In an Unspoken Voice has it that PTSD is a result of not being able to do normal simple movements such as running, punching, or pushing away when under high stress. There’s a solution—when the stress is over, go away for a bit and shake.
Animals do this, but for various reasons—the stress goes on for too long, or it feels socially or personally inappropriate to collapse and shake—the uncompleted movements can get stuck in the memory and the trauma continues in the body and imagination.
It wouldn’t surprise me if “ordinary” childhood bullying would be enough to have a traumatic effect, especially on someone who was immobilized while being bullied.
Does that ever happen that people are conscious about their own coping methods but are not too conscious about the trauma they are coping with?
I think so. There’s a lot of that around rape, where the person who was raped is showing symptoms of PTSD, but thinks that the way they were treated doesn’t count as rape.
I found it was useful to frame traumatic effects (in my case, a tendency to freeze) as part of the normal human range rather than a defect. Also, there’s research that the biggest predictor of PTSD is the amount of previous trauma.
I recommend Dorothy Fitzer’s videos. She specializes in people with anxiety and takes a gentle, sensible approach to becoming more comfortable in the world.
Interesting. So the way it differs from Freudism is that the idea is not that getting hurt gives you problems, but not being able to react to hurt or stress (even environmental stress if I get it right) in basic ways does so?
Yes., bearing in mind that this theory says that some basic ways work much better than others—for example, telling the story over and over (which is something a lot of people do) may not be nearly as useful as going to physical movement.
There’s also a school of more conventional psychology (sorry, I don’t know which one) which holds that what happens to you isn’t the fundamental thing—what’s important is what conclusions you draw from what happened to you.
In an Unspoken Voice has it that PTSD is a result of not being able to do normal simple movements such as running, punching, or pushing away when under high stress. There’s a solution—when the stress is over, go away for a bit and shake.
Animals do this, but for various reasons—the stress goes on for too long, or it feels socially or personally inappropriate to collapse and shake—the uncompleted movements can get stuck in the memory and the trauma continues in the body and imagination.
It wouldn’t surprise me if “ordinary” childhood bullying would be enough to have a traumatic effect, especially on someone who was immobilized while being bullied.
I think so. There’s a lot of that around rape, where the person who was raped is showing symptoms of PTSD, but thinks that the way they were treated doesn’t count as rape.
I found it was useful to frame traumatic effects (in my case, a tendency to freeze) as part of the normal human range rather than a defect. Also, there’s research that the biggest predictor of PTSD is the amount of previous trauma.
I recommend Dorothy Fitzer’s videos. She specializes in people with anxiety and takes a gentle, sensible approach to becoming more comfortable in the world.
Interesting. So the way it differs from Freudism is that the idea is not that getting hurt gives you problems, but not being able to react to hurt or stress (even environmental stress if I get it right) in basic ways does so?
Yes., bearing in mind that this theory says that some basic ways work much better than others—for example, telling the story over and over (which is something a lot of people do) may not be nearly as useful as going to physical movement.
There’s also a school of more conventional psychology (sorry, I don’t know which one) which holds that what happens to you isn’t the fundamental thing—what’s important is what conclusions you draw from what happened to you.