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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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			PTSD Symptoms: Memory Loss. Q: Dear Frank, This question is from a female veteran writing a senior seminar paper on PTSD and memory loss. Hello, I was hoping you might be able to answer a few questions about the physiology of PTSD and memory loss? I have much research but yet I'm not satisfied with the thesis and argument. Any suggestions? I am also a veteran who was diagnosed back in 2001...I had a traumatic event happen in 1976 but no memory until 2001 - nothing until up it came and then all hell broke loose! I couldn't stop it. I'm much better now thank God! So, I would really like to target why things need to be looked at closely with PTSD due to what happens in the brain during the terror event. A: Dear Joyce, The problem with PTSD is usually the opposite of memory loss. Memory is all too vivid. In fact, some memory seems to have a different pattern with PTSD, showing up in brain scans as closely linked to the "fight-flight" centers of the brain. Certain shocking events are repressed or suppressed or forgotten, only to show up later. Freud knew this and based much of psychoanalysis on recovery of repressed memory. He perfected techniques of dream analysis, free association and transference (in which feelings from unconscious experiences with significant persons from the past—usually parents--are "transferred" to the therapist and are eventually made conscious, analyzed and understood). Post-traumatic therapy is very different from Freudian therapy. My job as a therapist is to help someone master their all too conscious memories, not to dredge up unconscious, unremembered traumas from the past. Perhaps you have experienced both problems. Traumas from the past have been hidden, then they erupted. Traumas from more recent experience have haunted you in the usual pattern of PTSD, with episodes of intense, unwanted re-experiencing. Researchers have different theories to explain this. Our brains are not all wired the same way. Some of us are more likely than others to respond to trauma with a PTSD pattern. Trauma causes release of adrenalin and related biochemicals. A vulnerable brain responds by capturing the images at the time of adrenalin rush in a trauma memory system. This system responds later in life, triggered by unconscious or conscious reminders. To get over the PTSD pattern of response, one has to "master the memory" and transform it from the trauma system into the regular memory system. You never forget. But you need not constantly remember. Repressing is not the same as forgetting. It is a way of sparing yourself awareness of what is under the surface, silently but powerfully affecting your behavior and your emotions. Tweet Was this helpful to you? If so, please consider supporting our work.
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