Un-F*ck Yourself: Working through PTSD & the “no cure” medical mindset
“There is no cure for PTSD”. I wonder when it comes to something as complex as post traumatic stress if it’s a “cure” that we really need. Perhaps what we really need is an inoculation. Something that could boost our own natural defenses against the toxic levels of stress in our society today.
Maybe because PTSD has finally been officially defined and codified in the DSM-V there is an expectation that now science should be able to find a cure with enough time, research, money and drugs.The list of symptoms is so long and varied and complex, and people are so complex it’s simply impossible to imagine one treatment or one drug to “fix” them all. And why would there be?
...symptoms lasting longer than a month and include:
recurrent, involuntary and intrusive memories, dreams, flashbacks that cause avoidance of triggers and lead to negative thoughts and mood patterns including irritability, loss of memory, angry outbursts, inability to feel joy, reckless or self-destructive behavior, hypervigilance, exaggerated startle response, problems with concentration, sleep disturbance. See full definition here.
Testing is impossible to control or predict because no two people have the same reaction to a single traumatic event. So what exactly are we trying to cure? What does a “cure” for post traumatic stress look like? Is it smiley happy people everywhere all the time? Is it a life wiped clean of challenge, excitement or arousal? Is it a complete lack of feeling or reaction to the adversities of life that make each one of us a unique masterpiece of experience?
I would argue that we don’t want or need a cure for that. We don’t need a “cure” for post traumatic stress the way the medical mindset presents it. We need instead an inoculation. We need to be able to access and safely self regulate our nervous system. We need to learn to practice those skills on a regular basis so the body can heal itself the way it was designed to do.
But before we get to that might look like let's first talk about what post traumatic stress is and what makes it a clinical, diagnosable disorder.
The P stands for Post … after an event.
According to the DSM 5 PTSD is caused by an event. It could be something that happens directly to us, or something that we witness, something that we are told about later or repeated exposure to the details of an event. Full definition here.
No one is born with PTSD. Something has to happen, an event, to trigger it. (Granted that event could be our actual birth). In fact we are all born with fully loaded automatic stress defense in the form of the autonomic nervous system. Every experience we encounter from birth (and in some cases before) tests that defense and either strengthens or weakens it. Regardless, It’s only purpose is to make sure you survive.
As infants we are completely dependent on our parents for all of our needs. Physical safety, nourishment, and especially co-regulation. Even the smallest thing threatens the life of an infant and child. We learn from every interaction growing up, how we’re parented, our family environment. What we’re really learning is co-regulation and survival habit patterns that follow us into adulthood. Since no two people are alike (even siblings in the same family),those survival patterns can make all the difference. It might be the reason one incident could cause catastrophic life altering PTSD symptoms for years in one person while for another the same event was no big deal but a small personal conflict pushes them over the edge.
The T stands for traumatic.
Exposure to actual or threatened death, serious injury, or sexual violence...Full definition here
Certainly death, bodily harm and sexual assault count as trauma. But the brain can be tricky. We don’t have to presently be in a life threatening situation for our nervous system to perceive a life threatening situation.
In fact our stress defense system isn’t going to wait for our rational brain to work out the details of a situation before it triggers a survival response. When it comes to survival, perception is 100% of the law. Your body fires first and asks questions...well, never. It doesn’t really care if the threat is real or rational or not.
Part of that survival response is protection. It could be to dissociate, suppress or repress memories or emotions of past incidents, events that in that moment you didn’t understand to be traumatic. As a child, not having our needs met (physical, mental or emotional) or neglect of any kind is life threatening because we’re completely dependent. You may look back now with adult eyes, and deny there was trauma but that doesn’t mean your nervous system agreed.
Our past experiences play a critical role in how we respond to any stressful event. Your primitive brain uses the events of your past as historical evidence to define danger or safety in the present. This can help explain why 2 people can be exposed to the same traumatic event and yet have 2 completely different experiences afterwards. One might say that all life experiences have the potential to be traumatic. It also begs the question is our current definition of trauma too narrow?
The S stands for stress.
Stress is the body's reaction to any change that requires an adjustment or response. The body reacts to these changes with physical, mental, and emotional responses. Basically anything that requires action or triggers a physiologic response in the body can be considered stress.(Starting with the alarm clock.)
If you’re careful, you might be able to minimize your exposure to some extent but we still live in a culture that glorifies our stressed out victimhood in almost every way. There is absolutely no way to avoid it when it’s literally what gets us out of bed every day.
Our humanity includes our reaction to stress as a prerequisite. Without the skill to safely down regulate you risk overwhelming the nervous system with everyday stresses. And if you carry a history of chronic stress exposure or childhood trauma, then even the smallest of triggers can become a major problem.
Take a look at some of the different categories of stress that we can be exposed to on a daily basis.
The D is for disorder.
a disruption to regular bodily structure and function.
How do we get from experiencing a life threatening event to a disorder? I’ve broken my hand twice. Both times it disrupted my regular bodily structure and function but one ever called it “broken hand” disorder. Soldiers who lose a limb in combat don’t leave with “missing limb” disorder. These are injuries and come with a template for medical care. All injuries to the body also injure the nervous system. But there’s no template for nervous system care.
Disruption to the body structure can heal if given enough time. The human body is a miracle of adaptation. Too much time spent in nervous system dysfunction causes adaptations too, in the form of physiologic, mental and emotional dysfunction. Those dysfunctions can be as severe as shrinking areas of the brain or as mild as generalized anxiety. It's the changes in the function of the nervous system that are responsible for the long list of symptoms falling under the definition of post traumatic stress disorder. Those symptoms may or may not be directly linked to a single traumatic event; they may just be the straw that broke the camel’s back.
If the clinical diagnosis of PTSD requires an external event that you may or may not have even been physically present for, it may be less a “disruption to regular bodily structure and function” and more an injury. An invisible injury to the nervous system that may have begun years before and leaves an open wound today.
As with any wound, there should and can be a template of care. The nervous system needs a template of care that starts before we become overwhelmed by accumulated traumas. If we shift our view and look at post traumatic stress as an injury instead of a disorder, we can open up the conversation around healing the wounded. We can find new ways to support our servicemen & women and first responders throughout their training, before the overwhelm kicks in.
And let’s face it, if the ACE’s study has taught us anything it’s that more adults have suffered childhood trauma than will ever acknowledge it. That means service men & women, first responders, are likely already exposed to past traumas before they stepped into a career that put them under chronic stress exposure.
So why aren’t we teaching safe self regulation of the nervous system so that when they are exposed to more trauma they have the tools they need to process it? Just like we require CPR and first aid training, if you work with people you work with trauma.
Yes, the function of the stress response has been disrupted, but not in a way that can’t be recovered. The word “disorder” connotes disease. It labels the sufferer in the role of helpless victim or patient which comes with a stigma that can become another source of threat to their livelihood. Add to that the common prognosis that there is “no cure” and you get a recipe for what we see all too often today. Resources that come too little, too late and a rising addiction and suicide rate among survivors of all types of trauma but especially military & first responders.
If you live long enough you will experience some kind of trauma. There can’t be a “cure” for post traumatic stress (or any other kind for that matter) because we can’t eliminate stress. But we can offer a way to heal the damage. The key is in unlocking clear communication pathways to the nervous system.
The disruption that leads to post traumatic stress is believed to be rooted in whether or not the person felt trapped in some way during the event. When the nervous system detects danger it demands action-fight or flight. If action isn’t possible, the body will freeze or shut down. That doesn’t always mean the person stops functioning. For example, the Firefighter who goes numb and calm as he walks toward the burning building. Or the soldier who can’t remember pulling his buddy out of an explosion. If we don’t know how to intentionally and safely discharge the nervous system, all that survival energy can get stuck in the body, in the mind and the emotions.
If we can give the body a release valve that not only relieves physical tension but also communicates safety to our nervous system we can start to move out of freeze and satisfy our primitive fight or flight response without necessarily reliving the story. Nature gives mammals a natural release valve to down regulate life or death stress. They shake it off.
We have been socialized out of this response. But we can relearn it. Using mindful movement, the natural tremor response and permission to stop and rest, we can start to retrain our nervous system responses. Trauma release exercise and trauma release yoga are simple ways that anyone can begin the process of building the strength of their personal stress defenses. Best part about this is that unlike anything that comes out of big pharma, there are no side effects. You are simply practicing reconnecting with your nervous system. Communicating safety in a way the most primitive parts of your brain understand.
All exercise when approached from a place of conscious awareness can become a conduit for reconnecting the body and the mind. Trauma release offers guidance and co-regulation with permission to stop, rest and work with the body instead of against it. It’s a process that takes time but if you’re willing to be open to it, to witness the body’s wisdom it can open the door to healing and self recovery for a lifetime of resilience.
I offer live stream trauma release yoga classes inside Kinetic Grace - a yearlong resilience program designed for people looking for consistent relief from stress, tension and trauma.
Private trauma release exercise sessions are available through Kinetic Shift.
I would love to work with you!
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