{"quotes":[{"text":"Unlike simple stress, trauma changes your view of your life and yourself. It shatters your most basic assumptions about yourself and your world — “Life is good,” “I’m safe,” “People are kind,” “I can trust others,” “The future is likely to be good” — and replaces them with feelings like “The world is dangerous,” “I can’t win,” “I can’t trust other people,” or “There’s no hope.","author":"Mark Goulston","tags":["dangerous-world","lack-of-trust","post-traumatic-stress-disorder","posttraumatic-stress-disorder","ptsd","sense-of-self","shattered-souls","stress","trauma","traumatic-stress","work-view"],"id":23247,"author_id":"Mark+Goulston"},{"text":"Acknowledgement of the prevalence and impact of trauma challenges psychological theories that localize dysfunction within the individual while ignoring the contribution of social forces on adjustment (Brett, 1996; Ross, 2000).","author":"Rachel E. Goldsmith","tags":["medical-model","posttraumatic-stress-disorder","psychology","ptsd","trauma"],"id":47148,"author_id":"Rachel+E.+Goldsmith"},{"text":"One of the paradoxical and transformative aspects of implicit traumatic memory is that once it is accessed in a resourced way (through the felt sense), it, by its very nature, changes. Out of the shattered fragments of her deeply injured psyche, Jody discovered and nurtured a nascent, emergent self. From the ashes of the frantically activated, hypervigilant, frozen, traumatized girl of twenty-five years ago, Jody began to reorient to a new, less threatening world. Gradually she shaped into a more fluid, resilient, woman, coming to terms with the felt capacity to fiercely defend herself when necessary, and to surrender in quiet ecstasy.","author":"Peter A. Levine","tags":["body","fear","fight flight","freeze","frozen","frozen-in-time","healing","healing-trauma","memory","mental-health","mental-illness","mind","overwhelmed","posttraumatic-stress-disorder","ptsd","terror","trauma","traumatized","treatment"],"id":51455,"author_id":"Peter+A.+Levine"},{"text":"In his recent guest editorial, Richard McNally voices skepticism about the National Vietnam Veteran’s Readjustment Study (NVVRS) data reporting that over one-half of those who served in the Vietnam War have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or subclinical PTSD. Dr McNally is particularly skeptical because only 15% of soldiers served in combat units (1). He writes, “the mystery behind the discrepancy in numbers of those with the disease and of those in combat remains unsolved today” (4, p 815). He talks about bizarre facts and implies many, if not most, cases of PTSD are malingered or iatrogenic. Dr McNally ignores the obvious reality that when people are deployed to a war zone, exposure to trauma is not limited to members of combat units (2,3). At the Operational Trauma and Stress Support Centre of the Canadian Forces in Ottawa, we have assessed over 100 Canadian soldiers, many of whom have never been in combat units, who have experienced a range of horrific traumas and threats in places like Rwanda, Somalia, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. We must inform Dr McNally that, in real world practice, even cooks and clerks are affected when faced with death, genocide, ethnic cleansing, bombs, landmines, snipers, and suicide bombers ...One theory suggests that there is a conscious decision on the part of some individuals to deny trauma and its impact. Another suggests that some individuals may use dissociation or repression to block from consciousness what is quite obvious to those who listen to real-life patients.' Cameron, C., \u0026 Heber, A. (2006). Re: Troubles in Traumatology, and Debunking Myths about Trauma and Memory/Reply: Troubles in Traumatology and Debunking Myths about Trauma and Memory. Canadian journal of psychiatry, 51(6), 402.","author":"Colin Cameron","tags":["combat-ptsd","denial","iatrogenic","malingering","mental-illness-discrimination","mental-illness-stigma","posttraumatic-stress-disorder","ptsd","society-denial"],"id":75334,"author_id":"Colin+Cameron"},{"text":"Blame is a Defense Against PowerlessnessBetrayal trauma changes you. You have endured a life-altering shock, and are likely living with PTSD symptoms— hypervigilance, flashbacks and bewilderment—with broken trust, with the inability to cope with many situations, and with the complete shut down of parts of your mind, including your ability to focus and regulate your emotions.Nevertheless, if you are unable to recognize the higher purpose in your pain, to forgive and forget and move on, you clearly have chosen to be addicted to your pain and must enjoy playing the victim.And the worst is, we are only too ready to agree with this assessment! Trauma victims commonly blame themselves. Blaming oneself for the shame of being a victim is recognized by trauma specialists as a defense against the extreme powerlessness we feel in the wake of a traumatic event. Self-blame continues the illusion of control shock destroys, but prevents us from the necessary working through of the traumatic feelings and memories to heal and recover.","author":"Sandra Lee Dennis","tags":["affect","affect regulation","betrayal","betrayal bond","betrayal trauma","betrayal-trauma-theory","blame","control","emotional-health","emotions","higher-purpose","hypervigilance","illusion","memories","mental-health","mental-illness","out-of-control","posttraumatic-stress","posttraumatic-stress-disorder","powerlessness","ptsd","regulate-emotions","self-blame","shock","trauma","trauma-victims","traumatic","traumatic-experiences","traumatic-memories","traumatized","victim-blaming","victimhood","victimization","victims"],"id":105905,"author_id":"Sandra+Lee+Dennis"},{"text":"A scar had been beaten into his mind which would only heal by experience.","author":"Ian Fleming","tags":["anxiety","depression","faith","posttraumatic-stress-disorder","spiritual-warfare"],"id":115104,"author_id":"Ian+Fleming"},{"text":"The scientific study of suffering inevitably raises questions of causation, and with these, issues of blame and responsibility. Historically, doctors have highlighted predisposing vulnerability factors for developing PTSD, at the expense of recognizing the reality of their patients' experiences… This search for predisposing factors probably had its origins in the need to deny that all people can be stressed beyond endurance, rather than in solid scientific data; until recently such data were simply not available… When the issue of causation becomes a legitimate area of investigation, one is inevitably confronted with issues of man's inhumanity to man, with carelessness and callousness, with abrogation of responsibility, with manipulation and with failures to protect.","author":"Bessel A. van der Kolk","tags":["avoidance","blame","humanity","inhumane","inhumanity","minimization","posttraumatic-stress-disorder","psychology","psychology","ptsd","responsibility","science","society-denial","suffering","trauma","truth"],"id":127401,"author_id":"Bessel+A.+van+der+Kolk"},{"text":"In talking with people that have experienced it, I learned that PTSD is something that a person in a position of authority sometimes thinks they’re not supposed to have. They don’t always have an avenue to personally address it or even discuss it.","author":"Stana Katic","tags":["being-strong","being-strong-minded","mental-health-stigma","mental-illness","post-traumatic-stress-disorder","posttraumatic-stress-disorder","ptsd","self-stigma"],"id":146450,"author_id":"Stana+Katic"},{"text":"Denial and minimizing is often seen in genuine PTSD and, hence, should be a target of detection and measurement.","author":"Harold V. Hall","tags":["denial","diagnosis","malingering","mental-disorder","mental-health-system","mental-illness","minimization","minimizing","minimizing-issues","misdiagnosis","post-traumatic-stress-disorder","posttraumatic-stress-disorder","psychiatry","ptsd","stigma"],"id":155576,"author_id":"Harold+V.+Hall"},{"text":"Trauma is hell on earth. Trauma resolved is a gift from the gods.","author":"Peter A. Levine","tags":["gift","healing","post-traumatic-stress-disorder","posttraumatic-stress","posttraumatic-stress-disorder","ptsd","relief","trauma","trauma-experiences","trauma-healing","traumatic-epiphonies","traumatic-stress","traumatized"],"id":158334,"author_id":"Peter+A.+Levine"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":34,"pages":4,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}