I have written a couple of posts related to mental health issues. One thing that came through very strongly in the feedback was that whilst people were sympathetic, many admitted to knowing very little about Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I thought I would write a little bit today about PTSD in order to help people get a better understanding of what this thing actually is.
I need to highlight I am not an expert in this field. What follows is simply my understanding of my condition. The observations that I make will be based almost exclusively on my own experiences. Everybody’s experience of mental illness is different, so it’s important to realise that just because this is how mental illness affects me, the points I make may not be relevant for others. That said, I do have a number of people in my life who suffer from mental illness in one form or another and it’s been my experience that some of the themes that I’ll discuss re-occur consistently in many cases.
If you want to read some of my previous articles on this topic they can be found here:
Living with Mental Illness - A First Person Perspective
Living with Mental Illness: I Don't Just Listen to Sad Songs
Post-traumatic stress disorder may sound intimidating as a label, but at its heart it is simply an anxiety disorder. It is specific type of anxiety disorder with very specific causes and triggers, but it’s just anxiety all the same. There is an enormous amount that I could write about anxiety. For today though I’m going to focus on one specific aspect: emotional regulation.
Emotional regulation is a fancy way of saying how well someone is able to control their own emotions. When someone suffers from an anxiety disorder, quite often this will manifest itself is as an inability to control emotions. An extreme example of this may be when someone suffers a panic attack. This generally occurs when the situation that the person finds themselves in is so overwhelming that they are unable to cope with the level of stimulation in their environment. A person suffering from anxiety may experience a panic attack in a situation that might cause anyone to feel slightly anxious. They could also suffer one in a situation that to another person may seem completely unremarkable. In either case, for someone with anxiety, their inability to control their emotions may result in the situation escalating inside their own mind into something which is completely unmanageable.
To give a personal example, I recently suffered a panic attack whilst travelling in Thailand. Panic attacks are not something which I experienced regularly, but when they do occur they can be debilitating. In this instance I was travelling alone in Thailand, and needed to get from my hotel in one part of Bangkok to a train station that was on the other side of the city. From here I would catch an intercity train to my next destination. Objectively this required me to walk some 400 m from my hotel to a metro station, catch a train for about 10 minutes, change trains to another line, and catch a second train to my final destination, the main station in Bangkok. For many people this would be a relatively routine activity. At the time however, I had been travelling alone for four days and was in a country where I didn’t speak the language, nor could I understand the signs that directed me to the various platforms and trains that I needed to catch. I was concerned about both my ability to catch the right train to get to where I needed to be, and also whether I would reach my destination in time to catch my connecting train to northern Thailand. This is where my lack of emotional regulation kicked in.
The beauty of suffering from an inability to control your emotions is that inside your inside your own mind, relatively simple things escalate out of proportion very, very quickly. Psychologists I have spoken to will often use the term rumination to describe this process. When you ruminate on something, it means that a particular thought will circle around and around in your mind, progressively getting more and more exaggerated, the more and more you think about it.
Everyone has experienced this at some stage. You may have had an argument with a friend, family member or colleague and subsequently not been able to get the subject of that argument out of your mind. You may find yourself frustrated initially and then the more that you think about it, the more and more annoyed and angry you become. Whilst this is a perfectly normal occurrence, for many people it is something that happens occasionally, not frequently. For a person with anxiety it something that happens almost daily. Because sufferers of anxiety have difficulty regulating their emotions, when they become fixated on a particular thought or feeling, this can escalate out of control very rapidly, resulting in them losing the ability to focus on anything else. Emotional regulation also affects positive emotions such as love or happiness and can cause you to experience extreme highs. This is one reason why people with a mental illness can often make bad decisions around relationships. Often however, anxiety and emotional regulation problems present most strongly with negative emotions like fear, anger and frustration.
Getting back to my little episode in Bangkok, what started as a couple of simple concerns around whether I would be able to find the right platform and get to my connecting train, rapidly escalated in my own mind to a catastrophe. I was going to find myself lost in a foreign country, unable to get from A to B. I was going to miss my train, not be able to get my destination, which would cause me to forfeit my accommodation and subsequently my entire trip would be ruined.
The Emotional Merry Go Round
When you suffer from anxiety or other issues with regulating your emotions, normal thoughts and fears quickly spiral out of control. It’s like being on a merry go round that is gradually going faster and faster. It’s not just that you can’t get off, which would be the smart thing to do, but you're so caught up in the moment you don’t even realise you’re on the ride in the first place. This analogy explanation helps to explain why many treatments for anxiety will focus on some aspect of mindfulness. Mindfulness is one way of inserting a circuit breaker into the system to allow you to realise what is happening and bring you back to reality.
For the record, the trip across Bangkok was incredibly easy, I made my train with plenty of time to spare and the disasters I had been imagining stayed where they belonged, in my imagination.
A Model of Anxiety
The thing about anxiety is that it doesn’t just strike when you’re travelling our foreign city in a country where you can’t speak the language. It affects you in one way or another every day. People who suffer from anxiety are overly sensitive to the actions of those around them. They are likely to falsely interpret other people’s behaviour and blow out of proportion relatively simple day-to-day social and professional interactions. The diagram below shows a very crude model of this.
The diagram shows a series of relationships for a fairly typical individual. We all experience conflicting pressures on our time from our family, our friends, our work and a variety of other social influences. For many people managing these is not always easy, but is also not a daily chore. For someone with anxiety though, who lacks the ability to regulate their emotions correctly, the impact of these interactions can become extremely challenging. Because of the tendency for someone with anxiety to ruminate on the behaviour of both themselves and others, and to overreact emotionally to pressures that are placed upon them, circumstances which may be relatively routine for a mentally healthy individual, can rapidly escalate into an out-of-control situation for someone suffering from mental illness.
This can manifest itself in a number of ways. One is for the anxious person to create narratives to fit the actions of others. In the above diagrams, most of the actions are occurring independently of each other. Your friends want to see you, your boss needs you to work extra hours, you mum is complaining that you don’t call home enough. Each of these are pressures on your time, but the people placing these pressures on you are likely thinking more about their own circumstances than they are about yours. Rather than consider the situation in these terms however, the anxious individual will build a story in their mind to explain these interactions, and it usually a negative one.
Its not that my friend cancelled our night out because they were tired after a big week at work. They cancelled because they were annoyed at me because of some thing that did.
My boss isn’t asking me to work back because he’s under the pump from his boss and really needs to meet a deadline. Its because he’s a jerk who doesn't understand how hard I find this.
When I ring someone and they don't return my call it's not because they are really busy and have a lot on their plate. Its because they are lazy, or incompetent or are deliberately ignoring me .
All of the above examples share something in common, which is the natural tendency of someone with anxiety is to imagine conflict where none exists. For someone who already suffers from an impaired ability to cope with social situations or interactions, this is a real drain. Its also the start of the cycle of negative thoughts that can cause their mood to spiral out of control.
What Can We Take From The Above Observations?
Firstly, if you are someone who suffers from anxiety, understanding how your thoughts work can help you to keep them under control. Most treatments for the symptom of anxiety I have described rely on some form of mindfulness activity. Whether it’s a simple act, like taking a deep breathe and counting to ten when someone does something that frustrates you, through to a deep meditation activity, all of these activities are designed to insert a circuit breaker into your thought process that is starting to spiral. They are designed to force you back to reality and ground you there.
Secondly, we can pause and think before jumping to conclusions. Maybe the guy who just cut you off in traffic isn’t an arsehole, but has his pregnant wife in the passenger seat and is racing her to hospital as shes gone into labour. You'll most likely never know, so don't assume the worst.
Related to the second point is focusing on those things you can control. Even if the guy who cut you off really is an arsehole, there’s not much you can do about this. Ruminating on it is only hurting you. Its not having any effect on him. Letting your moment of frustration pass and getting on with your day is honestly the best thing you can do. When it comes to these types of situations there is a lot of truth in the old saying:
The best form of revenge is living a good life
Even if you don’t suffer from anxiety, you can still benefit from some of the suggestions above. Most people enjoy chilling out in some form or another. Chilling out is just another way of saying you want to relax and let go of the things that are bothering you. Keeping the above points in mind might help you to chill out a bit more often.
You can also pay special attention to the second point about not jumping to hasty conclusions. In America, it is estimated that 18% of the population suffer from some form of anxiety disorder. That’s almost one person in five. If you don’t suffer from anxiety, then chances are that someone you know does. Next time a friend or colleague is behaving strangely, try to cut them some slack. Worst case, you’ll stop yourself getting frustrated about things you cant control anyway. Potentially though, that person is dealing some stuff that you aren’t aware of, and a little but of understanding might be all they need to get through the day.
If you would like to know more about anxiety, here is the article that I referenced above that has some useful information.
8 Facts About Anxiety Disorders
If you would like some suggestions about how to better manage your anxiety the following two articles provide some tips.
ADAA Reviewed Mental Health Apps
Photo's by Jad Limcaco and Jared Rice on Unsplash
Written with StackEdit.
This really a serious problem, I've several experience with anxiety a volatility in my mind and it's disturbing, the reason why it exist probably in the environment we grow up. :)
That's a big part of it!!
This is an insightful article, as I have been in a couple of relationships with people who suffered anxiety. The hard part being, they were not "aware" of their condition and always blamed outside influences, which meant I often took the brunt of their melt episodes. One has sought help, and now understands and has coping mechanisms in place, the other is still having a hard time coming to understand that they have an issue.
What advice do you have for those who have close relationships with people with anxiety?
Its really hard to say. I used to work with a girl who had the same problem. Both her and her husband had really serious anxiety problems (imo). Neither of then was open to admitting it though. It was having some really bad effects on their kids, but they blamed these on outside influences, instead of accepting they had some things they needed to deal with themselves. I don't really have an answer I'm sorry.
As I know the person intimately, I believe I know some of the root causes of their anxiety. Its obvious to me. But coming anywhere near these topics and suggesting anything other than their repeated narrative is an invitation for nuclear war as it threatens their very identity. Their whole sense of self is built up around a story that they never seemed to have questioned and will defend to the death.
I’m probably go off topic a little bit but I think the point you make about threatening a persons identity is really incitful. People has very powerful dialogues about how they want the world to see them, and most of the time they convince themselves that their narrative is reality. If you threaten that identity they push back really strongly. Everybody is like this to some extent and I think explains why so many topics are difficult for people to have conversations about. I could write an entire post about this. In fact I just might just do that 🤔🤔😂
I think you should write about the topic.
I saw your article and I felt quite identified, hell, maybe I suffer from anxiety and I had not noticed. Although I have never had panic attacks, and I have not reached levels where I have to express my madness, everything has always remained in my head.
It is temporary, it happens a few times but it is quite unsettling, an escalation of probabilities in your head make everything go out of control, the solution for me is to always downplay it, stop thinking about it. Distracting me mainly by doing something else and then analyzing the situation calmly.
When I exercise and train, for example, all this goes away and I can be at ease, but if I have a lot of time without doing substantial physical activity, then I become more inclined to be anxious.
Exercise helps a lot! I should do more.
Dude!
This is a huge article! With some massive markdown skills included
I have a friend that has had PTSD for 10ish years. There was an event many, many years earlier that she hadn't really thought about... but then her hair started to fall out, and she'd suddenly experience these flushes of absolute terror. It was hardcore. She was exhausted all the time, and the meds she was on made her put on a ton of weight, despite being super fit anyway. It was brutal, and we spoke about it all at length. She had a science background and started a whole psychology degree because she had learnt so much and had such a strong interest... she manages it pretty well now... but I think it still pops up every now and then when she doesn't keep on top of things.
Thanks man! I really like blogging about this stuff. I might have found my niche 😂😂😂
I can identify totally with your experiences. I also suffer from anxiety disorder and have had my fair share of panic attacks. South Africa being a violent society with a history of internal conflict that goes back generations has a high incidence of PTSD. Thank you for sharing, I will be watching your posts in the future.
Thanks @petruska13
I think it helps just to know you’re not alone when you go through these things!
Very interesting information. I am constantly having anxiety problems and now I understand what is the trigger mechanism of the specific situations that I experience on a daily basis. When I experience anxiety I flee or evade the situation so that it does not affect me and does not cause any lack of control over my life but generally, that would not improve my psychological situation at all. Now with this information that you have shared I have realized what path or what recommendations I could follow or put into practice to improve. thank you very much.
You are welcome @isnaldo. I’m glad you found something in the post that will hopefully be helpful to you!
My friend @aghunter thanks for this information!!
Now that I read this, I realize that I probably have an anxiety disorder, and I didn't know it. I do many of the things you've shown me. I even sometimes get negative ideas as described in paragraph 14... I get carried away many times by people's pressure. I've tried to control that and improved a little bit, but it still affects me sometimes.
What could I do about anxiety, buddy?
Exercise is for it. I also find meditation is good. You don't have to do intense meditation, just 2-3 minutes when you are feeling stressed can help a lot.
This is the app I use. Its great:
http://www.10percenthappier.com/mindfulness-meditation-the-basics/
Hey man thanks very much :) I'll use it...
Clearing my mind by actively silencing it helped me tremendously in the process of letting go fears and anxieties. This was necessary for me in the beginning because my mind was too chattery to simply stop it, and more importantly these anxious thoughts are linked to the memory of unhealed energy. We usually reprocess such traumatic events in the dream state but most feel rather "haunted" by these dreams, which often entails that people have these dreams their whole life because feeling "haunted" is a state of suppression where energy gets stuck in us.
For me, actively clearing my thoughts was the way out of outdated thought patterns and after some time I released them in the dream state. Whenever I released the thoughts' energetic essence in the dream state, I woke up shortly afterwards and felt the physical release, I literally felt how my body releases density and became lighter..step for step more
I've never experienced much related to dreams, but I have a friend who is really connected with her dreams. She has had a lot of experiences that sound very similar to what you are describing!
First of all i am really feeling sorry for you for the situation you faced at Thailand and when we meet with anxiety sometimes the process of anxiety doubled when we are alone because there is no one who can change our phase of thoughts through an communication, and i can relate with your emotions because i also faced the anxiety and it gives really weird feelings when it comes at places where we have many people around us. And yes in my opinion you have shared absolutely right suggestion means if you want to overcome this situation first of all we have to understand our thinking process means which thoughts really effects us and we should do those things which gives you happiness and pleasure because that will keep you away from your weaknesses and i have also applied the idea of counting 10 many times because this process is really important in the process of controlling of anger because anger not lasts for much time if we divert our focus and this counting of ten can help you to divert your focus. Thanks for sharing your experience with us and i hope that it will help fellow people also. Wishing you an great day and stay blessed. 🙂
If we could understand the mental conditions in an effective way, then that could definitely avoid incidents like school shootings and all. According to the reports, there has been 12 school shootings for the 9 weeks in 2018 (info). Thanks for sharing this. Really helpful.
very good your post
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I'd consider flagging this. You're profiting off other people's hard work.
I thought about it!
Then perhaps we should both do it. I just did, as I checked their profile and they have been busy doing this on many other posts. The only service this provides is to earn them profits from your hard work.
So I’ve thought about this (probably too much😂😂😂) and I’m on the fence on this one. You could make an argument that they are providing a service to the visually impaired that enables them to interact with the platform. In reality there probably aren’t a lot of blind people using steemit but you never know!
To me, a "service" that is not asked for is like junk mail, and in this context, spam.