Dealing with post-traumatic stress
March 16, 2005 2:44 AM Subscribe
How do you deal with post-traumatic stress? An incedent happened to me a couple of days ago that I just can't seem to shake...
To make the story very short, I came close to drowning in the ocean at night (maybe not in real danger of drowning, but the feeling was there). It was a fairly quick event, and I got more or less immediate help from friends, and I was even laughing and joking about it once back on shore. BUT, last night I woke up several times, reliving the experience. My heart was beating and I was in general freaked out. Today I was fine with my mind occupied on other things, but I tried to take a nap this afternoon and experienced the same sense of panic that woke me up last night.
I have had some sort of traumatic experience (as I'm sure everyone here has), but never thought of it as such, only after long hindsight. This time, though, I know I'm experiencing PTSD, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. It may, in fact, be exacerbating the problem--as in, I can identify it but I also can't stop thinking about it. I'm interested in people's experiences in which they were able to cope with a scary, scary time. I don't expect this sense of panic to last a long time, but I sure do need some sleep!
To make the story very short, I came close to drowning in the ocean at night (maybe not in real danger of drowning, but the feeling was there). It was a fairly quick event, and I got more or less immediate help from friends, and I was even laughing and joking about it once back on shore. BUT, last night I woke up several times, reliving the experience. My heart was beating and I was in general freaked out. Today I was fine with my mind occupied on other things, but I tried to take a nap this afternoon and experienced the same sense of panic that woke me up last night.
I have had some sort of traumatic experience (as I'm sure everyone here has), but never thought of it as such, only after long hindsight. This time, though, I know I'm experiencing PTSD, but it doesn't seem to make a difference. It may, in fact, be exacerbating the problem--as in, I can identify it but I also can't stop thinking about it. I'm interested in people's experiences in which they were able to cope with a scary, scary time. I don't expect this sense of panic to last a long time, but I sure do need some sleep!
(and don't forget to edit what you write for stupid grammar mistakes - goog luck)
posted by andrew cooke at 2:51 AM on March 16, 2005
posted by andrew cooke at 2:51 AM on March 16, 2005
I had a near fatal car accident in 1994. Just this weekend I found myself thinking about it and reliving how I felt at the time.
Not all gloom and doom though....the times that I think about this are now getting far less frequent. It all "comes flooding back" only 2 or 3 times a year at present.
It may help to talk it through with someone. You need someone who is a good listener. I forced myself to do this soon after the crash and it really helped.
Don't discount professional counseling either. A couple of sessions might be just what you need.
I hope the memories fade with time and that you soon feel better. Remember, above all else, you survived!
posted by JtJ at 3:07 AM on March 16, 2005
Not all gloom and doom though....the times that I think about this are now getting far less frequent. It all "comes flooding back" only 2 or 3 times a year at present.
It may help to talk it through with someone. You need someone who is a good listener. I forced myself to do this soon after the crash and it really helped.
Don't discount professional counseling either. A couple of sessions might be just what you need.
I hope the memories fade with time and that you soon feel better. Remember, above all else, you survived!
posted by JtJ at 3:07 AM on March 16, 2005
I don't think there is a quick fix - the best thing to do is sharing what you have experienced with friendly people here, with your friends, or anybody else you are comfortable talking to. Knowing that you're not alone with your thoughts is a powerful feeling.
If you really cannot sleep, it will kill you mentally, so I would recommend going to a doctor to get some chemical help for it. You will feel much better after a good night's rest.
Finally, keeping yourself really busy with work, exercise, culture, people etc. is a good idea. Good luck!
posted by keijo at 4:20 AM on March 16, 2005
If you really cannot sleep, it will kill you mentally, so I would recommend going to a doctor to get some chemical help for it. You will feel much better after a good night's rest.
Finally, keeping yourself really busy with work, exercise, culture, people etc. is a good idea. Good luck!
posted by keijo at 4:20 AM on March 16, 2005
You had a truly awful and frightening experience; it's perfectly reasonable that you'd still be experiencing shock and fear a couple of days later. Hell, I once witnessed a bloody car accident that made me shake for hours *and* disturbed my sleep for a few days. And that was from just hearing and seeing the event, rather than being in it like you were.
It may help to talk it through with someone.
It will *definitely* help to talk it through with someone. Preferably a professional, but if you can't afford a session or three, be sure to talk it through with a couple of good friends. That in itself - talking about the fear, and the fear that the fear isn't going away - can calm things significantly. And focusing on deep breathing always helps lessen fear for me; it's like freaking magic sometimes.
Also, try a good hour on a massage table. Intensely emotional memories are often stored in the body; a decent massage therapist will understand completely if you explained the situation, and might be very helpful in helping you release the event through a combination of talking and massage. Ask your friends for recommendations of a thoughtful person with good hands.
And good luck; I'm glad you're ok!
posted by mediareport at 5:00 AM on March 16, 2005
It may help to talk it through with someone.
It will *definitely* help to talk it through with someone. Preferably a professional, but if you can't afford a session or three, be sure to talk it through with a couple of good friends. That in itself - talking about the fear, and the fear that the fear isn't going away - can calm things significantly. And focusing on deep breathing always helps lessen fear for me; it's like freaking magic sometimes.
Also, try a good hour on a massage table. Intensely emotional memories are often stored in the body; a decent massage therapist will understand completely if you explained the situation, and might be very helpful in helping you release the event through a combination of talking and massage. Ask your friends for recommendations of a thoughtful person with good hands.
And good luck; I'm glad you're ok!
posted by mediareport at 5:00 AM on March 16, 2005
I'm sorry you're having to go through this, trauma is a tough thing.
My study of trauma and traumatic stress emphasized the need for individuals who have experienced a trauma to be seen by someone familiar with stress and trauma as soon as possible. This type of "intervention" helps in many ways, not least the fact that your clinician can help get you the right answers and tell you specifically how to deal with this. The highest rates of positive outcomes in trauma sufferers are for those who received professional treatment very soon after the experience. If you don't have health insurance, there are community mental health clinics all over the country that can help you out.
If you can't get in to see a clinician right away, definitely keep talking about it, and as others have suggested, use writing, art, massage, etc. to work with your tension. Higher rates of positive outcomes are also associated with this ability to communicate.
I don't doubt that what you have experienced was traumatic, but I also don't know if it is PTSD, which is a specific diagnosis that can only be made by a professional. For the most part, PTSD doesn't go away or get better with time, and frequently it gets worse. It requires some pretty intense treatment and is so serious because what occurs in PTSD is that a traumatic experience actually causes a physiological change. Again, I don't know if this is what has happened to you or not, but it's pretty important that you at least get in to see somebody.
If you're not able to get things done yourself, do you have a friend who can find clinicians, make appointments, etc.?
posted by spaghetti at 5:28 AM on March 16, 2005
My study of trauma and traumatic stress emphasized the need for individuals who have experienced a trauma to be seen by someone familiar with stress and trauma as soon as possible. This type of "intervention" helps in many ways, not least the fact that your clinician can help get you the right answers and tell you specifically how to deal with this. The highest rates of positive outcomes in trauma sufferers are for those who received professional treatment very soon after the experience. If you don't have health insurance, there are community mental health clinics all over the country that can help you out.
If you can't get in to see a clinician right away, definitely keep talking about it, and as others have suggested, use writing, art, massage, etc. to work with your tension. Higher rates of positive outcomes are also associated with this ability to communicate.
I don't doubt that what you have experienced was traumatic, but I also don't know if it is PTSD, which is a specific diagnosis that can only be made by a professional. For the most part, PTSD doesn't go away or get better with time, and frequently it gets worse. It requires some pretty intense treatment and is so serious because what occurs in PTSD is that a traumatic experience actually causes a physiological change. Again, I don't know if this is what has happened to you or not, but it's pretty important that you at least get in to see somebody.
If you're not able to get things done yourself, do you have a friend who can find clinicians, make appointments, etc.?
posted by spaghetti at 5:28 AM on March 16, 2005
Accept what you're going through as natural.
After my trauma, my PTS lasted about a month or so, seeming to infiltrate my throughts whenever my brain wasn't fully engaged. It did dissipate over time, but nighttime was always the worst. After a while, I found myself doing the self-talk at night: "Ok, that's enough for today. It's time to go to sleep now. "
I always thought of this as my brain's way of processing this event.
posted by xena at 5:49 AM on March 16, 2005
After my trauma, my PTS lasted about a month or so, seeming to infiltrate my throughts whenever my brain wasn't fully engaged. It did dissipate over time, but nighttime was always the worst. After a while, I found myself doing the self-talk at night: "Ok, that's enough for today. It's time to go to sleep now. "
I always thought of this as my brain's way of processing this event.
posted by xena at 5:49 AM on March 16, 2005
Its valid. Stare it in the face. Feel it. Walk in to it.
Re-live the experience, feel the fear. Taste it. This is what it feels like, to fear for your life.
Walk through, let the fear flow behind you. You are still there, the fear is behind. Fear is frightening, but it passes, and only you remain.
Sleep well.
(adapted from The Litany Against Fear, "Dune", Frank Herbert)
posted by Goofyy at 6:29 AM on March 16, 2005
Re-live the experience, feel the fear. Taste it. This is what it feels like, to fear for your life.
Walk through, let the fear flow behind you. You are still there, the fear is behind. Fear is frightening, but it passes, and only you remain.
Sleep well.
(adapted from The Litany Against Fear, "Dune", Frank Herbert)
posted by Goofyy at 6:29 AM on March 16, 2005
Response by poster: I don't know which one to mark as "best answer" as they all seem like the best answer. In other words, a big hearty thanks to everyone who responded. I appreciate it, more than you know! (and keep 'em coming!)
posted by zardoz at 6:56 AM on March 16, 2005
posted by zardoz at 6:56 AM on March 16, 2005
As an accompaniment to your social outreach, look towards art therapy. I've found that a good way to digest and expound on trauma is through creative expression: If you are musically inclined, write a song. If you are a scribe, write about it. If you are an artist, draw something. Through creative memorializing of the traumatic event, you can further discover the motifs and elements that are at the core of your fear and experience.
posted by naxosaxur at 7:37 AM on March 16, 2005
posted by naxosaxur at 7:37 AM on March 16, 2005
Mmm, totally. The beach where I live has a couple of drownings a year, and last summer we watched people get carried out to sea (there were people quickly organized to help, which made an awful situation slightly better, and there was actually one incredibly daring rescue). I had some troubles out there myself. But these situations were images that I saw in my head pretty endlessly for weeks, particularly as I was about to go to sleep -- like you, it would wake me up JUST as my sleep switch was putting me under -- and later I found myself very panickey in the ocean. (Wearing myself out physically helped for sleep, of course.)
Gentle reacclimation helped: doing things in the sea that I knew were safe, like not going out far, cutting out night swimming for a while, even just being there on the beach. Also, getting to know the tides and conditions helped: information makes me feel in control. And? I knew the most important thing I could do was cut off my panic response, since that's the most dangerous enemy of the swimmer.
The trauma that you talk about fades, definitely, as long as you acknowledge and experience it and go "wow, shit, that was totally scary," as people above have pointed out. Perhaps you can beef up precautions for a while: I had to know that, at least, someone would *notice* if I was in trouble and be able to do something abou it, like your friends did. My only other experience with growing phobias was that definitely one shouldn't stay away; if I hadn't gone back, the fear would fester into something really phobic.
But to piggyback: what you're feeling is totally TOTALLY normal. It's not a wrong way to feel, and I swear it gets better. And, better that you be a swimmer who knows when to be cautious than a reckless one. You're in great shape knowing that.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 7:54 AM on March 16, 2005
Gentle reacclimation helped: doing things in the sea that I knew were safe, like not going out far, cutting out night swimming for a while, even just being there on the beach. Also, getting to know the tides and conditions helped: information makes me feel in control. And? I knew the most important thing I could do was cut off my panic response, since that's the most dangerous enemy of the swimmer.
The trauma that you talk about fades, definitely, as long as you acknowledge and experience it and go "wow, shit, that was totally scary," as people above have pointed out. Perhaps you can beef up precautions for a while: I had to know that, at least, someone would *notice* if I was in trouble and be able to do something abou it, like your friends did. My only other experience with growing phobias was that definitely one shouldn't stay away; if I hadn't gone back, the fear would fester into something really phobic.
But to piggyback: what you're feeling is totally TOTALLY normal. It's not a wrong way to feel, and I swear it gets better. And, better that you be a swimmer who knows when to be cautious than a reckless one. You're in great shape knowing that.
posted by RJ Reynolds at 7:54 AM on March 16, 2005
I had a collapsed lung and underwent two long surgeries and experienced PTSD as well. Time was my best friend in relieving my PTSD but I also
read a great book called Waking the tiger. It helped me to understand PTSD and work through it. It focuses on the survivor and healing. I also did some EMDR work with a trained therapist, which also offered some long term relief. Good luck.
posted by tirebouchon at 8:51 AM on March 16, 2005
read a great book called Waking the tiger. It helped me to understand PTSD and work through it. It focuses on the survivor and healing. I also did some EMDR work with a trained therapist, which also offered some long term relief. Good luck.
posted by tirebouchon at 8:51 AM on March 16, 2005
You might try dreaming about it every few months for 15 years.
(I had a childhood near-drowning blackout once.)
posted by baphomet at 9:18 AM on March 16, 2005
(I had a childhood near-drowning blackout once.)
posted by baphomet at 9:18 AM on March 16, 2005
All of the above, especially the creative outlet bit.
I don't want to sound like I'm trivializing your trauma, but I sort of envy people who've had a near-death (or close to) experience. I've never really had one, so I suppose that has something to do with it. It just seems on some level to be a gift: you got a glimpse of death and lived to tell/think about and react to it.
I think about death and dying on a regular basis. Not to paralyze myself, but to remind myself that (oh man, cheese-alert) nothing really matters, and there's no avoiding that moment. And I'm not saying I want a near-death experience, but that it can be a positive thing if you let it - you are alive!
posted by hellbient at 9:35 AM on March 16, 2005
I don't want to sound like I'm trivializing your trauma, but I sort of envy people who've had a near-death (or close to) experience. I've never really had one, so I suppose that has something to do with it. It just seems on some level to be a gift: you got a glimpse of death and lived to tell/think about and react to it.
I think about death and dying on a regular basis. Not to paralyze myself, but to remind myself that (oh man, cheese-alert) nothing really matters, and there's no avoiding that moment. And I'm not saying I want a near-death experience, but that it can be a positive thing if you let it - you are alive!
posted by hellbient at 9:35 AM on March 16, 2005
EMDR is one of the two evidence based therapies that is considered effective to deal with post traumatic stress disorder. Your member page doesn't say where you are, but you can search on the international associationwebpage.
posted by jasper411 at 10:31 AM on March 16, 2005
posted by jasper411 at 10:31 AM on March 16, 2005
There is some research (noted here, see page 4 specifically) that suggests that cannibanoids, such as those found in marijuana (but also naturally produced in the brain) relieves anxiety and may help to get your brain to de-link the recent trauma and recurring stress associated with it.
posted by norm at 10:59 AM on March 16, 2005
posted by norm at 10:59 AM on March 16, 2005
National Center for PTSD be sure to check out the Cognitive-Emotional Processing section. The site was created for veterans but is an excellent resource for any victim of PTSD.
posted by mlis at 11:21 AM on March 16, 2005 [1 favorite]
posted by mlis at 11:21 AM on March 16, 2005 [1 favorite]
Give it a bit of time before you start to get worried. PTSD is a long term diagnosis. You don't even come close to meeting the criteria yet.
If you do need therapy, any therapy will work. EMDR has no greater efficacy than any other therapy. (toward bottom of page).
The evidence for getting relief from immediately reliving the experience is equivocal at best. Some of the research from Ground Zero indicates that those who got immediate debriefing did worse in the long run than those who did not. Go with your gut. If you feel like talking about it, do. If not, don't.
posted by OmieWise at 1:12 PM on March 16, 2005
If you do need therapy, any therapy will work. EMDR has no greater efficacy than any other therapy. (toward bottom of page).
The evidence for getting relief from immediately reliving the experience is equivocal at best. Some of the research from Ground Zero indicates that those who got immediate debriefing did worse in the long run than those who did not. Go with your gut. If you feel like talking about it, do. If not, don't.
posted by OmieWise at 1:12 PM on March 16, 2005
OmieWise - talkingcure is a great skeptics site, but that means that they'll be more likely to cite evidence against the "popular wisdom" rather than review all the evidence. There are controversies about EMDR, and it's certainly not a cure all, but unbiased reviews of the evidence make a fairly strong case that it's effective. Certainly other modalities, including meds can be effective as well. However, it's certainly worthwhile to be skeptical about treatment and impressed with out natural resilience.
Not sure what you mean when you say it's a long term diagnosis - the time interval for symptoms is a month as I recall, which *is* longer than what zardoz is going through, but that's not a long term in my understanding.
posted by jasper411 at 2:28 PM on March 16, 2005
Not sure what you mean when you say it's a long term diagnosis - the time interval for symptoms is a month as I recall, which *is* longer than what zardoz is going through, but that's not a long term in my understanding.
posted by jasper411 at 2:28 PM on March 16, 2005
Some of the research from Ground Zero indicates that those who got immediate debriefing did worse in the long run than those who did not.
Do you have a citation for that?
posted by mlis at 3:23 PM on March 16, 2005
Do you have a citation for that?
posted by mlis at 3:23 PM on March 16, 2005
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by andrew cooke at 2:49 AM on March 16, 2005