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Whether experienced personally or as a witness, traumatic events can have a very powerful effect on us. They hit home in a very real,
imminent and shocking way just how vulnerable we really are. Commonly associated with war veterans (with good reason) we don't have to
experience the horrors of war to develop PTSD. Anything that induces hurt, fear and shock can do the same. Constant abuse (both physical and mental) can be a very common cause.
With such a threat to our existence, flashbacks and nightmares represent our mind trying to deal with the situation, to re-live it and come
to some peace over it.
Unlike many anxiety disorders where the dangers are usually generated in our mind, with PTSD the danger is real (we have actually
experienced it) and it is out there. A very real threat to our survival remains unresolved. This is why it is so intolerable.
The current worldview of post-traumatic stress problems is based on the medical model, which views such problems as mental illnesses, 'disordered behaviour',
caused by something going wrong in the brain and the answer lies in 'fixing' the thing that has gone wrong – often with medication.
However...
Take the soldier, emotionally fragile from early life stress and conflict, who then sees actual death and destruction all around – bringing home to him the fragility of life in a real and
shocking way. Is his persistent post-trauma anxiety and fear really dis-ordered? Has something simply gone wrong in his brain that needs fixing?
And what of the girl who has suffered long-term emotional and/or physical abuse at the hands of a significant other. Did something just go wrong in her brain one day and now she has PTSD?
Or is there a better explanation?
And a better solution?
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