PTSD stands for “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.” PTSD is considered a mental health condition. The main cause of PTSD is a drastic or frightening event that has occurred in an individual’s life at one point. For a long time, it was thought that only adults experience PTSD. Time has proven that children can also experience it even at an incredibly early age. PTSD results when an individual is part of something horrible that happened to them, or they witnessed something devastating that is traumatic. There are times when it is extremely difficult for several individuals who suffer from PTSD to adjust to life.

Sadly, it can be a lifetime battle to overcome PTSD. It is often an uphill battle to overcome the symptoms associated with PTSD. Unfortunately, in several incidents, some individuals really do not cope well with their PTSD symptoms. There are multiple symptoms related to PTSD, such as reliving traumatic events often due to triggers, bad dreams (nightmares), hallucinations, panic attacks, severe anxiety, insomnia, intrusive thoughts, night sweats, and withdrawal. This usually leads to a change in the way an individual acts, feels, or even thinks. In some cases, an individual’s whole personality changes.

Not every individual who has been through or witnessed a traumatic event will develop PTSD symptoms. Studies have also shown that not everyone experiences the same or all symptoms associated with PTSD. What causes PTSD? There are several, such as childhood trauma, involving childhood neglect and physical abuse, sexual assaults, whether it is molestation or rape, physically assaulted in a fight, domestic violence, witnessing a horrible accident or being involved in one, watching and losing a loved one to death, or warfare, aka combat duty. Many veterans go through this a lot.

Individuals going through a divorce or a relationship breakup can suffer from PTSD without violence being involved. Separation alone creates overwhelming stress. Several other complications involving PTSD, including individuals developing eating disorders, seeking out street drugs, even prescription drugs to mask their symptoms, mood swings, depression; many individuals deal with suicidal thoughts. Symptoms of PTSD never go completely away. There are always triggers that will bring up a memory. The important thing to remember is that you can learn to cope with PTSD in a better and more effective manner by seeking professional medical help.

I always encourage individuals to seek professional help as soon as possible. My experience with PTSD involves my childhood. Throughout my childhood, I often heard adults say that young children do not remember things. This is not so, I can tell you that! Question is … “How young can a child be to remember something traumatic that happened or involved them?” This depends on the child and how strongly it affects them. For a brief time in my childhood, I lived in my grandmother’s old farmhouse. During that time, I experienced not just one traumatic event in my life but two.

The first one was my mother becoming sick, and she ended up being taken away to a psychiatric hospital. The second one was when my grandmother’s house caught on fire. My siblings and I were left inside by one of my aunts. If it had not been for two of my older cousins walking back from a country store and seeing the house on fire, my siblings and I would have died inside. My sister was 4 years old, my brother was 7 months old, and I was only three years old at both times these incidents occurred. My grandmother had walked down the road to take something to her own sister’s house, and she left my aunt there with us.

The house, in a brief time, was burnt down to the ground. My aunt later told my father that she panicked and ran outside. I have yet to understand how a grown woman can run outside of a burning house and leave three small children inside to die. Throughout my life as a child, I had times when I experienced nightmares about both incidents in my childhood. My mother, who left me, plus the house fire. I remember waking up and crying as a child. I thought these nightmares would be gone when I became an adult. During a period, from my teens until early twenties, occasionally, I might have had these bad nightmares every few weeks.

I still remember the picture in my mind of my mother leaving as I stood by the window in my grandmother’s house, crying. Again, as I stated before, that was the first incident involving PTSD. I remember waking up in the middle of the night, crying for my mother, screaming, and banging my small fist on the window, telling them to leave my mother alone. The second was my grandmother’s house fire. That happened not long after my mother was taken away. So, unfortunately, for most of my exceedingly early adult life, I have had nightmares of both events that occurred.

There was an event that brought nightmares about my grandmother’s house fire back in full force, as an adult, which involved a house that burnt down. That fire killed not only the grandmother inside but also seven children, ranging from a 4-month-old baby to a 14-year-old teenager. This happened at the time, right down the road from where I lived. And before I started a career in the medical field. I can honestly say that for a good 6 months afterwards, I had horrible nightmares. I never really understood why, at that time, I had these nightmares when something bad happened to other people.

This was especially true as an older adult when I worked in the medical field. Especially, as a certain medical emergency would cause me to have “brief flashbacks” or “nightmares.”It was only after I started working in the medical field with individuals who suffered from PTSD that I could finally put a name to what was happening to me as well. Later, when I started back to college for my master’s degree, I learned a lot about different mental health issues. This included studying the symptoms and outcomes of PTSD. During my college years, I spent a lot of time talking to professors while earning my bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

I faced for the first time the fears of my childhood and learned how to cope with my own PTSD symptoms positively. I learned what could trigger them and how to manage my own reactions to them without a horrible fear. Can I say that I no longer have nightmares? As for my nightmares involving my mother, I have long ago laid that to rest. The main reason was learning “why” she left! Because, as a small child, no one in my family, not even my father, bothered to explain to my sister or me why our mother had to leave. Often, I would hear my father or my aunts talking about my mother, but as soon as I walked into the room, they would stop talking.

When I asked about her, I really did not receive a clear answer. Why my mother left is a whole different story that I will talk about at another time. As for my nightmares concerning my grandmother’s house fire. Yes, there are times when I still wake up in the middle of the night, sweating, shaking, and feeling like I cannot breathe. I get up, start doing my breathing exercises, get something to drink, and sometimes get a delightful book to read. There are times I might work on drawing or painting. The main thing for me is to do something positive to help put my mind in a better place and help calm me down.

Once I am calm, I might go back to sleep or decide to work in my flowerbed or garden. Of course, this depends on the weather! But the main thing is creating a positive outcome for me. Then again, there are times in the early mornings when I might sit back in my favorite comfortable chair, relax, and drink a nice cup of hot coffee or hot chocolate. I like watching the hummingbirds that fly around in my flowerbed. Everyone is different in how they respond to PTSD symptoms. The most important thing that anyone can do is seek professional help to learn how to cope without harming themselves or someone else.

So, if you know anyone suffering from PTSD symptoms, including yourself, again, seek out help. Stay strong because the symptoms are not going away overnight. It takes time and patience. In the meantime, stay focused on the good things in life. It is particularly important to have family, friends, or someone who can give you emotional support during the challenging times in your life! As one of my college professors told me years ago, “The first important thing in life to remember when you have gone through a difficult part in your life is to learn to love yourself! You must love yourself before you can absolutely love another!” You can read more about PTSD by clicking on the websites listed under my references.

Take the step, learn more about PTSD, find the extra support you need, and seek out positive ways to cope.

References:

1. National Alliance on Mental Illness. https://www.nami.org/types-of-conditions/posttraumatic-stress-disorder/

2. American Psychiatric Association. https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/ptsd/what-is-ptsd

3. Navy Seal Foundation. https://www.navysealfoundation.org/

4. Veteran Crisis Line. https://www.veteranscrisisline.net/

5. National Institute of Mental Health. https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/post-traumatic-stress-disorder