Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: The Lighthouse at the End of the World and the Boy who Searched for the Light

Abstract

Defining the word "trauma" is a delicate and difficult challenge, but I think it is very important to include the word trauma in our vocabulary. Generally, when we think of the word trauma, most of us associate it with a catastrophic event. However, it can apper into our lives and disrupt the proper functioning of our mind, body and soul generated by even "smaller" events. The difference is  made by everyone's degree of resistance to stress.

It is also very important to use the word trauma in a way that is as conscious as possible, but also correct.

The studies tell us very clearly, starting from Sigmund Freud’s Era, that you cannot overcome, you cannot improve, you cannot heal something that you cannot express in words. Trauma is the effect or the produced by an event or an experience in our inner universe. It is a form of disconnection from one's own person, from one's own story and most often from one's own body.

While the causes and symptoms of trauma are various, there are some basic signs. People who have been through traumatic events will often appear shaken and disoriented  and may often seem withdrawn or absent even when speaking.

Another clear sign of trauma is the anxiety (night terrors, nervousness, irritability, poor concentration and mood swings).

Trauma often manifests itself both emotionally and physically.

The emotion motion is one of the most common ways trauma manifests itself. Some common emotional symptoms of trauma include denial, anger, sadness, and emotional outbursts , anxiety or panic attacks.

Some common physical signs are: paleness, lethargy, exhaustion, poor concentration, and rapid heartbeats.

The effects of trauma can occur either in a short period of time after the event has taken place or in weeks or even years. The earlier the trauma is addressed, the more successful the person will be in the recovery process.

We all go through scary situations at some point, but we all react differently. If a person cannot get over the traumatic event and his feelings about the experience remain present or worsen as time goes on, he might suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Sometimes when we go through an extremely terrifying or chronically stressful experience, the brain overestimates the danger and our stress systems malfunction.

When this happens, different areas of the brain begin to make mistakes as they interpret the world around them and tell the rest of the body how to respond.

PTSD is associated with problems in the brain structures and neurotransmitters (the brain's chemical messengers) that are responsible with the way we respond to fear and stress.

The word trauma can really scare us, but there is also healing.

But healing is not guaranteed,  according to Gabor Matte,but  it is available and it depends only on our freedom to choose what we do next.

What does trauma recovery mean?

It's about reclaiming our healthy parts, reclaiming the external reality as a benchmark and reclaiming our ability to acknowledge the pain from the past, allowing it the right to exist in present context.