It has been 39 years that Merv was shot in front of me at Huntington Memorial Hospital. It was Easter Sunday. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is certainly a problem that can be helped. But in saying that, there is some element of the experience that people have felt that causes PTSD, that will never go away. As a psychologist, we can learn the tools to cope, talk, and relive the experiences that caused the PTSD, but to the afflicted, who we help,re-live these tragic experiences, be it war, accidents, shootings, and terrible things that nobody should face, it is still difficult to put everything to sleep, or to bury. Perhaps, we should want to keep some element alive, so that we remember, in a more healthy way to cope. This day for what ever reason is causing me, the psychologist, who helps the afflicted with PTSD, to feel the sadness as if it were yesterday. It has nothing to do with life as I live today, but those fleeting moments of severe pain and the emotional pain inflicted around the other loved ones is sometimes unbearable.
To make matters worse, it was Easter Sunday, on the 26th of March. PTSD, sufferers remember the dates, and what happened, religiously. Nothing ever for me takes that pain away. It has nothing to do with what happens in the here and now. It for PTSD, patients, just unforgettable.
It is all about the anniversaries of these events, that keeps the event that caused the PTSD to come to the surface again and again. That too is part of the healing, or is it? We as psychologists, must help our patients to remember these anniversaries in a manner that is much less devastating than the actual event causing the PTSD. What good has happened since? How brave that we all have survived? Hopefully, ever person who has been involved in an action to cause the PTSD pain, has worked through the guilt, of it not happening to but meant to be for someone else, be it a friend, a buddy, a soldier, a spouse, or whomever, but worked through the actuality, that this was meant to be, and not to feel the guilt of surviving, but to feel the joy of living again. Does it ever go away in your heart? How does it affect your loved ones and others in your life?
The memories live, no matter the event. A person was telling me of a major heart surgery 35 years ago, She remembers the event and the trauma as I stood there and spoke with her. She remembers the intensive care unit where she was for 3 days, and she remembers the event. When I question her about other things that took place 35 years ago, the memory is different, even happy events.
Now, today, which is the middle of May, and I wrote this In March, but not posting until today, people with Post Concussion Syndrome are coping with this daily. Where they fell, and where an accident occurred or how many days they remembered absolutely nothing, and countless anniversaries of being better, or going through painful therapy, or not sleeping, or on and on.
May many of us who are going down the road of recovery even many years out from the event of the concussion, remember the good, and less bad of: how, when and where. Now each anniversary date of the date it happened is usually marked in ones head either by day, month, year, or whatever. The people on The Post Concussion Syndrome Awareness UK & Worldwide, a private group, which is a savior to many of us who have suffered a concussion and are attempting physical therapy, and all kinds of therapy to HEAL, & REMEMBER. Mostly, people remember, that they are alive, but they definitely remember the anniversaries of every month, year, and date. people refer to their own event, as 6 months out, l year out, etc.
This all makes for post Traumatic stress Disorder. People who have been and are still in this trauma, remember, how, where, when, and what happened, and who was there, and who helped them, and how people now treat them. More later: DI