Pain, both physical and mental, comes in many forms; not all instances are remediable, but some are, if we really put our minds to it. The following video is of an American vet whose (mis)treatment by the Veterans Administration (VA) has only aggravated the problems he brought back from battle.
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THE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: PTSD in Caregiving – When Little Things Feel Life-Threatening
One day when I was 17, I happened to be home alone with my father. As a result of three strokes a year earlier, Dad was paralysed on his right side and had lost his speech. On this particular day, I remember in vivid detail walking down the hall into
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: Illness Experiences + Emotions = Treatment Choices
Me with my Dad One day when I was 17, I was home alone with my Dad. I was lying on my bed reading and Dad was in his living room arm chair. At that time, my father was paralyzed on his right side from a series a strokes and
Continue readingWritings of J. Todd Ring: The Psychology and Therapeutic Benefits of D&D
Or, Why D&D Kicks Butt There is a mounting body of evidence and experience that shows that D&D, the original role playing strategy game (like chess, but with improv theatre, and no great powers of concentration required), has very positive psychological and therapeutic effects on children, youth and adults. The
Continue readingwmtc: simple but amazing experiences healing dogs from past trauma
Cookie recently had a fear reaction, and we’re working on desensitization. I thought I would share our experience with changing fearful behaviour. Diego Not long after we adopted Diego, we learned he had an extreme fear reaction to anything involving his ears. Neither Allan nor I can remember exactly how
Continue readingwmtc: is my body keeping score? personal insights (plus brain dump) after reading the book by bessel van der kolk
When I wrote my beyond-rave review of The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma, by Bessel van der Kolk, I purposely omitted some personal reaction and connections I had to the book. Here they are. Moving forward with my own healing On the
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: the body keeps the score by bessel van der kolk
The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma is a famous among trauma survivors and the professionals who treat them. I can say without hyperbole or exaggeration that it’s one of the most fascinating and meaningful books I’ve ever read. The Body Keeps the
Continue readingwmtc: the ptsd story i promised you
A few posts ago, I mentioned having a PTSD episode, and being open about it, in a group setting. That post seems to have resonated with a lot of people. In that same spirit, I’m sharing this. * * * * I attended a week-long labour education event, part of
Continue readingwmtc: and let others do for you: interdependence, and the strength to be vulnerable
“I find it really difficult to ask for help.” I’ve heard many people say this. I don’t know if I ever said this myself, but as a teen and then young adult, I definitely tried never to ask for help, and seldom would allow myself to accept any. When I
Continue readingwmtc: and let others do for you: interdependence, and the strength to be vulnerable
“I find it really difficult to ask for help.” I’ve heard many people say this. I don’t know if I ever said this myself, but as a teen and then young adult, I definitely tried never to ask for help, and seldom would allow myself to accept any. When I
Continue readingwmtc: and let others do for you: interdependence, and the strength to be vulnerable
“I find it really difficult to ask for help.” I’ve heard many people say this. I don’t know if I ever said this myself, but as a teen and then young adult, I definitely tried never to ask for help, and seldom would allow myself to accept any. When I
Continue readingDead Wild Roses: Value Added PTSD in the American School System
This of course is anecdotal, but perhaps an concerning insight into the culture that exists for school children for my neighbours to the South. As a school teacher one of touchstones I strive to establish is the idea that the classroom that we are in is a place of safety
Continue readingwmtc: i need a canada for my subconscious: the kavanaugh hearings and we go on
I avoided the Kavanaugh hearings as long as I could. I used to take a special interest whenever survivors go public. I’d read everything I could, write letters to newspapers, speak out on social media. Send a note of support to the woman. Find the sisterhood, share the pain. This
Continue readingwmtc: on poppies, veterans, trolls, and doxing
First of all, I do not apologize. I have nothing to apologize for. No one should apologize for having an unpopular opinion, or an opinion that the majority finds offensive. Second, I said nothing disrespectful to veterans. My utter lack of respect — my undying contempt — is for rulers
Continue readingwmtc: thoughts on the latest u.s. gun massacre
As part of my continuing efforts to post here rather than — or at least in addition to — Facebook, here are some thoughts on the latest horrific massacre in the US, the country music festival in Las Vegas. First, the inevitability of recurrence. When hearing about mass shootings in
Continue readingThings Are Good: A Heavy Blanket Helps People with Anxiety and Insomnia
A good nights sleep can make a world of difference to one’s health, getting that sleep can be hard though. A simple solution can help those who need more slumber: a heavy blanket. Sleeping under a weighted blanket kind of acts like a hug for your whole body – and
Continue readingwmtc: what i’m reading: the evil hours, a biography of post-traumatic stress disorder
The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is an outstanding book — meticulously researched, but written in a compelling, accessible style, and with great humanity and compassion.
Author David J. Morris unearths the social and cultural history of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the fourth most common psychiatric disorder in the US. He surveys the potential treatments. He explores the role of social justice in our understanding of PTSD.
But above all, Morris confronts the meaning of trauma, in society and in his own life. Morris was a U.S. Marine stationed in Iraq. After narrowly escaping death, he returned home questioning everything he thought he knew — and eventually having to face the reality of his own trauma. Morris’ dual role as both researcher and subject give this book a unique power as history, social science, and personal essay.
People have known for centuries, for millennia, that traumatic events produce after-effects, but different cultures in different eras have explained those effects in different ways. The modern history of trauma is linked to the carnage of 20th Century war. And our current understanding of PTSD owes everything to the Vietnam War, and the experience of returning veterans who publicly opposed the war.
In this way, the history of PTSD encompasses a history of 1960s and 1970s peace activism, especially of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, a group that began a sea-change in the culture of the United States. As a student of peace, I found this part fascinating.
Taking this even further, Morris links PTSD and social justice. Powerless and marginalized people are more likely to be traumatized by one or more of the four principal causes of PTSD: war, genocide, torture, rape. Taking a social and cultural perspective forces us to confront a world that causes these traumas. In this view, PTSD is not so much an illness as a moral condition brought on by the worst of human society.
The United States Veterans Administration (VA) sees it quite differently. To the VA, PTSD is strictly a medical condition. And this matters greatly, because research about PTSD is almost entirely funded and controlled by the VA. Explaining trauma as purely medical or biological doesn’t address the causes at all. In fact, it does the opposite — it normalizes PTSD as a natural consequence of unavoidable circumstances.
As for treatment, Morris surveys what’s out there and finds most of it useless. VA hospitals and insurance companies prefer therapies that can be “manualized” — made uniform, with a certain number of treatments and little or no emotional engagement from the therapist. Statistically, these types of therapies appear to be useful — until one learns that the numbers don’t include all the patients who drop out! Talk about cooking the books: everyone for whom the treatment isn’t working or, in many cases, is actually worsening their symptoms, is simply ignored.
Morris himself feels that therapeutic talks with an empathetic person with some training goes further than neuroscience can. “What they [the VA] seem to want instead,” Morris writes, “is mass-produced, scalable, scripted therapies that make for compelling PowerPoint slides.”
Readers of this blog may know that I have PTSD. Much of The Evil Hours brought a shock of recognition — the feeling that someone else is expressing your own thoughts, saying exactly what you’ve been thinking all along. Morris perfectly articulates how trauma plays out in one’s life, the depths of change it brings about.
Morris writes: “We are born in debt, owing the world a death. This is the shadow that darkens every cradle. Trauma is what happens when you catch a surprise glimpse of that darkness.”
In the immediate aftermath of my own trauma, while trying to write about my experience, this is exactly the image I fixated on. We are, all of us, dancing on the edge of a great precipice, usually unaware of how terrifyingly close we are to that edge. Then something happens, and we understand it, not in some theoretical way, but immediately and profoundly, perhaps in a way humans are not equipped to understand. We talk about “the fragility of life” but we don’t know what that is — until we do. Then we spend a lifetime trying to live with the knowledge.
“One of the paradoxes of trauma,” writes Morris, “is that it happens in a moment, but it can consume a lifetime. The choice of how much time it is permitted to consume is usually in the hands of the survivor.”
The Evil Hours may be very useful for people who are figuring out how to stop PTSD from consuming any more of their lives. It is certainly a must-read for anyone interested in the effects of trauma on the human mind.
Continue readingwmtc: u.s. iraq war resisters: the struggle continues
Still war resisters. Still in Canada. Still fighting to stay.So far, the change in government hasn’t helped the Iraq War resisters who remain here, nor the ones who were forced out of Canada who would like to return. The Trudeau government could do thi…
Continue readingTHE CAREGIVERS' LIVING ROOM A Blog by Donna Thomson: My Caregiver Worst Fear
Every caregiver has a worst fear – a nightmare scenario that unfolds like an unwanted, sinister guest in the imagination. It might be triggered by the sound of an unusual thud upstairs, a front door slamming, or the smell of burning toast. …
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Rick Mercer and the Refugee Lifeline
As you know, I believe the challenge of settling thousands of Syrian refugees in this country is a gift not a burden.A chance to show that after the darkness of the Harper years, we still remember what it means to be a Canadian.So although the Con medi…
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