New research has found a specific change in brain chemistry due to trauma. An article on Medscape.com says:
“Lower serotonin 1B levels were also strongly associated with age at first trauma. The earlier the trauma exposure, the greater the brain alterations and the greater the severity of PTSD symptoms, and the greater the risk of developing comorbidities,” senior author Alexander Neumeister, MD, associate professor of psychiatry at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City, told Medscape Medical News.
“These findings establish that trauma at a young age causes long-lasting neurobiological and psychological effects in survivors with PTSD. In other words, early-life trauma can interfere with normal brain development,” he said.
The article is somewhat technical, but lay readers like us can pretty much follow what is being discussed. To read the story, you need to register for Medscape.com, which is free.
Read Potential new drug target for PTSD on Medscape.com.
Link supplied by a Lovefraud reader.
Oxy…..one question please….
You said “We also realized we could watch the same movie 2 days in a row and not remember that we had watched it the day before.”
If you didn’t remember you’d watched it, then howd’ you know you had already seen it?
*scratching my head* Hmmmmmm
Pure waters……I believe it’s the PTSD and the fog of the spath confusion.
I had 2 strokes during the spath ending period……and It was logical for me to ‘blame it on the strokes’……but the more I realize I think it’s the PTSD……the fog.
I had the same experience as oxy…..couldn’t comprehend anything, so I didn’t bother reading for the longest time. Just like I wanted to respond to your post…..but had to go back up and see who it was that had written it, so I could respond directly to you. 🙂
IT gets better over time……you learn to retrain your mind.
In the beginning….I didn’t know right from left. Crazy huh? I realized, it wasn’t such a big deal……I had a 50/50 chance of being right huh?! I hold my hands out and make an L with my index and thumb……and whatever hand spells an L….is left!
I cheat!
I don’t in any way have the same vocabulary as I used to ……It’s in my head, but won’t come out my mouth. I feel (sometimes) that I may appear stupid to some…..but whatever!
I find, when I’m tired…..it’s sooooo much worse….so I try to keep up on my sleep! 🙂
Just go with it…..it’s what ya got for now! 🙂
Was your own life at risk? Did you fear losing your life? Did you witness something horrific that no human being should ever see (think rescuers in 9/11) seeing dead children – witnessing horrific events and the very real feeling that you are going to die NOW…. think soldiers at war, seeing horrific things their colleagues dead bleeding, and fearing for their own life. Sexual abuse victims who are tied up and cannot escape…. cannot flee… they are trapped…
this is what causes PTSD. Feeling confused because someone has manipulated you and played with your mind, is not PTSD. I don’t think so.
I would have agreed with you until I started unravelling how badly the manipulation affected the neuro pathways in my brain. I was in TOTAL denial about how bad my situation was and the stress I was under and how it controlled my life. I recently started getting treated for PTSD and its WORKING! So regardless of how severe the circumstances are there is no way we can draw a line as to what qualifies as PTSD. its different for everyone I believe…and how their brain processes and handles stress. The treatment for PTSD works the same for people victims of verbal and emotional abuse an manipulation….for me anyway.
I brought this article up because I’m having a difficult time tonight.Was feeling jittery.Now just very tired.I don’t even care that my apt is in a mess.Well,I take that back.I do care.Just don’t feel like doing any cleaning!I mentioned in another post that I hadn’t had my Cymbalta for 4 days.Also have had my hyperactive granddaughter all day & night…no relief ’til she fell asleep!
I’m trying to figure out if I should bring PTSD up to my dr and/or counselor.They haven’t brought the subject up.The reason I’m thinking about is because I know I’ve been through trauma,and it has affected me….but I don’t know if it would be considered SEVERE enough to be diagnosed as PTSD.
With medication,I’m fine.But without it,I feel like someone is tap dancing on my nerves,and at the slightest provocation,I feel like crying and screaming!Now if I do that here in an apt complex,they’ll think someone is being murdered(that certainly wouldn’t do for a DV case to scream!)! Besides,I don’t like loud noises!Darn it!I just saw my Dr yesterday.But I didn’t have my granddaughter then either!
I’m bumping this article up again,hoping someone might respond to my earlier post.I am feeling better now that I am back on my medicine.I had to go to bed for a couple of hours yesterday when I got the med.I would have slept longer,but had things that needed ‘doing’.Still felt sick as I tumbled back into bed last night.
Unless your life was placed at risk, I do not believe this is PTSD, and is an insult to those who genuinely suffer with it.
It can be caused by domestic violence when you feel in fear of your life.
My story, a 3 day horrific birth, holding a full term dead child, who was bleeding from every orific, who went to the fridge every single night, came back cold each day – this continued for almost a week. I felt that my own life was at risk, I couldn’t leave or escape. I would have horrific nightmares about being sexually abused – I felt like I was living life behind a glass wall, I didn’t even know who was in government….. for three years. I did 18 months EMDR therapy, even today my cognitive processing can be slowed (it was severely damaged)
After this, a sadistic, distempered psychopath who broke into my house, and terrorised me, using my dead daughter to manipulate and abuse me.
After this, a charismatic sociopath, who sold me my dream, emptied my bank account got me thousands into debt, almost lost me my home, and did lose my my career of 10 years.
PTSD is used too liberally…… I have lost 3 years of my life to PTSD – my therapist (who was from South Africa) said i was the worst case she had ever witnessed, when people talked I just saw their lips move. I couldnt process sound. Tomorrow literally did not exist – it was just a white space. there was no next week, next month, next year.
Being with a sociopath is not enough to cause PTSD – it is a severe reaction to a very abnormal event. I have been through abusive relationships. Spent 27 years working with vulnerable people, worked with hundreds of sociopaths….
Unless your own life was at risk, that you could not escape, I struggle to believe that it is PTSD. it might be an anxiety reaction you might feel a reminder which brings things back, but this is different to PTSD. The nightmares, the flashbacks, the terror, the feeling emotionally disconnected.
I am probably writing a rant here, because I think that it lowers the actuality of what it is really like for those who truly do suffer with PTSD. its horrific. And it is a space which is unlike anything you have ever experienced. I have had a hard life – have been through a lot….. but nothing caused the ptsd like my daughters death. Nothing in this world has ever made me feel the way that did…
But as a result, meeting psychos afterwards (I was a classic victim)… money in the bank, vulnerable, traumatised…. that is a walk in the park, compared to the event that caused the PTSD.
A sociopath confusing your head, and their crazy making behavior will cause you to feel like you are living in the fog – but this is NOT PTSD UNLESS your life was at risk!!
positivagirl,
I would NEVER DELIBERATELY insult anyone.I was merely asking for an opinion.You’ve been through more than anyone should ever have to go through;I am so sorry.
Was my life ever at risk?! I suppose that might be a matter of opinion too.I’m an epileptic.My husband knew this before we married.He knows about epilepsy because his 1st wife was also epileptic.And despite pleading from friends and family for him to consider the seriousness of my illness and to take care of me,it was like he INCREASED his demands upon me!Knowing that getting a good nights sleep was most important in preventing seizures,he would interrupt my sleep,interrogating me like a Nazi SSI agent;or at the very least,talking to me,knowing full well that I talk in my sleep.Before I left him,he was demanding that I keep him company at night since he couldn’t sleep.I saw the sun rise plenty of times.
My life was put at risk by the stressload he put on me day in and day out.Had I not been an epileptic,it would have worn me down yes,but it is DANGEROUS for an epileptic as they never know when a seizure will be the last one they ever have.
When I was 8 monthes pregnant with my youngest daughter,I was in 2 car wrecks-both just a week apart.Both times,my husband was driving.The last time,the woman whose car we’d borrowed,wryly commented that I’d better stay out of cars until my baby was born!The 1st time,I was in alot of pain with bruised ribs-and couldn’t take any pain killers.The 2nd time,I got away with scrapes & cuts.I remember watching the blood slowly run down my ankle,as if it were someone else’s.Fortunately,I didn’t go into premature labor!
Before I walked out,I was so physically worn down from caregiving a man who is atleast 200 lbs heavier than me;doing everything with no help at all.So sleep deprived,I was a zombie.Mentally and emotionally I was a mess,too.I had practically lost the will to live.I feared I might be dying.I almost didn’t care as my existance was so miserable.But then I CHOKED on rice and couldn’t breathe.My husband didn’t offer to help/not even to call 911…instead repeatedly called me a Drama Queen!
Positivagirl many people here have experienced years of abuse and the traumatic effects of abuse are well documented. The majority of posters here are well informed about trauma and would not seek to use the term PTSD in a misleading, erroneous sense. Also it’s probably not advisable for any of us here to query the severity of another posters trauma. People reveal what they chose to as and when they need to. I’m saddened to read of your terrible loss. All the best to you.
I found a site that validated my feelings that domestic violence is enough to cause PTSD.Add to that,we all have our own stories,some worse than others.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-complex-ptsd.htm
Here’s another site.I bookmarked this one.
http://www.bercelifoundation.org/s/1340/aff_2_interior.aspx?sid=1340&gid=1&pgid=403
Hey Blossom thanks for these links and is your granddaughter still with you? Sounds as if caring for a young child is beyond what you can physically do to help your daughter right now? Take care of yourself love and have a lovely spring weekend!
I believe this site is positive and supportive and needs to stay that way. Blossom, I am responding to you in the second paragraph. I hope you are better today.
Positiva: Do you have any kind of degree or research to back up your very aggressive words of diagnosis? I have both a post grad level degree and a lot of research under my belt. I still have the same types of problems as everyone else here and don’t want to hear that I should be perfect and live a perfect life because of those things. However, it can be dangerous for someone to demand that someone struggling as Blossom is that they don’t know what they are talking about. Everyone’s feelings, anxieties, and thoughts are equal and deserve respect. Domestic Abuse (which includes the full spectrum of Emotional, Verbal, and Physical) has been proven through research as a cause of severe, prolonged PTSD. Sociopaths use the first two types of abuse extensively and OFTEN resort to the last one if they don’t get their way. All of them are damaging.
I have PTSD from a wide variety of traumas (some at young ages as the article above discusses which precludes being in a war or in dangerous “adult” situations as the only precursors to PTSD. also many people were sexually abused as children and don’t remember it) and the one that put me over the edge was being a whistleblower about a national trauma that did make me certain that my life was endangered. Each person has the right to decide if they ever felt their life was in danger and living with a sociopath counts. I realize now that the abusive men who had power, or gained power over me, have also caused PTSD symptoms for most of my life. But, the final one over a decade ago was the big whammy. PTSD varies widely and I am sorry if you feel your doctor made a mistake, but that does not mean very aggressive statements and diagnosis by you should be given so lightly.
Blossom: I’m sorry I didn’t catch your request for encouragement earlier. I hope you are getting sleep and see this when you wake up. You are describing PTSD symptoms in my opinion. Unfortunately, because there is such a wide variety of symptoms with PTSD and no magic pill to cure it, most doctors miss it, call it depression and give you an antidepressant. My doctor never mentioned even though she KNEW my life had been in danger. However, a retired doctor friend of my ex-husband’s knew immediately after talking with me. She cared about me. Not throwing pills at me. Many people, as the article discussed, have other illnesses which coexist, including depression. I also have Major Depressive Disorder. I believe my PTSD and Depression got so very severe because I was living with a spath and he was angry that I was being literally terrorized at work and I needed him more than I had before. I wasn’t taking care of him, living for him, etc. I couldn’t. I finally needed some real comfort and empathy and all I got were rages and demands that I quit my job even though he was in college and would never have been able to pay all of the bills. That exacerbated my PTSD.
PTSD is very insidious. It can really sneak up on you and it does change the Amygdala and the Hippocampus to such a degree that no one has found a standard treatment with which those brain changes can be reversed. They have found no medicine that will change the chemical change to a PTSD brain, so they prefer to treat only the depression. After I lost my job, I kept taking the antidepressant and really needed help with the PTSD. The antidepressant, nightmares, and other PTSD symptoms made me grind my teeth so hard, I lost a tooth and must wear a nightguard every night now. I still have jaw pain. PTSD does make you feel crazy. It does make you want to run, scream, freeze in fear, and all kinds of things.
I am concerned about your weaning yourself off of your antidepressant without some medical help. If you definitely feel you need to do that, try taking one every other day for a month, one every two days for the next month, etc. until you are off of them. You can also cut them in halves, quarters, etc. and take less each day. You can cause yourself great physical and mental harm quitting just about every anti-depressant without an official weaning system. Try not to go cold turkey.
I believe you probably do have PTSD if your antidepressant is making you jittery and you are wanting to stop taking it. I have both PTSD and Depression as I mentioned. They gave me an antidepressant, but no one cared about the PTSD because there are no medicines that will shut the patient up like antidepressants will. That was fine while I was working because the antidepressant got me out of bed in the morning to go to work even though I cried all the way there. But after I lost my job, I needed more help with the PTSD.
I have found that I have to work through my PTSD with a trauma therapist about twice a year, read books, practice various techniques a lot, a different medication that is OK for anxiety-but would prefer not to take it, trauma books and CDs, and Mindfulness books and CDs. I am not sure if we are allowed to mention other authors here. Let me know if I can and I will tell you the ones who truly helped me with my PTSD and I went through a LOT of them.
Until I hear back from you on the rules about telling you what helped me, I will say that it is a good idea to try to move around. It might feel crazy but it works. Walk some if you can. But, what worked for me (and this is also in one of the books by a foremost expert on trauma recovery) is to lay on my bed and let my body move wherever it wants to go. This can include kicking, hitting your fists on the bed, running in place on the bed, moving your feet up and down or back and forth, curling up and crying, teeth chattering, etc. It is not crazy and is a common, and even suggested, technique to get those trauma attacks out of your system. This might make you cry. If you can, call a friend ahead of time and tell them that you may call them crying and not to be alarmed because you are releasing some anxiety and trauma.
I hope to hear from you later. I am a night person, so may not be back until this evening. Know this. Releasing is good even if it looks or feels crazy to just move around and let your body release that excess trauma energy. Study PTSD symptoms on line and see what you think. Then, YOU tell your doctor that you are pretty sure you have it if you find you have enough of the symptoms. Domestic Terrorism by a partner who is supposed to love you is one of the major causes of PTSD that are not war or disaster related. And many people do not realize that the verbal or emotional abuse is just as bad, if not worse, than physical. IE: Someone saying they would like to kill you, wish you were dead, etc. causes almost as much trauma as if they tried it. Do some research for yourself and get back to me on whether you want the name of the books and CDs and other techniques that have helped me over the last few years. I am thinking of you tonight.