Untreated post-traumatic syndrome is causing most of today's diseases of civilization, says trauma expert
When Alec Baldwin accidentally shot a cinematographer and injured the director of the Rust film with a weapon that was supposed to be just a safe prop in 2021, it significantly affected his life. Permanently? Post-traumatic stress disorder literally divides your life into "before" and "after". The former husband of Kim Basinger suddenly became "the one who shot a cinematographer during filming". Despite settling out of court and the accident not being his fault, the participants are still dealing with its aftermath to this day.
There was recently a report in the media that American actor Alex Baldwin is filming more episodes of the reality show The Baldwins, which documents his life. In all its rawness, the episode not only shows his chaotic life with seven children, but also the effects of post-traumatic stress, which he has been suffering from since the incident.
In the documentary, he reveals how the tragedy had a devastating impact on his health, triggering, among other things, OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder). The diagnosis of post-trauma is shown here in full force.
What is post-traumatic stress syndrome?
Post-traumatic syndrome arises after experiencing an extremely stressful event. It can be a single traumatic event, shock, but also long-term exposure to extreme stress, such as war, long-term abuse. Sometimes it manifests itself even years after the events, or maybe by reviving repressed memories of the trauma.
How can we imagine the state of post-trauma?
As constant anxiety, fear of specific things, but also generally of each new day. As a state after shock, after an event that shakes your life. Physical symptoms may range from breathing problems, panic attacks, to seemingly mild nausea or simply not feeling comfortable in your skin. Detached from reality. From the possibility of experiencing reality.
It may be spiced up with flashbacks, i.e. unwanted returns of memories. We cannot influence them by will, they simply ambush us and re-traumatize us. Sometimes these are images of already experienced events, sometimes suppressed memories emerge this way. This happens, for example, when remembering childhood traumas. This experience greatly reduces the quality of life, causes stress and the person tends to seek relief behaviors, which also include OCD or dependencies on alcohol, drugs, or work overload. War trauma or one-time stress, which Alec Baldwin experienced, for example, is one of the common triggers. For completeness, victims of such actions and the bereaved obviously experience this shock as well.
Zdeněk Jan Weber, director of the Institute of Trauma Healing and Prevention, therapist of somatic experiencing, and founder of the Men's Circle and Strength of Soul organization often encounters this topic. He states that a person with PTSD generally needs a safe environment and long-term physical and psychological support.
Zdeněk, what is actually happening in the head, emotions, heart of such a person?
It is not only happening in the head but most importantly in the entire nervous system. Post-traumatic stress is an unfinished and unintegrated instinctive holistic reaction to insane or threatening circumstances we've been exposed to, which didn't have time or space to be completed.
This of course implies a complete turning point in perception.
"A person under the influence of PTSD may experience a relatively colorful range of manifestations, both mental and emotional, relational and primarily physical. From inadequate behavior known as fearlessness to loss of behavioral measure, risk seeking to the opposite, which could be extreme fear, shutdown, numbness, loss of meaning and feeling of self, tendency to retraumatize and attract similar circumstances as the original one. There is a mix of thoughts filled with inadequate excessive fear in the head, or on the contrary, thoughts that lack any regulating fear. Major or complex or adverse or traumatizing events forever change us, we can never go back to who we were before. We should get rid of this illusion. At the same time, they transform us to our new version, to a new vision and understanding of life. Most people who recover from PTSD state that their life has changed for the better, they have a deeper relationship with life, they have found support in spirituality, which often opens up through such events. Recovery is a journey that irrevocably transforms us into a wiser, more compassionate and humble being."
Is post-traumatic syndrome at all treatable to the level that the individual will ever be on par with a healthy person?
"PTSD is a response of our nervous system to certain events, in this regard it is a temporary loss of normal homeostatic balance/health. If we are not recovered and do not have conditions to recover from PTSD, we live long-term in the loss of normal homeostatic balance, which manifests itself as extreme physical and mental health behavior. Dr. Gábor Maté argues that untreated and unrecognised PTSD hidden within the nervous system causes most of today's civil diseases. However, it is unrecognised, and so many post-PTSD symptoms are diagnosed as diseases and are often treated and medically managed, often quite unsuccessfully."
As I said in the previous paragraph, it's never possible to go back, life happens from back to forward. What awaits us after the stabilization of PTSD is a new reality, a new relationship to the body, life, and that which transcends us.
You also mentioned a spiritual overlap? Does this include working with guilt, because even an obvious victim often feels guilty towards the aggressor (victim – tyrant), or with finding the meaning of what happened to me... which can be very difficult. Because you can perceive that this particular life experience is completely unnecessary and destroys life...
"Healing PTSD involves therapeutic long-term work at both an instinctual and emotional and experiential, mental, spiritual, and social levels, so these feelings of guilt and the process of dealing with the consequences is a process that requires close and professional, and often spiritual support. PTSD cannot heal itself, it can be healed through a safe relationship with another person or persons not affected by these consequences, who understand. There are ways to support a person. Long-term support of close family and community, art, music, changing the environment, meditation, patience, self-reflection, and dance, yoga... Yes, trauma and its consequences will definitely always change us, but can indeed transform us to the most human and the most beautiful and the most genuine thing in us."
Four films that describe post-traumatic stress disorder
- Peaky Blinders (Thomas Shelby alone and in peace, suffering from the return of flashbacks and panic, compensates for it with workaholism)
- American Sniper (typical trauma after returning from war and development of trauma)
- The Silent Friend (perfect documentary mapping war trauma in combination with horse therapy, intimate insight into the male soul and horrors of wars)
- Without Fear (Jeff Bridges in the role of pure essence of PTSD survivor, focused on internal processes)
Source: Profimedia, author's article, personal questioning
