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.

TODAY, TRUTH IS A TREASURE HUNT WITH NO CLUES

"Trust me" are words frequently heard.  Woe to the person who responds without fact checking.  Not only did there used to be an industry rule for good newspapers to have three, proven sources before a story was printed, I doubt anyone even remembers that it was so once.. Fewer and fewer people read newspapers and more people watch talking heads and believe them...no fact checks required.

But the absence of truth is not limited to journalists, politicians and the like.   It is ubiquitous.  Today, the truth is interpreted rather loosely.  I recall having been quoted inaccurately by a colleague.  When I asked her why she misquoted me, (she admitted that she had changed the words I had spoken) and said, "I know that is not what you said but I knew it was what your meant."  When the old parlor game of telephone was played, the reason that by the time the last person was whispered to, there was not a bit of accuracy to the message first whispered.  People don't hear words with the same meanings attached and distort what they hear without realizing the distortions.  This is patently why no one should ever be found guilty on eye witness accounts alone months or years after a crime.

Yet, somehow, what is going on in politics today seems not at all that innocent.  Even when video tapes are played of what they had previously said, they can still deny the truth.  When there are enough versions of 'truth' being spread around, people will choose the 'truth' they most want to hear.  Those who believe if something is written in a book, newspaper, or on the Internet, it HAS to be true, poor deluded souls.  There are those who sincerely believe that an officer of the church can only speak the truth.  This is why so many people refused to believe their children who told them they had been sexually molested by priests.

Others sincerely believe if one has taken an oath, that is proof that whatever they say is the truth, as though perjury is a figment of someone's imagination,  that people don't lie to manipulate others.  The joy of the sociopath is that, without a conscience, they can lie most believably.  That is how many sociopaths have risen to corporate summits.

Shock is my only visualization of Diogenes in Washington, D.C.   What joy it would be to find an honest man there...like finding a diamond in a pile of manure.  Actually, I can make a distinction between the few who make statements and subsequently realize that they were not fully informed, or missed salient arguments and change their positions.  I think we can all respect those people but not those who blatantly lie and deny ever having thought differently.  While the Republicans made hay over Kerry's presumed flip-flopping.  Michael Moore could make a documentary on their lies alone.