experienced. Try to be patient with changes in your emotional state.
• Ask for support from people who care about you and who will listen and empathize with your situation. But keep in mind that your typical support system may be weakened if those who are close to you also have experienced or witnessed the trauma.
• Communicate your experience. In whatever ways feel comfortable to you — such as by talking with family or close friends, or keeping a diary.
• Find out about local support groups that often are available. Such as for those who have suffered from natural disasters or other traumatic events. These can be especially helpful for people with limited personal support systems.
• Try to find groups led by appropriately trained and experienced professionals. Group discussion can help people realize that other individuals in the same circumstances often have similar reactions and emotions.
• Engage in healthy behaviors to enhance your ability to cope with excessive stress. Eat well-balanced meals and get plenty of rest. If you experience ongoing difficulties with sleep, you may be able to find some relief through relaxation techniques. Avoid alcohol and drugs.
• Establish or reestablish routines such as eating meals at regular times and following an exercise program. Take some time off from the demands of daily life by pursuing hobbies or other enjoyable activities.
• Avoid major life decisions such as switching careers or jobs if possible. These activities tend to be highly stressful.

When should I seek professional help?

Some people are able to cope effectively with the emotional and physical demands brought about by traumatic events by using their own support systems. It is not unusual, however, to find that serious problems persist and continue to interfere with daily living. For example, some may feel overwhelming nervousness or lingering sadness that adversely affects job performance and interpersonal relationships.

Individuals with prolonged reactions that disrupt their daily functioning should consult with a trained and experienced mental health professional. Psychologists and other appropriate mental health providers help educate people about normal responses to extreme stress. These professionals work with individuals affected by trauma to help them find constructive ways of dealing with the emotional impact.

With children, continual and aggressive emotional outbursts, serious problems at school, preoccupation with the traumatic event, continued and extreme withdrawal, and other signs of intense anxiety or emotional difficulties all point to the need for professional assistance. A qualified mental health professional can help such children and their parents understand and deal with thoughts, feelings and behaviors that result from trauma.

Click here to take the Post Traumatic Growth Inventory.

Updated August 2011

~American Psychological Association

~Graphic, thanks to Grieving Mother, ~Vicki Warrington Davis via ~Just Feelin' Good
PostTraumatic Growth Inventory: http://cust-cf.apa.org/ptgi/
Article: http://www.apa.org/helpcenter/recovering-disasters.aspx

The full text of articles from APA Help Center may be reproduced and distributed for noncommercial purposes with credit given to the American Psychological Association. Any electronic reproductions must link to the original article on the APA Help Center. Any exceptions to this, including excerpting, paraphrasing or reproduction in a commercial work, must be presented in writing to the APA. Images from the APA Help Center may not be reproduced.

Wednesday's Woe Mourning Song: Where Do We Go Now, Sweet child o' mine? ~by Angie Bennett Prince

Wednesday's Woe

Mourning Song:

Where Do We Go Now, Sweet child o' mine?

~by Angie Bennett Prince

inspired after hearing Sheryl Crow's song, "Sweet Child O' Mine"

"Sweet child o' mine

Sweet love of mine,

"Where do we go?

Where do we go now?

Where do we go

Sweet child o' mine?"

Where do we go, child?

Where do we go now?

For no one wants to hear...

But we still miss you anyhow.

Your smile lit up our days

Made life... light up like the sky

Oh to "see" your face

Makes me mourn for those precious days,

And it leaves me wondering why...

"Where do we go?

Where do we go now?

Where do we go

Sweet child o' mine?"

Where do we go child?

Where do we go now?

Where do those... the "mad-at-God," go?

No one wants to hear it anyhow...

"Where do we go?

Where do we go now?

Where do we go

Sweet child o' mine?"

Where do we go child?

Where do we go now?

Where do we, the "hurt-with-God," go...

Crying out every time, as on our knees we bow...?

"Where do we go?

Where do we go now?

Where do we go

Sweet child o' mine?"

Where do we go child?

Where do we go now?

Our lives have stopped

For our hearts e'er pine...

"Where do we go?

Where do we go now?

Where do we go

Sweet child o' mine?

"Sweet child o' mine

Sweet love of mine

"Where do we go?

Where do we go now?

Where do we go

Sweet child o' mine?"

Only our God knows,

Save us Lord Divine,

As we ever miss her, this...

Sweet child o' mine...

Sweet love o' mine...

O save us, Lord Divine!

O Lord,

Into Your arms we fly,

O save us till we die!

For ev'ryday feels like we're dying on the vine...

O save us, Lord Divine!

Where do we go?

Into Your arms divine,

As we miss this sweet child o' mine.

Where do we go

But into Your arms

We're a dry branch on the Vine.

O save us Lord, Our Vine.

Picture: Thanks to Grieving Mothers

Poem - Mourning Song: Where Do We Go Now, Sweet child o' mine? - Angie Bennett Prince - 12/5/2011

Thursday's Therapy - The Princes' Top 10 TRUTHs About Child-Loss Grief

Thursday's Therapy

The Princes' Top 10 TRUTHs

about Child-Loss Grief

#1) There ARE NO "Five Stages of Grief"!

#2) Nobody else really "gets it." The "Secondary Injury" comes when you hear someone you greatly care about telling you, "You're doing it wrong!"

#3) You will never be the same, and there is nothing "normal" about "The New Normal"!

#4) Child-Loss Grief is NOT something you can control or predict. (There are things you can do to keep your grief flowing in a healthy way, but not "control" it and "move on" as many people will unrealistically expect you to do.

#5) Everybody is different, so Everybody's Grief is different.

#6) Old losses can get re-opened...as well as the old ways we used to cope with them. You can expect to regress, and old self-destructive acts and addictions to re-surface.

#7) Child-Loss Grief is pervasive and invasive throughout your system. It is multi-dimensional, affecting your body, soul, mind, heart, and spirit. Your old beliefs about God, and about how the world works will be challenged.

#8)Child-Loss Grief will last forever, this side of Heaven. There is no such thing as Closure.

#9) As bad as the first year may feel, Child-Loss Grief typically hits bottom between years 2 to 4 1/2 when Shock wears off and Reality sets in, and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder takes on a life of its own.

#10) Child-Loss Grief is not JUST about Grief! Child-Loss Grief is MOSTLY about Trauma!

Picture, thanks to FotoSearch.com

Tuesday’s Trust - The Daffodil: Living in the Dark

Tuesday’s Trust

The Daffodil:

Living in the Dark

I look out upon my garden and see

The daffodil, sitting sprightly on ground

That once was dark, yet filled with mystery…

I look at my life, wondering where I’m bound,

Deeply ground under piles of death’s ashes.

Is there hope for new life for me as well?

All seems dark, yet Your Son shines through; flashes

Of Light break through the dark of death’s hell,

Urging me on through the dark to break through,

Reaching for Light, keep my eyes looking up,

Fight through the dark, keep my focus on You,

To hold on by Faith without giving up…

With the strength of Your hand, You pull me through

Much slower than I ever would have guessed.

Moving me slowly would build Faith’s sinew,

Breaking through fear-rocks and fighting doubt-pests

To strengthen my being for life anew,

Toughen me up for Satan’s stormy gusts

When Loss and Grief threaten to take me down…

Then suddenly through death’s dark dirt we bust

Where I see the Son shining with Light all ‘round…

http://images.flowers.vg/1024x768/daffodil.jpg

Poem – Living in the Dark – Angie B. Prince – 4/6/10

Monday's Mourning Ministry - Broken

Monday's Mourning Ministry

Broken

Lifehouse

Broken

by

Lifehouse

lyrics

Songwriters: Wade, Jason

The broken clock is a comfort, it helps me sleep tonight

Maybe it can stop tomorrow from stealing all my time

I am here still waiting though I still have my doubts

I am damaged at best, like you've already figured out

I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing

With a broken heart that's still beating

In the pain there is healing

In your name I find meaning

So I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on, I'm holdin' on

I'm barely holdin' on to you

The broken locks were a warning you got inside my head

I tried my best to be guarded, I'm an open book instead

And I still see your reflection inside of my eyes

That are looking for purpose, they're still looking for life

I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing

With a broken heart that's still beating

In the pain is the healing

In your name I find meaning

So I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'),

I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'),

I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin')

I'm barely holdin' on to you

I'm hangin' on another day

Just to see what you will throw my way

And I'm hangin' on to the words you say

You said that I will, will be ok

The broken lights on the freeway left me here alone

I may have lost my way now, having forgotten my way home

I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing

With a broken heart that's still beating

In the pain, there is healing

In your name, I find meaning

So I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'),

I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'),

I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin')

I'm barely holdin' on to you

I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'),

I'm holdin' on (I'm still holdin'),

I'm barely holdin' on to you.

Today was the kind of day ~where I feel "broken"~ more to come...

"I'm falling apart, I'm barely breathing

With a broken heart that's still beating"

Picture: http://twitpic.com/vfsoo

Song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvJeRldZId0

Thursday's Therapy Ways We Grieve, Part Nine - PTSD in Child-Loss Grief

Thursday's Therapy

Ways We Grieve

Part Nine

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

in Child-Loss Grief

Definition

Post-traumatic stress disorder, often abbreviated as PTSD, is a complex disorder in which the affected person's memory, emotional responses, intellectual processes, and nervous system have all been disrupted by one or more traumatic experiences.

PTSD is sometimes summarized as "a normal reaction to abnormal events."

The DSM-IV-TR (the professional's diagnostic manual) classifies PSTD as an anxiety disorder.

The most frequently mentioned traumas are:

• witnessing someone being badly hurt or killed
• involvement in a fire, flood, earthquake, severe hurricane, or other natural disaster
• involvement in a life-threatening accident (workplace explosion or transportation accident)
• military combat

The traumatic events most frequently mentioned by men diagnosed with PTSD are rape, combat exposure, childhood neglect, and childhood physical abuse. For women diagnosed with PTSD, the most common traumas are rape, sexual molestation, physical attack, being threatened with a weapon, and childhood physical abuse.

Description

PTSD has a unique position as the only psychiatric diagnosis (along with acute stress disorder ) that depends on a factor outside the individual, namely, a traumatic stressor. A patient cannot be given a diagnosis of PTSD unless he or she has been exposed to an event that is considered traumatic.

Causes and symptoms

Causes

When PTSD was first suggested as a diagnostic category for DSM-III in 1980, it was controversial precisely because of the central role of outside stressors as causes of the disorder. Psychiatry has generally emphasized the internal weaknesses or deficiencies of individuals as the source of mental disorders...

BIOCHEMICAL/PHYSIOLOGICAL CAUSES. Present neurobiological research indicates that traumatic events cause lasting changes in the human nervous system, including abnormal secretions of stress hormones. In addition, in PTSD patients, researchers have found changes in the amygdala and the hippocampus—the parts of the brain that form links between fear and memory. Experiments with ketamine, a drug that inactivates one of the neurotransmitter chemicals in the central nervous system, suggest that trauma works in a similar way to damage associative pathways in the brain. Positron emission tomography (PET) scans of PTSD patients suggest that trauma affects the parts of the brain that govern speech and language.

Symptoms

DSM-IV-TR specifies six diagnostic criteria for PTSD:

• Traumatic stressor: The patient has been exposed to a catastrophic event involving actual or threatened death or injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of the self or others. During exposure to the trauma, the person's emotional response was marked by intense fear, feelings of helplessness, or horror. In general, stressors caused intentionally by human beings (genocide, rape, torture, abuse, etc.) are experienced as more traumatic than accidents, natural disasters, or "acts of God."

• Intrusive Symptoms: The patient experiences flashbacks, traumatic daydreams, or nightmares, in which he or she relives the trauma as if it were recurring in the present. Intrusive symptoms result from an abnormal process of memory formation. Traumatic memories have two distinctive characteristics: 1) they can be triggered by stimuli that remind the patient of the traumatic event; 2) they have a "frozen" or wordless quality, consisting of images and sensations rather than verbal descriptions

• Avoidant symptoms: The patient attempts to reduce the possibility of exposure to anything that might trigger memories of the trauma, and to minimize his or her reactions to such memories. This cluster of symptoms includes feeling disconnected from other people, psychic numbing, and avoidance of places, persons, or things associated with the trauma. Patients with PTSD are at increased risk of substance abuse as a form of self-medication to numb painful memories.

• Hyperarousal: Hyperarousal is a condition in which the patient's nervous system is always on "red alert" for the return of danger. This symptom cluster includes hypervigilance, insomnia, difficulty concentrating, general irritability, and an extreme startle response. Some clinicians think that this abnormally intense startle response may be the most characteristic symptom of PTSD.

• Duration of symptoms: The symptoms must persist for at least one month.

• Significance: The patient suffers from significant social, interpersonal, or work-related problems as a result of the PTSD symptoms. A common social symptom of PTSD is a feeling of disconnection from other people (including loved ones), from the larger society, and from spiritual or other significant sources of meaning.

To Recap Symptoms:

*Exposure to a traumatic event

having witnessed or been confronted with an event, either natural (such as a flood or hurricane) or man-made (such as rape, war, physical, or sexual assault), in which one was actually injured or threatened with injury or death.

The traumatic events cause the victim to experience an intense response such as tremendous fear, terror, or helplessness. The event could have occurred at any time in the past.

*Persistent re-experiencing of the trauma, including

• nightmares,
• flashbacks,
• insomnia,
• intrusive thoughts of the trauma,
• becoming panicky and shaky when thinking of the trauma,
• becoming upset around the anniversary of the event.

The re-experiencing of feelings such as fear, shame, and guilt, among others, leads to avoidance of the pain of re-experiencing the trauma, (this leads to a greater need for help). Avoidance can take many forms such as not wanting to talk or think about the trauma and avoiding certain places or activities in order not to be reminded of the trauma.

*Increased arousal, including

• becoming irritable and angry,
• being unable to sleep or sleeping too much,
• becoming overly concerned with one’s safety,
• exaggerated startle response.

BIOCHEMICAL/PHYSIOLOGICAL CAUSES.

Present neurobiological research indicates that traumatic events cause lasting changes in the human nervous system, including abnormal secretions of stress hormones.

In addition, in PTSD patients, researchers have found changes in the amygdala and the hippocampus—the parts of the brain that form links between fear and memory.

Experiments with ketamine, a drug that inactivates one of the neurotransmitter chemicals in the central nervous system, suggest that

Trauma works in a similar way to damage associative pathways in the brain.

Positron emission tomography (PET) scans of PTSD patients suggest that trauma affects the parts of the brain that govern speech and language.

We now understand that autonomic nervous system arousal is the basis of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is a very real, physical injury to the autonomic nervous systems fight or flight response. PTSD is classified as an anxiety disorder.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a complex disorder in which the affected person's

• memory,
• emotional responses,
• intellectual processes, and
• nervous system

have all been disrupted by one or more traumatic experiences.

PTSD is a normal reaction to trauma, NORMAL.

PTSD is NOT evidence of a MENTAL Illness.

PTSD does not mean you are weak, defective, or crazy.

Having PTSD after a trauma means you are perfectly NORMAL, and sane.

You did not deserve what happened to you.

You do deserve to recover.

Research from

http://www.minddisorders.com/Ob-Ps/Post-traumatic-stress-disorder.html

http://www.aftermathofwarcopingwithptsdtoo@groups.msn.com

http://vets.yuku.com/topic/7787/t/Wives-Combat-PTSD-support-site.html