¶ An absolutely fascinating aspect of human life is that each of us is allowed to believe whatever we choose to believe, regardless of evidence or input from the world around us. Within that line of thought is the phenomenon that we are not able to explain some of the things we experience about ourselves and our world. And still more within that line of thought is that there seems to be many things we humans just cannot know - yet it is seemingly vital to us that we know - so we tend to substitute what we choose to believe in the place of knowledge and then say to ourselves and maybe to others - I know.
¶ Sight, sound, taste, smell, touch, thought, and feeling, to me, are the seven most basic human senses. A former professor of mine likes to believe that we think something and then we feel something about what we thought; like a judgment of or a personal reaction to the thought. I like to believe that my conscience (whatever it is, wherever it is) is evaluating my thoughts and using my feelings to indicate its judgment. Another theorist postulates that our undirected thoughts (the words bouncing around in our heads) are a reflection of brain activity bouncing back from an electric field that is measurable and appears to exist around the brain because our brains function by processing micro-electric impulses. I like to believe that the part of me using the word I is somehow wired to or within this bio-mechanical contraption (body) that I must use to express myself and manipulate my environment. My thoughts, then, would be communications between (I) and this body.
¶ I, the part of me that uses the word I, is somehow occulted within my body (or wired to it) and somehow uses it to manipulate the world around me and express itself-myself. When I refer to my "self": I seem to mean the whole formed by this body and the part of me that uses the word I. My brain might be processing my experiences like a task manager pulling together input from many sources then evaluating all that input separately and together and mixed until feelings (assessments, judgments) about each and all become clear enough to be sent to the part of me that uses the word I where decisions will be made and returned for execution. Emotion might be formed when any of several or all of my senses combine or coalesce to form a sort of informed energy that pushes the part of me that uses the word I toward a particular decision. Whether or not I choose to actually engage that decision might be yet another sense, maybe horse sense, or maybe this result is what we call our will. This is as far as my imagination has yet brought me toward understanding how I function and maybe as far as I will ever get while I am stuck within this biomechanical device that we call a human body or corpus real or whatever. I cannot point to the part of me that uses the word I because it is somehow occulted within this contraption which I manipulate or animate. All I can point to are the results of that manipulation or animation. I choose to make those results positive and nice to see.
¶ It seems important to me that we accept ourselves and each other as mere humans.
We have limitations. While each of us are equal in value, we are not always equal in limitations. Each of us has some innate capacity to store up unprocessed information and to process information as it comes. It also seems important to note that each one of us will perceive the same event, the same situation, differently. Each one of us can manage only so much input at once. And each of us will carry an ever changing burden of unprocessed input. Each of us may, at any moment, be close to or far from the threshold at which our capacity to process information will be overwhelmed by one more bit of input from one more event or a stream of input accumulating from a series of events.
¶ When we are inundated by stressful input; each one of us will become overwhelmed by it all, at our own threshold which is set, in part, by the current level of unprocessed input. When that occurs, we "numb out", we enter a state of mild to severe shock, our inner life is reduced to the basics of survival and endurance, and our brains make minor but important changes which help us to survive and endure the moment. We, then, are in a situation that requires us to work through that overload of information (thoughts, feelings, conscience, emotions), get it all sorted out, evaluated, used for learning and decision making, and placed on a mental shelf for later use. That process, itself, can be a daunting task. What often complicates the task are the changes that occur in the brain when humans become overwhelmed. What was meant to help the person survive and endure that moment of being overwhelmed will now distort our everyday input. Surges of hormones and neuro-chemicals make it vitally important for each of us to question: "is it chemical or is it real". An everyday sense of being vulnerable can be so distorted that it seems like all of humanity might be destroyed at any moment. Networking with other humans is crucial. Trusted friends, professionals, or family members (sometimes all three) are needed for objective input and support during the time we need to work our way through the information that overwhelmed us, accept it as one more moment within a lifetime of moments, evaluate and store all the input from all the factors that precipitated that overwhelming moment, and get it all stored on a mental shelf for later use.
¶ It is important for us to realize that stress accumulates when we fail to (or can not) process the input from each day of our lives. This point is vital because we often fail to recognize it when the accumulation of unprocessed, stressful input puts a person near to or just beyond their personal threshold. Severe, acute moments of traumatic stress AND moments of accumulated overload can be and maybe should be evaluated within the concept of Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome come Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because both introduce the same sequelae, symptomata, and concerns.
¶ P.T.S.S. vs, P.T.S.D. → Symptoms within any syndrome can be troublesome or even problematic with daily efforts to direct our lives and function as a unique person. Within a disorder, the symptoms disrupt that effort to live and impair our ability to perform the critical functions of being ourselves.
¶ CAVEAT: This primer presents some helpful rambling of thoughts about Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome and Disorder from within the minds and experiences of just a few persons. Every other mind on earth SHOULD BE GIVEN EQUAL VALUE. Each one of us is the world's leading expert on matters pertaining to our self. We each have six billion experts to consult and appreciate and enjoy.
¶ Some signs of distress when the assistance of a therapist
( or trusted human ) should be considered are: persistent feelings of dissatisfaction, problems with relationships, difficulty in sleeping, sexual concerns, problems at work, feelings of loneliness, moodiness, sadness, depression, failure, stress or anxiety, problems with alcohol or drugs, feelings of disassociation, problems with anger, feelings of being out of control, panic, free floating anxiety.
¶ If feelings are a raw sort of energy and thoughts are a driving force, then emotions can be viewed as a combination of thoughts and feelings. Emotions, then, are feelings which have gained the driving force of thought. Emotions can be laden with raw power (a wild horse) that will follow the course of thought (reigns). We would be wise, then, to consider carefully what we think because our thoughts will stay the course of our emotions. If we fail to apply careful thought, emotions will follow whatever accidental course might evolve from random or careless thought. If those thoughts are negative, we might harm innocent people or ourselves. If those thoughts are positive, we might miss an opportunity to choose a more beneficial outcome or we might even do harm by allowing a positive to occur in the wrong place or at the wrong time or in the wrong way. Acknowledge emotions quickly. Study them fervently and choose wisely the course you want them to take. They are a great source of energy which we can apply to any constructive and beneficial task under any circumstance - if we choose.
Introduction Synopsis Discussion Research
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An Open Discussion Of Religion and Post Trauma Living