This past weekend I was blessed to have brunch with four of my former students. We’ve remained close for more than twenty years. As conversation progressed, it became obvious that each one of them had a relationship with trauma and PTSD through their painful life experiences. ALL of us experience events that overwhelm our ability to […]
Continue Reading... No Comments.Like some people, at times I’ve thought that my PTSD story isn’t legitimate enough or dramatic enough to be told. Because I consult in the area of PTSD, I’ve sometimes made the mistake of comparing my experiences to other people’s. My sexual abuse came at the hands of strangers. I’ve suffered ongoing medical trauma as […]
Continue Reading... No Comments.1. Just get over it. The truth is, that without proper treatment, people with PTSD can’t “get over it.” Trauma creates a biological fight-flight reaction that “freezes” one side of the brain while “locking” the terrorizing experience in the other side. The brain is unable to process the experience with a beginning, middle, and end […]
Continue Reading... 4 Comments.Like many people with PTSD, one of my best friends finds it difficult to attend church. Because I know her story and understand trauma, I understand her challenges. But when other people see her lack of attendance, they often think she isn’t committed to church. But this simply isn’t the case. Those who battle PTSD […]
Continue Reading... No Comments.I didn’t know much about trauma or PTSD until I met my best friend Wanda about five years ago. Like most people, I thought PTSD was a mental health problem mostly occurring among returning military members. I was wrong. I had no idea that people in large urban centers suffer from PTSD at higher percentages […]
Continue Reading... No Comments.The first week of December I was visiting my kids and grandkids in the Pacific Northwest for an early Christmas with my husband. On December 30, I was undergoing brain surgery for what had been diagnosed as a glioma surrounding my brain stem. Doctors considered my brain tumor to be inoperable because of the location. […]
Continue Reading... 3 Comments.This morning I made a bagel and eggs for breakfast. While I was toasting, buttering, and frying, the two lobes of my brain were working together to process my thoughts. During the normal course of life, the two sides of our brain talk to each other to make sense of the world. The left side […]
Continue Reading... 2 Comments.This is a guest blog post by our very good friend, author Mary Potter Kenyon. Enjoy! —————————————————————————————————– I have no doubt that by the end of March I will be able to look back on the first year after David’s death and see clearly just how badly I’ve actually handled so many things. Our Christmas […]
Continue Reading... 4 Comments.The Huffington Post featured a recent article written by life coach and author Tamara Star entitled, “The Seven Habits of Chronically Unhappy People.” What Ms. Star probably doesn’t realize, is that her article would better be titled “Seven Symptoms of People Who’ve Experienced Trauma and PTSD.” People who experience trauma can suffer from a variety of symptoms, […]
Continue Reading... 3 Comments.Several months ago, I accompanied my good friend Wanda for an eye exam. During the procedure, the doctor shined very bright lights into her eyes. In one second, the adult Wanda “went away.” The lights triggered a trauma response rooted in an unknown event in her past. The trigger was one Wanda had never experienced […]
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