Winning the War on PTSD:
Could You or Someone You Love Be Suffering PTSD?
by Dr. Jamie Turndorf
Life in Mary’s first family was an emotional minefield. Her parents were always screaming at her and punishing her. Mary tried to be a good kid, she did, but she could never seem to figure out the rules of engagement. She was always in trouble for one offense or another despite walking on eggshells to avoid setting off another explosion. Inevitably, she would commit yet another infraction and the “f” bombs would fly. When her parents got tired of yelling at her, she was sent off to solitary confinement in her room.
Throughout her life, Mary has struggled with insomnia, irritability and headaches…
Keith was a clumsy kid. He was always tripping and falling off his bike. One day, he fell out of tree and broke his arm. From this point on, he never felt right in his skin. Throughout his life he’s been sickly, nervous and forgetful…
According to the National Center for PTSD, about 6 of every 10 men (or 60%) and 5 of every 10 women (or 50%) experience at least one trauma in their lives. Women are more likely to experience sexual assault and child sexual abuse. Men are more likely to experience accidents, physical assault, combat, disaster, or to witness death or injury.
Reference: https://www.ptsd.va.gov/understand/common/common_adults.asp
When most of us think about PTSD, we imagine soldiers returning from the battlefield. Despite being a doctor, I initially felt called to the mission to cure veterans with PTSD because, like most of the world, I thought of PTSD as predominantly affecting vets!
But, as I dug deeper into the subject, I discovered military veterans of wars on foreign shores are not the only PTSD sufferers.
Consider the above statistics: Sixty percent of men and fifty percent of women have experienced at least one trauma in their lifetimes.
The reality is PTSD is way more common than we think.
Millions of non-veterans who silently struggle with PTSD, suffered on the domestic battlefields of abusive family, marital, and/or intimate relationships.
Domestic trauma takes many forms: Emotional or physical abuse or neglect during childhood, a divorce, a break-up, and even the physical loss of a loved one.
And even if you manage to escape domestic drama and trauma life also hurls illness and accidents upon you.
The reality is life is rife with a nearly infinite number of physical, emotional, and spiritual stresses and traumas that are inevitable byproducts of life on the Earth plane.
And even if you were lucky enough to have a semi-functional family and escaped the various childhood accidents, illnesses, and traumas that cause PTSD, the longer you live the more stresses you sufferer. This means that the longer you live, the less likely you are to escape PTSD.