by Jody Johnson Godfrey, FRS (art by Sarah Hebert) For years, I wrote health columns for several publication conglomerates but, of late, I have come to realize that in writing about different diseases, I failed to go \u201cbackwards\u201d enough in order to progress \u201cforward.\u201d However, in my defense, there is just now getting to be adequate and appropriate education\/emphasis on PTSD. It is no longer labeled \u201cShell Shock\u201d and assigned, exclusively, to soldiers.<\/p>\n I know President Trump has realized the seriousness of the Opioid Addiction and has allotted money to fight this monster, but my hopes and prayers are that he will become aware of the root cause of these addictions (all addictions, inclusive of hoarding and gluttony, etc.) and relate them back to the possibility of PTSD linkage and fund certificated education programs in each state for \u201cFirst Aid for PTSD.\u201d<\/p>\n PTSD: A Working Definition \u2013 various thoughts, feelings or physical responses which are ongoing\/long-term and will not disappear; and that routinely cause either a negative logistical or mental outcome.<\/p>\n Perhaps, a more simplified definition could be that PTSD causes us to be perpetually, sad, mad, and\/or scared and can keep us from using our talents and attaining greatness or success as well as propelling us into habitual chaos, crime\u2026but most often\u2026physical disease.<\/p>\n Manifestation of PTSD – diabolical disorder can show itself in so very many forms; the least of which may be stuttering, OCD, ADD\/ADHD, and generally withdrawing from people and life. Often times, the sufferer (quite understandably) will seek to obtain disability so they are not forced into a daily social situation such as the workplace. More serious manifestations can be the majority of psychological conditions such as multiple personality disorders on up to the category of serial killers and mass murderers.<\/p>\n Causes of PTSD – This can be tricky and complicated, so I will just cover a portion of it due to the size constraints of this artic; let me talk about \u201cthe olden days\u201d for just a moment. Between listening intently to my grandparents recitations of \u201cwhat a regular day was\u201d and watching my favorite TV programs (Walton\u2019s <\/em>and Little House<\/em>, etc.), I have figured out that people, then, seemed much stronger and sturdier than most of us, nowadays. And no, they didn\u2019t exist as long as we do presently, but they were used to trauma, chaos and disasters on a daily basis, pretty much. I have no doubt that if someone could board a time machine (if they existed) and go back to any period of the Agrarian Age\u2026and if we popped out and said \u201cHey there, have a good day!\u201d\u2026we would be looked at as though we were nuts and I\u2019m not referring to the way that person was dressed!! People rarely had what we would term as a \u201cgood day.\u201d They did not expect to have \u201cgood days,\u201d least not very many of them, for sure.<\/p>\n By \u201clife experiences\u201d comparison, we are like babies who are stunted and cannot grow; we are soft and spoiled and expect too much from life when we do not always adequately contribute to it. Physical exercise (labor) can often neutralize sadness and anger, etc. We were created to be physical beings, so even though the problems of life are different than those of our predecessors\u2019, the need to work through or neutralize has not disappeared! Sitting in front of a computer (which most of us are forced to do, now) is not vaporizing our obstacles or, more importantly, isn\u2019t the correct or healthy way we should respond to. So then the \u201cend product\u201d instead of \u201cworking the sadness or madness out\u201d is \u201cworking those feelings into our bodily systems, organs and cells\u201d which, thereby, leads to systemic inflammation, aka baseline of disease, in general; psychological and physical!<\/p>\n Also, before and different from the present, people in the Agrarian Society lived in close proximity to their families. With this, you have a built in support system. Additionally, class-wise, most everyone (except the General Store owner?) was in the same strata, financially. There was no talk of \u201cwinners\/losers\u201d or \u201coverachievers and underachievers.\u201d They all struggled to make ends meet which was just another layer of kinship or comradery. So the pressure of \u201cmaking something of yourself\u201d was pretty much non-existent. I guess, my point here is that with our world such as it is (and has been for a good while, now), there is no shortage of causes and reasons for people to feel inadequate, boxed in and \u201cfutile.\u201d Thus, we have PTSD! And then, keep in mind, too, I\u2019ve not even embarked upon the difference in the crime statistics between \u201cthen and now,\u201d along with the trauma of war and natural disasters thrown into the mix!! In this article, I just am trying to convey the sheer enormity; the vast number of people who suffer from PTSD (along with the \u201cwhy\u2019s and how\u2019s). And this is just simply from having to live life NOW as opposed to 40 or 50 years ago. And yes, I\u2019m the first to admit we have many modern conveniences, but they only make PART of life easier.<\/p>\n Cure\/Management of PTSD Since I do not believe in or condone taking prescription medications (until they can be created WITHOUT side effects), I will not address that \u201ccomponent\u201d of treating PTSD, but rather the needed one-on-one counseling and group support models. These lend comradery and greatly counteract their suppositions that PTSD sufferers are \u201cfreaks;\u201d the \u201cwarm fuzzies\u201d go a long way to dispel these feelings about themselves which is the first step in the recovery process<\/p>\n There are solid educational therapies and strategies out there available that counteract PTSD symptoms very well. There may be some experimentation involved as all therapies may not work for everyone; it isn\u2019t an exact science, but the main thing is to read, learn and keep on trying. Once you have found YOUR THERAPY NICHE, you have every reason to believe that your life can be much more than a negative outlook and perception, going forward.<\/p>\n I am a HUGE proponent of prevention (for all bad outcomes!) and truly recommend that schools start in very early with the kiddos letting them know all about PTSD and HOW letting it go untreated can lead to substance abuse. No doubt, many drug users get into the habit just out of sheer curiosity. They may feel fine or ok, but just want to see what it is like to \u201cfeel better.\u201d However, I think the majority of the people who fall into this drug trap are simply hoping to mask their pain from PTSD. They feel so alone and have no one or no entity that can help them through this and educate them as to what is wrong<\/p>\n To learn more about this condition, put into your search engine \u201cPTSD Management.\u201d Perhaps someday we, as a whole, can be better educated and thus much more understanding of the manifestations of this disease and considerably more optimistic of its treatment outcome<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" PTSD: The Parent of Disease by Jody Johnson Godfrey, FRS (art by Sarah Hebert) For years, I wrote health columns for several publication conglomerates but, of late, I have come to realize that in writing about different diseases, I failed to go \u201cbackwards\u201d enough in order to progress \u201cforward.\u201d However, in my defense, there is…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7783,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[938,949,937,582],"tags":[1337,1339,1338],"class_list":["post-7792","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ozarkeditorial","category-ozarkfinearts","category-ozarkwriters","category-sotoarchive","tag-jody-godfrey","tag-ptsd","tag-sarah-hebert","category-938","category-949","category-937","category-582","description-off"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7792"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7792\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7850,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7792\/revisions\/7850"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateoftheozarks.net\/showcase\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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