THOUSANDS OF LIVES IN THE VORTEX

It is probably unimaginable to think of being left with absolutely nothing but that which attached to one's body, in seconds.  Trying to think about it, is probably unique to and telling about each individual who tries to visualize themselves in that situation.  What do you do about hygiene, food, fresh water, places to eliminate.  Think about having no money in your person and no place to get it.  If you had a bank account and savings, the bank may have disappeared.  If you had a job, your workplace may be gone.  The owners of the company may be dead and wills at this point are somewhat useless even if they could be found.  For individuals, disorientation is one of the most difficult to handle...to have nothing familiar around you is high on the stress scale.  If you've ever moved to a new home or apartment and gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, only to discover you headed in the wrong direction...it is no longer where it used to be.  Imagine that everything about your life is now that way.  There is nothing, and in some cases no one, familiar to you where they used to be.

As if that is not enough, the threat of radiation poisoning hovers over you in  the aftermath of all your losses, loved ones as well as everything material.  To the best of my historical knowledge, Americans have never had to deal with so vast a human need.  There have usually been enough people around to lend a hand or donate to agencies like the American Red Cross who could lend their hand for you.

We are now realizing that it was not simply a residential area but had factories and businesses which cannot complete contracts which will effect many other countries waiting for parts or product.One has to wonder how even the strongest in character and physiology can survive but we must also realize that not 100% of any population is like that.  Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) will likely be only one of the residual problems people will struggle with in nightmares and slow hypothalamus changes.  Living over a fault can be denied only while assuming the country is protecting you with all the security that has been put in place.  But assuming that it would be too great a denial to assume that the government, engineers, and experts can predict the potentially destructive forces enough for most people, not only in Japan, but even other places; especially those that live over faults, are near oceans, or have nuclear energy facilities..  Studies show most accidents occur close to home, often within the home, and one can say that natural disasters.fall in that category as well.

Shall we just assume God is out to get us, one way or another?  I doubt many will look at it that way.  Should we assume we are caught in a big lottery over which we have no control?  Quite likely.  Our lives are at the will of random chance.  We can better the odds by healthy living and less risk taking but that sort of sums up.  There are lots of philosophical speculations about predestination, free will, God's will, this being only one of our lives, parallel universes, and the list goes on and on.  Our reality can only be what we perceive.

A LITTLE INFO ON PTSD

Recently I came across an article in Science Daily on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD):  Serotonin System Influences Vulnerability and Treatment. One factor that appears to contribute to the heritable vulnerability to PTSD is a variation in the gene that codes for the serotonin transporter, also known as the serotonin uptake site.  Serotonin is one of the four major neurotransmitters that singly or in combination are targeted by pharmacology research.  Prozac was one of the early drugs to prevent serotonin re-uptake by the body, thus disallowing the benefit of the 'calming' chemical your body has produced.

Listed among anxiety disorders, PTSD may or may not be more prevalent than in the past, but it is now more easily diagnosed.  Research has found brain changes in severe cases of long term abuse. 

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

• Approximately 7.7 million American adults age 18 and older, or about 3.5 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have PTSD.^{1, 2}
• PTSD can develop at any age, including childhood, but research shows that the median age of onset is 23 years.⁵
• About 19 percent of Vietnam veterans experienced PTSD at some point after the war.¹³ The disorder also frequently occurs after violent personal assaults such as rape, mugging, or domestic violence; terrorism; natural or human-caused disasters; and accidents.

A study now over a year old shows the work being done to understand the brain changes.  Click here.  Telling people not to be upset over things does not prevent their specific reactions.  While people need to be educated on these matters to prevent further suffering in those who have already developed the condition due to past suffering, many people seem loathe to accept reality, research results, and scientific proof.  (think of the deniers who refuse to accept there was a Holocaust in which Jews were gassed to death, the birthers who will not accept the irrefutable proof placed before them, and those who still believe that Elvis Presley is alive.

PTSD: POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER

PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) is defined by NIMH (National Institute for Mental Health) as: An anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to a terrifying event or ordeal in which grave physical harm occurred or was threatened. Traumatic events that may trigger PTSD include violent personal assaults, natural or human-caused disasters, accidents, or military combat.

Medline writes: "Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a highly disabling condition that is associated with intrusive recollections of a traumatic event, hyperarousal, avoidance of clues associated with the trauma, and psychological numbing. The field of neuroimaging has made tremendous advances in the past decade and has contributed greatly to our understanding of the physiology of fear and the pathophysiology of PTSD. Neuroimaging studies have demonstrated significant neurobiologic changes in PTSD. There appear to be 3 areas of the brain that are different in patients with PTSD compared with those in control subjects: the hippocampus, the amygdala, and the medial frontal cortex. The amygdala appears to be hyperreactive to trauma-related stimuli. The hallmark symptoms of PTSD, including exaggerated startle response and flashbacks, may be related to a failure of higher brain regions (i.e., the hippocampus and the medial frontal cortex) to dampen the exaggerated symptoms of arousal and distress that are mediated through the amygdala in response to reminders of the traumatic event. The findings of structural and functional neuroimaging studies of PTSD are reviewed as they relate to our current understanding of the pathophysiology of this disorder."

Having seen PTSD patients clinically, it has struck me that people are being treated much as a 'one size fits all'. Admittedly, I may not current with all the therapies being used but I have not heard that all patients are given brain imaging to find the extent of their brain changes through time. Nor am I aware that treatment programs are different as relates to the extent of those brain changes. It makes me question whether a Korean War or Viet Nam War veteran will have more brain change than a more recent veteran of Iraq, for example. Obviously there are physical and chemical brain changes that stress imposes on one's body. Stress hormones wreak their own havoc. The length of time they work on a brain and body must influence the degree of damage which is evidenced both physically and psychologically. Working with someone who has suffered the trauma many years ago is impressive in that logic plays little importance in the thought content of their view of the world and relationships around them. Assuming the singular, trauma, is even accurate. What about those individuals who suffered repeated traumas, many of different kinds of assaults, for years?

Much effort is being put into researching PTSD, especially since it is now being recognized in troops returning from the Middle East. We must not forget that years of incest or domestic physical or emotional abuse can produce all the same symptoms. It is a concern of mine that research is not focusing (at least that I am aware of) on the difference in treatment responses in those who are fairly new to PTSD versus those for whom it has been part of most their lives and resulted brain change. In treating patients, I have often seen that they cannot retain images or explanations that are different than those they have held for years. Their seriously damaged self-images, wounded egos and sense of worth, their feeling responsible for all that befell them, their total acceptance that nothing can change how feel, is all encompassing. Medication, psychotherapy, cognitive behavior therapy, patience, and new and positive life experiences are only part of the some of the treatments.

If I were given a single wish, it might be to see that PTSD research address the differences in PTSD patients...the length of suffering post-trauma, the nature of the trauma and its being taken as a reflection of some fault of the patient, the brain and hormonal changes, levels of neurotransmitters, memory loss (as well as repression and denial), coping mechanisms, and so much more. I would want to know if there are differences reflected by gender difference since chemistry is such a variable between them.

In a perfect world, some of these questions would be answered. But, alas, the world is not yet perfect.