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Gift From Within - PTSD Questions & Answers with Frank Ochberg, M.D.

PTSD: Definition of PTSD How Common, Who Gets PTSD? Is PTSD a normal event? Does PTSD Affect The Brain? Duration Pregnancy Delayed Onset PTSD PTSD Tip Sheet for your Doctor Medications for PTSD Distinguishing PTSD from BPD Generalized Anxiety Disorder Can the Wounds of PTSD Heal? Complex/Chronic PTSD: CPTSD Explanation Long Term Prognosis & Complex PTSD PTSD vs. CPTSD Managing Past Intense Feelings Overcoming Complex PTSD PTSD Symptoms: Anger and Brain Injury Anger Flashbacks Loneliness Feelings Of Loss And Sense Of Self Anxiety Numbing Re-Traumatization Differences bet. Depression, Dysthemia, Major Depression Depression vs. Sadness and Grief Biological Depression Memory Loss Triggers and Body Sensations PTSD & Facial Tics Emotional & Physical Reactions Delayed Stress Response after Experiencing a Shock Can A False Memory Happen? Differences Between Hypervigilance and Hyperarousal Negativity & Pessismism after Trauma PTSD/PTSI Insomnia: Not Being Able To Sleep PTSD/PTSI & Psychosis Relationships: Peer Support Issues Explaining PTSD To Children False Memory Toxic Family Of Origin Protection From Unwanted Contact Preventing Intergenerational PTSD Numbing in Male Survivors of Domestic Violence How To Increase Social Support Caregivers/Partners with PTSD: Starting a Conversation about PTSD Both Partners with PTSD & its Complications Fiancé Doesn't Believe in Therapy Managing PTSD After Partner Pushes Too Hard Childhood Abuse: Emotional Abuse Childhood Trauma & Intrusive Images Revisiting The Scene Of Trauma And Abuse Gaslighting Stockholm Syndrome & Child Abuse Survivors Can a Child be Born Depressed Childhood Survivors and Being a Parent Work Issues: Disability Letter for Attorney-Sample Low Stress Jobs Doctor's letter for Employer Sample Dealing with Co-Workers Job Searching with PTSD Recovery: Frank Ochberg's Color Wheel of Positive Emotion Triggers Rebuilding Self Esteem Life After Trauma Coping During The Holidays Substance Abuse Improving A Damaged Self-Concept Explaining PTSD is a Responsibility Grief & Loss from a Tragic Death The Trauma Bond & Forgiveness Sudden Panic, Anxiety & Flashbacks Stockholm Syndrome, Trauma Bond and Undue Influence Therapy: Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) Inadequate Therapy When to End Therapy Repeating Your Trauma Story PTSD Symptoms After The Therapy Hour Exposure Therapy Service/Therapy Dogs & PTSD ECT (Electro-Convulsive-Therapy) Bipolar & ECT Therapy: An Interview Telling Trauma Story to Therapist PTSD Client Expectations from Therapy Sessions Veterans & PTSD: PTSD A Disease Seasonal PTSD & Anniversary Reaction. Emotional Injury Therapy Sessions Active Listening for Moms and Friends Military Sexual Assault Professionals: Compassion Fatigue Consequences Of Emotional Numbing School Teachers And PTSD Using The Counting Method with Clients Helping Clients with PTSD Other Conditions: Borderline Personality Disorder Social Phobia Dissociation Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) Cutting & Self Harm Link between PTSD, BPD and Bi-Polar Somatization Disorder or Briquet's Syndrome Stockholm Syndrome & Child Abuse Survivors Dealing with Psychopaths & Narcissists
	PTSD Questions & Answers with Joyce Boaz & Dr. Frank Ochberg, M.D. Read "Survivor Psalm" by Frank Ochberg
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			Is PTSD a normal event? Q: Dear Frank, Many people say PTSD is a normal reaction. Is it really? Not everyone gets this condition after a traumatic event. A: Dear Joyce, We need to stay away from saying to our patients and teaching future therapists that PTSD is a normal reaction. It isn't. It is a medical condition that affects some and not all who are injured by traumatic stress. I know many like to say that having PTSD is normal. "Normalization" is one of my principles of treatment. Just as I would explain to a person who was recovering from being shot in the chest that "you are going to live...you are progressing normally...healing is good...you are normal..this pain is normal..this discharge is normal," I normalize the course of posttraumatic stress disorder and reassure when all is on track. But in creating a diagnosis, we have to use "normal" in a different way. It is medically abnormal to have a condition in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM). We have to call this condition posttraumatic stress disorder or posttraumatic stress injury. It can't just be a normal response to traumatic stress and qualify for a diagnostic label. The word normal has several different meanings. In medicine it means healthy as distinct from diseased or injured. In statistics it means evenly distributed or average as opposed to skewed or extreme. When an unusual and extreme event occurs, our reactions are expected to be proportionally intense. In fact, during and immediately after a trauma that qualifies as meeting the DSM definition of a traumatic stressor, it is both healthy and normative to have many of the symptoms of PTSD. In a state of sudden shock and danger we are numb to other extraneous stimuli, we are in a heightened condition of arousal and we are consumed with the impact of the event. But when this reaction persists over a month, reducing our ability to engage with friends, family, work or school, the situation merits a medical label. Many of us are ready for a more honorable, accurate label. We prefer PTSI - for Injury, rather than Disorder. The condition is the same. The diagnosis is essentially the same. But a name that refers to a wound caused by an external force is less stigmatizing and more evocative of the true nature of this condition. In sum, PTSD affects normal people in a pattern that is now well recognized. It helps to think of this as a wound that hurts and that may hurt for a long time. But the wound usually heals and the pain can be borne with tolerance and dignity. Tweet Was this helpful to you? If so, please consider supporting our work.

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