Does serious illness increase the risk of developing PTSD?
We wrote about this topic back in 2011. At that time, a study in the Journal of the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons reported that 20-51% of patients who suffered musculoskeletal injuries went on to develop PTSD.
Another study, from the Journal of Psychosomatic Research, found that 36-45% of the 121 ovarian cancer survivors in their longitudinal study experienced PTSD at some point between the start of their chemotherapy treatments and their 3-month post-treatment follow-up appointment.
Overall, that’s a lot of patients developing PTSD after undergoing treatment for illness or injury.
Given the amount of time that has gone by, and since this is an important topic for practitioners, I wanted to update you with some new findings.
In May 2015, Critical Care Medicine published a metaanalysis conducted by Ann M. Parker, MD and a team from Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. Their survey found that, at 1-year post-hospitalization, PTSD symptoms remained present in 20% of critical care survivors.
Parker and her team arrived at this figure after reviewing 40 articles that represented a combined total of 4,260 participants. Articles were screened to include only studies that evaluated adult nonspecific participants, measured PTSD symptoms using a validated instrument at least 1 month post-ICU, and contained at least 10 patients.
In another study, also conducted at Johns Hopkins, a team led by Joe Bienvenu, MD looked at co-occurrence between general anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptoms. They looked specifically at co-occurrence at 2-year follow-ups for people who had been treated in the ICU for acute lung injury.
Bienvenu and his team assessed participants at 3, 6, 12, and 24-month post ICU treatment, using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, anxiety and depression subscales, and the Impact of Event Scale-Revised.
This study found that more than half of the participants exhibited detectable symptoms in at least one area (general anxiety, depression, or PTSD symptoms) at a 2-year follow-up. A majority of these participants demonstrated co-occurrence of multiple symptoms.
You’ll also find this published in the May, 2015 issue of Critical Care Medicine.
Now, these studies raise interesting questions I’d like to see investigated further. In particular, I’d be interested in learning whether participants were responding to their experience in the ICU or the life-threatening event that put them there originally (having ovarian cancer, for instance).
As a community, we need to be mindful of possible mental health issues resulting from injury, illness, and the medical interventions used to treat them. There may be a substantial group of patients who aren’t receiving the psychological support that they need.
What interventions would you suggest to decrease PTSD symptoms for patients undergoing treatment for serious injury or illness? Please leave a comment below.
Somatic Experiencing (SE) works incredibly well for PTSD and physical as well as other trauma.
Beth, I have found SE incredibly powerful in treating PTSD.
I suspect that working in a Trauma unit and later a Hospice, counselling terminally ill and grieving people has a similar effect, compounded by the serious illness of my baby and the sudden death of my father.
the manifestation being Fibromyalgia and CFS?
On October 2013 I received the cancer diagnosis. Diagnosis, tests and treatment gave me PTSD symptoms. I received EMDR therapy and symptoms remits. Inspired in my own experience I conducted a Humanitarian Assistance Program (HAP) with female adult cancer patients with different types of cancer and cancer-related PTSD using the EMDR-Integrative Group Treatment Protocol to administer EMDR therapy in a group format. Results were encouraging and last may the Journal of EMDR Practice and Research (Vol. 9. N. 2) published an article about this HAP/Research project named: Pilot Research Study on the Provision on the Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Integrative Group Treatment Protocol with Female Cancer Patients (Jarero et al. 2015).
Sincerely
Ignacio (Nacho) Jarero.
To Anne: Thanks for the notice on the meditations. They are good and appreciated.
As a clinical psychologist, having worked in two large teaching hospitals in paediatrics, I have certainly seen PTSD developing after life threatening illness diagnosis and also after surgery in children and young people. The core of the trauma can be either the profound realization of one’s own mortality, realization of permanent separation from parents, or the way that it is handled by care professionals or a mixture of these plus other stressful events. I have found that often a person can overcome overwhelming circumstances, but it is what happens next that is important ie. while they are vulnerable and their threat vigilance is high. It can be this that determines whether their reaction follows on to the symptoms of PTSD. It is important that care staff have training in this area. Trauma focused CBT or EMDR are effective treatments for children and young people as well as adults.
Ask questions. Listen. Respond appropriately. I recently experienced the greatest degree of disrespect from an anesthesiologist as Inexpressed my history of trauma surrounding anesthesia when Inwas a child. I was in the middle of telling him that I used to be out to sleep with ether…mid sentence he interrupted and said, “we no longer use ether.” I told him that I was aware but that I didn’t want an oxygen mask on my face until I was asleep. He proceeded to tell me he was going to give me versed to relax me. I told him that was fine but please…mid sentence he gave me the versed and I was out. He literally gave me the meds to shut me up mid-sentence. I just needed him to listen, ask questions, reassure me, and be kind.
Assuming that the physical health issues are being addressed, I think it is very important to acknowledge what is going on mentally. Is there fear or agitation ~ address these symptoms. Turn on your listening ears and hear what isn’t being said. Introducing meditation and TAPPING are ways to focus on the present. Music is a healer as is a dog or other animal. Getting into nature ~ gardening or riding a horse has been known to calm us.
Guided imagery is also a calming factor.
What we do so often is focus ONLY on the physical healing and more needs to be done with our mental healing.
Anne, thanks for the notice of the meditations. They are good & appreciated.
I recomend EMDR
as someone who has PTSD its facing all the worries that linger in the back of your mind,a whole life change is needed to rebuild that which has been taken be it from a injury or an illness,or in some cases an event.you find you stagger from one trauma to another,m not a professional in this matter,i am an interested party,to find what i can do ,learn from these articles to make my life better,i carry on and am successful in my chosen carer ,abundance of love and good relationships have healed a lot in me,but i still can not let go of the isolation the trauma brought on.i have never recovered from that and i have been told by a eminent physiologist i float above my feelings,i disconnect,the same with people,so that has remained.I am hopeful that the path i am following now through mind valley will do a lot to bring me to myself,be nice to meet me thank you for allowing me to comment.
Trumatic experiences are not only stored within the mind but also within the body. I’ve been treating people with PTSD for over the last four years and I’ve seen people recover using EMDR. I am in EMDR therapist and it brings joy to my life to see people recover from trumatic experiences.
Ruth,
Thank you for posting this. I have been amazed and inspired reading some of these posts. I totally think the healthcare system needs to have therapists available in some shape or form when these things happen. When I was T-boned in a car accident in late 2013, I IMMEDIATELY began doing EFT on myself while in the ambulance. The ambulance people asked what I was doing and were fascinated with it. I was EDUCATING THEM! It was exciting. They were open. An Asian doctor who treated me in the hospital was especially intrigued. I think ambulance techs should learn about EFT especially.
However, and here I want to comment on Kevin’s post:
Kevin, your post was so spot on. Since my accident, my sense of community and touch has faltered significantly for various reasons, despite my own best efforts. Plus, about a year after the accident, I was diagnosed with PARKINSON’s, which through my OWN research found out is ALL ABOUT CONTROL! In addition, I grew up in a traumatic family, so I already had the incessant HYPERVIGILANCE going on. I just recently had a coach session with Joan Sotkin ( she works more with financial trauma, but is writing a book about this need for connection, and that is in the editing phase right now) and she pointed out to me how disconnected I am. Gosh I could go on and on and on. THere are so many layers to this, as I am sure for all the others on this list too. As a side note, one thing I have been doing is using the ” still point inducer” ( a cranial sacral tool) that anyone can buy themself ( under $30). IT does induce a deeper state of relaxation. I do believe that somehow treating the brain stem itself is also critical. Anyway, thank you to every one here for sharing and I am deeply inspired to tackle my current issues with renewed vigor ( the ” fake ” parkinson’s and the severe adrenal fatigue) which keeps rearing its head using all that I know. Incidentally, my sister , who is a nurse, was not useful to me in any way at all during any of these events. She didn’t touch me ONCE. She didn’t even want to talk about any of it. Education is clearly needed, and LOTS more of it….
I think the art of mindfulness or meditation are very effective. Also EMDR is very helpful with PTSD to lower the anxiety levels.
A few years back, I worked with returning PTSD afflicted vets.
I’ve heard their stories as did the faculty, staff and students at the college they were attending. They needed to talk, tell their stories and we, the faculty, staff, and students needed to listen and hear them. I ‘m a veteran so I had a sense of what they might be going through.
Ironically, recently, despite my qigong practice, yoga, and such, I went through, and I’m still going through a major musculoskeletal injury induced by a fall.
The pain was relentless, debilitating, protracted, a non-stop 24/7 no escape event. It persisted meaning that I couldn’t sleep or find any sort of relief whatsoever.
I sought medical advice which turned out to be, as I see it, grossly inadequate. Apparently, the hospital/clinic was unwilling, for reasons best know to them, to provide me with the pain management I needed.
I suspect their decision was based on hospital protocol by that I mean that it was top-down and political rather than medicallly appropriate and compassionate.
Over time, given my lack of sleep, I became disoriented, depressed; my thinking processes were compromised. It was a nightmare.
I’m still working through it although I’ve fortunately come out the other side.
Chronic, debilitating pain, psychological and/or physical is just that no matter what the cause.
And yes, I’m resetting my nervous system after trauma.
There are always piles of paperwork to sign and rules/regulations to read in preparation for any planned hospital stay. Unfortunately that is not a guided preparation for the emotional impact of serious illness/injury.
There are many children’s books available now that prepare young ones for medical intervention. I have written extensively regarding building a bridge for the very young child as that child moves through the process of responding to changes, grief, loss.
There is not, to my knowledge, such literature or guidance for the newly injured or recently diagnosed adult facing an intervention.
We regress to a younger state without realizing it. We wear hospital garb, lie on uncomfortable beds, receive a number of people with “jobs” to do. We see our anxious family members looking on. The helplessness we feel, the way we interpret the looks around us can bring forth childhood memories of unresolved loss. This can hasten and lock in a reaction that we call PTSD.
I was fortunate to have a Reiki master with me at a breast biopsy. I felt a greater source bringing my body/brain/spirit in alignment. Years later, I was treated with kindness and the application of essential oils and targeted massage to help my body endure a narcotic/opiate FREE knee replacement.
I have a lot to say about this issue, having lived in a 21 year relationship with a man who, 22 years earlier had a serious and debilitating battle with spinal bulbar polio. We wrote many articles and one book together about loss/PTSD.
Hello, I think that everyone has some level of PTSD and that each persons trauma gets bigger and bigger throughout their life unless it is dealt with somehow.
I think parents unknowingly create this (Idid it myself) in the home. There are so many levels to PTSD. My son and I were in a really bad car accident when he was 2 months old. He had a bad skull fracture and couldn’t sleep until 18 months old after the accident. I fell that there was an untreated pressure on his brain when he laid down. I was developing my own PTSD from him being up around the clock and his screaming throughout the night. I took him to many doctors and they all said he was fine. He had one ear infection after another…my husband and I were arguing about who would care for him. Finally I met a Kinesiologist that treated him and said first thing…”What in the world happened to his head?” It hadn’t healed at all. After his treatment with the Kinesiologist, my son began taking regular naps and slept through the night.
I definitely had PTSD and was more nervous about things after that, creating reactions that weren’t true to my previous way. My son developed cancer 20 years later and I understand in Chinese Medicine that there is a correlation. We all have it and I believe that we need to take a deeper look. It is my dream to begin with couples that are about to get married, or have a baby…then school age children, teachers, etc. When we ALL become AWARE of our inner stories, we not only heal them but we then can all reach our full potential.
I have been most interested in PTSD since I began having symptoms after a Kundalini awakening that lasted 17 months. It has been very confusing for me. The extreme fear that I felt I used as a tool to keep myself safe until I was able to function again, therefore I never saw it as a “bad” thing. During the Kundalini awakening, I was given a set of instructions to follow and I feel that having those instructions gave me a different perspective.
I have finally been able to understand that the terror that I felt and the symptoms that followed must be PTSD but seeing it as a “good” thing allowed me to use it to my benefit! My fear has taught me how to transform my life into a more secure lifestyle. There have been many blessings and messages in the fear. I have had to work very hard to understand the fear and use it to my benefit, it did not come naturally.
I can’t help but wonder what PTDS patients are taught and how they learn to process the fear. I was unable to see a counselor for help as I had no health insurance and was unable to work for almost two years.
Thank you for taking the time to check out my perspective.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth
I have seen acupuncture decrease PTSD symptoms for patients undergoing treatment for serious injury and illness. If you want to know more, please let me know.
Most recently, studying pre and perinatal psychology, I’ve become quite convinced that it begins at the beginning….with drugs, alcohol, smoking, domestic violence, rejection of the infant, many and VARIOUS BIRTH INTERVENTIONS. It’s as if adults cannot mature if their EARLY past was less-than-safe, private, naturally birthed, without hormones added to the stew, for a mother who was fully supported and adequate funds to make a good life.
I don’t know if I’ve shared these BIRTHING analogies with you, but here they are again: C-Sections — Obesity due to not enough microbiome, because of not having traveled through the birth canal. C-Sections to *stop the mother’s pain*–baby turns into an adult who may like CUTTING to control emotional pain and depression.
SADISM, aggression, and rage seem to come from unnecessary and painful Forceps use; Circumcision trauma–especially to those who had no anesthesia; Head traumas.
Out of the AMNIOCENTISIS era comes multiple PIERCINGS and TATOOS…imagine that sentient baby getting poked and living through the fear…sometimes they died from gangrene.
Check out the era of the first EPISIOTOMIES: that was when the suicide attempts were by WRIST-CUTTING.
These were from very early and IMPLICIT memories
I have 2 clients I am seeing for PTSD both have severe chronic pain both began the symptoms sometime after the onset of the illness
With a Ph.D. In Integrative Medicine and a nine month hospitalization following a surgeon’s mistake, I know both sides of a hospital bed! Do I have PTSD? Yes, around medical needs . Ruth, in my case, the PTSD came from being both life-threatening for several months and the medical care received. American medicine is great for trauma. If I didn’t receive the “care” I got, I wouldn’t be here today. Yet the “care” was medical procedures that were tortuous at times; respect for my emotional needs were neglected, yet all was acceptable as ” standard of care..” My social worker handled a whole floor of patients and while she got to know me and my family, she was busy more with handing out food and parking vouchers than addressing psychological needs. There is so much that needs to be done in this area
I would treat with breathing meditation to balance the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems. A deep and gentle inbreath through the nose, and a slow outbreath through the mouth like you are breathing through a straw. Over time the outbreath should be twice as long as the inbreath. This could take awhile for one with PTSD as the sympathetic nervous system is in control and the cortisol levels go up. And when that happens, blood supply to the belly and to the PFC is constricted. It also reduces the efficiency of the immune system. So practicing this simple breath exercise, which can become a meditation as one focuses on the breath, can activate the parasympathetic nervous system and lower the cortisol levels. Over time one can learn to breath 4-6 breaths per minute.
I am curious since EBP is highly stressed in social work. I am just shy of obtaining LCSW; yet highly intrigued with NLP and energy psychology. From what I have gathered these are NOT recognized as evidence based practice. What are the thoughts on this?
Also I am working toward further expertise in crisis negotiation and intervention. Highly interested in what can be useful…
I am working in very rural Nevada am a law enforcement officer and combat veteran. I am striving to be a resource for this population and all involved in crisis type situations, PTSD
Thank You!
Dawson Church is doing great work in getting EFT energy medicine researched and recognized, Check out his veteran’s stress project. NLP has a 30 year record of success with this.
From personal experience I would treat with EMDR
What interventions would you suggest to decrease PTSD symptoms for patients undergoing treatment for serious injury or illness?
I would recommend energy healing because it works, not only on the physical, but also on emotional states. Primarily, I would begin to focus on releasing FEAR. This is key for someone who is critically ill or in recovery (for many of the reasons stated in other comments.) While some techniques place the onus on the patient to learn, remember and to use them, with energy healing they are able to receive and have someone else nurture and care for them.
Thank you for the research confirmation of ptsd and serious illnesses. My diagnosis, surgery, and treatment for cancer came during the days of 9/11. I’m convinced the shock and fear of those combined events further contributes to ptsd symptoms on canciversaries and are enhanced be the media replays of 9/11.
NLP phobia cure works great for PTSD. Its an imprint in the lower brain centers when a life threatening event happens. Work with the unconscious thru imagery or the body is a must. Feldenkrais movement is of course excellent for releasing these protection patterns. I like a 3 pronged approach of NLP, Feldenkrais and EFT for the energy pattern. Heartmath biofeedback also useful for learning to feel and maintain the more coherent state. Sadly I’ve encountered more resistance from psychologists than Drs at my hospital. One tried to tell me that only psychologists could do guided imagery. Pretty funny to someone who has been cerrtified at hypnosis for 30 years.
Trauma is a physiological issue that can’t be fully relieved by therapies that only address the frontal cortex and mid-brain. To really release the trauma, you must work with the brain stem. Therapies such as Tension/Trauma Releasing Exercises (TRE) and Somatic Experiencing (SE) work from the brain stem, or bottom up. TRE could be taught to patients easily for them to do at home on their own. SE would take more time, but having hospital staff have some basic understanding of what trauma really is would be hugely helpful.
I completely agree with you about the physiological issue and the midbrain
So I would use TRE too, so they can work at home and empower themselves
and BRAINSPOTTING (so efficient) at the office
EMDR or EFT.
I am currently 56 years old. I got diabetes at 12 and leukemia at 50 and have experienced PTSD. Suggestions for intervention:
Therapeutic talk about early religious experiences and beliefs is very important. I was living with unconscious feelings of shame based on early beliefs that “good things happen to good people” and if I was sick I must be bad and God hates me. It feels silly to type this because my adult belief system is so different. I was quite surprised when I realized that the early beliefs were stored in me and would reoccur about two days before any doctor appointment. I would feel like I lost all adult coping mechanisms and would get angry and tearful for what seemed like no reason.
Reparenting techniques and tapping helped a lot. It was very important for me to acknowledge the fact that I really did think God hated me. I still get the PTSD but my coping mechanisms help me get through it a lot faster.
Having spent some years in the hospital setting in cardio-pulmonary and respiratory care before changing careers it was well known and expected that many patients experiencing a cardiac event would go through a period of anxiety, depression, hyper-awareness of their own heartbeat, fear-fullness of being alone etc. Those who became involved in cardiac rehab seemed to move through that period more quickly while others became socially isolated and fearful of traveling or being away from sources of support or resuming normal activities when released from restriction.
As I have become trauma aware and trained in my field I certainly can look back with clarity to those symptoms of PTS/PTSD in ER ICU and Cardiac patients. The horror of the Twin Towers taught us that immediate crisis counseling does indeed reduce the impact of trauma and incidence of development of PTSD. Medical staff probably don’t have time to do much with this but some quality psycho-ed, assessment and brief CBT skills teaching, along with resources at discharge, could go a long way toward helping survivors of any type of trauma cope and above all – know what they may experience can be very normal and transient. That is empowerment, prevention and makes sense from any vantage point.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction has been show to help people with PTSD.
Many years ago, after I was diagnosed with tinnitus and severe hyperacusis, I developed a treatment program which included cognitive behavioral treatment and hypnotherapy, to help patients and or clients manage symptoms which caused depression, anxiety, and great debilitation in their lives. It was not until I recognized symptoms of PTSD, and began treating clients with that in mind, that I saw real healing (of psychological distress). The study of neuroplasticity and mindfulness ( through NICABM’s programs) helped me recognise the potential for PTSD in almost any client with a long history of problems as well as recent life changes like injury, illness, sudden poverty, death – you name it.This awareness on my part has taken my practice out of the dark ages.
Ruth, this is a very interesting and important idea. And I have had many clients come to me with untreated trauma stemming from diagnoses and/or interaction with the medical establishment. It is good that you are bringing this up. It is such an important conversation.
I have read all of the comments thus far and am happy to read such a wealth of experience and perspective. What I finding troubling is there still seems to be a great deal of focus on solutions that are primarily “physical” in nature. While I am not discounting any of these methods as being helpful I would like to draw attention to the psychological component and more specifically to the power of relationships, support and connection.
Many of the modalities “touch” on the emotional support, for example, the “power of touch” can have amazing healing effects and perhaps one reason is because when a person is touched the physical act elicits a physical AND emotional connection.
Others mention how “inhuman” and “impersonal” the healthcare system is and isn’t that just another example of disconnecting, emotionally, from people? When we feel disconnected is hurts. It doesn’t hurt like physical pain but it hurts us mentally and emotionally and typically for A LOT longer.
Perhaps that is the true root of PTSD that our healthcare system is NOT addressing. When do we ever truly address mental pain? Emotional pain? And is it ever addressed on a daily, on-going basis? I would venture to say the most common treatment for mental/emotional pain is “buck up” or “suck it up” and “get over it”. Is that the state of the art in healing?
However, I believe there IS a solution and it’s actually quite simple. CONNECTION. Connection is a basic human need and study after study shows that when a person FEELS connected and supported, as we experience in positive relationships with friends and family, our mental and emotional health greatly improves. I’m not talking about mental illness, which PTSD may be included, but I am talking about a person’s daily mental health and emotional well-being.
How do YOU feel when you truly connect with someone? How much quicker does a person heal from a physical ailment when they are regularly visited in the hospital? If we can connect and relate to each other, in a deeper and true way, on a daily basis then we will significantly improve our mental health, emotional well-being AND make great strides in treating ailments like PTSD whether on the battlefield, in the ICU or in the home.
From personal experience I completely agree wirh Kevin’s assessment of this very important topic… touching and being touched, with compassion; physically; intellectually, and spiritually is essential for holistic wellness.
Yes. Illness is a lonely experience. It is important to have people checking in, but be wary of support groups if your clients are in early stages of disease. Seeing people in far worse condition can escalate panic and anxiety. People would say things to me like, “Oh you have diabetes. My uncle lost his leg, my Aunt died from that, My brother went blind”
At support groups you can see a lot of ugly things that “may” happen.
Balance between people talking about the disease and talking about other things is important.
I couldn’t have said it better myself, Kevin.
Bravo!
I would like to add another therapeutic approach to all the excellent points made here: Hypnotherapy
is an excellent adjunct treatment for a variety of PTS issues and for pre/post op care.
The first and foremost factor for PTSD i have encountered is the fact of people being treated as cases, objects and not as human beings. Aggressively expressed diagnosis, not listening to what the person has to say and thus missing important information. Not allowing visits of close friends or partners that are no family members, rash comments of health personnel. Even devastating news can be heard if expressed with loving care and without imperative prognostics. We never can tell what the future of a person might be, everything is possible at any moment of our lives. Maintaining the honor and respect of a person warrants already an improved recovery rate.
This is not about acute illness, so perhaps it isn’t relevant for this question, but i have experienced having two chronic illnesses, one of which resolved and then i got another one about 15 years later (that appears to be resolving). I have also had a significant number of chronic illness clients in my practice. I think that at least some of the characteristics of PTS are present with these folks. Feeling trapped, a sense of their life being threatened (whether physically or the loss of their present life in dealing with all the health issues), for some, intrusive memories (such as when they got the diagnosis, or when people say thoughtless things to them about their condition, rude doctors who minimize their conditions or treat them roughly), hypervigilance (such as those who have food or environmental allergies to such things as perfumes), anxiety attacks, feelings of detachment or estrangement from others are some of the what i have noticed. I think examining our healthcare system and the psychological effects of going through it is an important topic.
Thanks for the info on this important topic. Working for a community agency, we are overwhelmed with clients with co-occuring issues. This is important information to help us understand what they may be dealing with. I learned about EFT years ago but have found it challenging to use in my current setting. However I am inspired to refresh my training and find ways to help clients dealing with PTSD.
I was diagnosed with breast cancer some three years ago, and used EFT all through my illness to keep on top of things, to process my emotions – and also to help me cope with the treatments. Admittedly I knew EFT before I got ill, but I’m sure it would help a lot of people. Sounds like a great idea to refresh your training, Ellen 😉 And EFT has the great advantage that it can also be used as a self help technique.
I would like to see meditation, EFT, EMDR, Reiki and the ICE method (developed by Lars Clausen) being used as a matter of course for all patients requiring long-term care or with a severe illness. Also, the atmosphere in hospitals generally inspires dread rather than trust and relaxation, so a complete environmental overhaul is needed. In my personal experience of fibromyalgia and a chronic, painful skin condition, patients are dismissed if their health problem is not “life-threatening”, regardless of the devastation it can wreak on their daily lives. The attitude that doctors are there to fix body parts and that the patient just has to pull him or herself together fails to address healing at the level needed by both individuals and society as a whole.
Magda, I completely agree that if a problem is not life-threatening it will mostly be dismissed even though it can significantly impact a person’s daily well-being.
The surgeon who excised a meucoepdermoid carcinoma from the left side of my mouth near my jaw neglected to tell me my tongue could be damaged. He permanently damaged y lingual nerve and told me for over a year it would heal. 14 months after he finally tole me the damage (loss of taste and ability to discern temperature coupled by a disturbing numb sensation and other odd pinching sensations) was indeed permanent. When I asked why that risk was not on the consent form and why I was not prepared for such an outcome her said – “IT WAS NOT A RELEVANT RISK”. That sent meant a tailspin of rage and the sensations in my tongue became a trigger for the rage of someone determining what is relevant for me and taking away my power to partner in my own care and healing. The promise of my tongue healing also prevented me from seeking other treatment that would have been timely. I learned the word iatrogenic and I have been learning about the trauma that consumed my life for the last three years while learning how to reclaim my life in the face of this surgeon being unable to apologize. It was the treatment not the cancer that took so much out of me and I still get flair ups of rage as I learn to resign my mental connections and shift from reaction to response. and hopefully to adapting. On my worst days I still wish this surgeon suffers the same relevant outcome by becoming a patient someday to a surgeon like himself.
As a hands-on energy healer, I work with clients daily, generally who come to me for some physical issues, often having had surgeries, perhaps following an automobile accident, or some other serious event who are generally dealing with a lot of pain. As we work together, they will go into a deep state, altered state, I call it, and sometimes will relive the event, or parts of the event while they are on the table. When they return from the altered state, they often seem to be a bit lost (probably are since they are a bit disoriented), they sometimes can recount something that they experienced that was shocking, but as they sit and become more present, their entire countenance changes. Their colour changes, their posture, their general demeanour, and their feelings about their world. In other words, the pain has lessened, and they just feel happier, more relaxed, more alive in their bodies. That’s been my experience of working with clients recovering from serious injuries…
Having both hospital privileges at Mercy Medical Center and having recently undergone a COMPLETE shoulder replacement at that hospital…and then a year later being hit by a car while walking across the street (breaking my elbow into 5 pieces) and after my second surgery, being hospitalized for a week at Unity Point/Methodist Hospital I don’t believe that either the MBA administrators of the hospital(s) nor many, if not most, of the physicians (and likely all of the surgeons) working therein would even consider ‘allowing’ EFT, EMDR or likely any effective ‘bottom up’ PTSD treatments prior to surgery nor after surgery…
I’ve listened to Steven Porges speak saying stated that ‘hospital care’ could be made much less traumatic and and thus less iatrogenic if hospitals would simply treat patients like human beings with all the respect appertaining thereto…including DURING surgery when we are thought to be completely ‘out’.
Sad, but I fear true, that what we mental health professionals know to be effective ways of treating and prevention of PTSD, DID and the like will never be integrated into standard medical care as it exists in this culture in that too many physicians see MD=’Me Doctor’as the case which then conveniently allows them to stay ignorant of the existing mental health literature to the contrary and supporting ‘bottom up’ thinking.
Brothers and Sisters…Let us all Pray…in the medical “Church of Reason” that seems to guide Hospital care if not most Medical care…Using exclusively Top Down thinking and techniques is a difficult one to dissuade controllers of hospital/medical care…but let’s not give up on the task as difficult as it may seem.
Amen!
Isabella, I totally agree. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
As I look back over traumatic events I have experienced including time and care in an emergency I am struck by the high contrast in our cultures regarding perceived (and then attended) ‘trauma’ and the daily trauma that most of us live with inside ourselves from generations of self-neglect and lack of our own self-care and focus. There are huge holes everywhere and with our increased self-awareness and communication of the sort that Ruth provides here we are ‘filling these holes’. In my experience there is a PreTSD that exists before the actual outside event that brings things/our lives forward for our attention as in – into the ‘physical’. The actual ‘event’ itself serves as a huge magnifier/ a unique space/time conjunction in super-technicolor that quickens and heightens all of our senses. This makes a ‘scar’ tissue/scare tissue over the ‘wounding’ and it is this that we call PTSD. We have witnesses in an emergency room whereas many times in life when and as we are experiencing trauma we have no witnesses at all. As life is a continuum it is very important we provide space, money, time for ourselves and for others in our lives as we can…actively addressing layers of daily trauma in relating in our communities and in our family. Over time, in my experience, I notice that the ‘wound’ no longer hurts and in fact – the ‘scar’/scare is turned into something sacred inside me that I can share with others.
I totally agree. Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
I can only share my own experience with getting one of the ‘ten rarest diseases’ ‘healthy at age 68’
I was mired down in feeling abject ‘hopelessness’ No cure, fatal. A big medication dispensing specialist l had no time for. A daily struggle with a broken health systems doctors in boxes, dying themselves, both physically and emotionally!, ll had to go it alone, 10 quick lessons on a computer at the senior center, l became an ‘Olympian’ researcher. I took my life back, put it in my ‘own hands’
I work at this research every day. What l have going for me is an unstoppable tenacity to not only beat it, but to ‘thrive’ I have this disease, but, it does not have me ! How am l doing it ! I get the recommended hyperbaric oxygen, (updated to CVAC ‘pod’), l went back to an ‘intensley feeling therapy, the best there is: l am blessed to be back doing Primal Therapy, Janov is an unsung hero ! My old therapist, who trained with him for 35+ years is now working two hours a week with me. My terror and ‘Hopelessness’ have GONE !
I do a hands-on CranioSacral (CST) session calming and preparing the body before surgery (often having the client’s body envision/ imagine /dialogue what outcome it wants and needs), and then another session immediately afterwards (as soon as possible.) I find that gentle, nurturing touch that resets the nervous system and allows the body to let go of the trauma is ideal for post surgical sessions. Often the person’s system feels frozen initially and the therapeutic presence of a grounded kind touch is just what the system needs to melt away the frozenness as the person is ready. The partnership of a strong, kind therapeutic presence along with non-invasive skilled touch is the key for success with this population.
How nice Suzanne, and so right.
I did a retrospective study of 45 clients bereaved of a person who died of cancer in a palliative care setting. 33% had PTSD using DSM-V criteria. In almost all cases it was watching their loved one dying which distressed them most.
Maybe as important as the preventative therapies mentioned, to which I’d add Somatic Experiencing, is training hospital staff in these treatments.
As a therapist and survivor of nearly a week in intensive care, I know that the traumatic interactions, procedures, and lack of anything that felt healing in anyway while being at the hospital solidified and intensified the ptsd I developed at that time. It was very shocking to experience first hand how
un-healing our medical paradigm truly is.
I believe that hands-on touch ( Reiki, Touch for Health, etc) is crucial for people in critical care. EFT is better a bit later when the trauma is past.
Ideal would be to use some form of Energy Psychology (EFT, Brainspotting, EMDR etc.) before surgery or at least when someone hospitalized. No need to wait for PTSD to emerge, any illness or trauma has psychological implications and physical recovery can be speeded up or be enhanced by treating the emotonal concommitants right away.
Yes, AnnaMaria, why wait until problems appear. EFT is easy, because it can be done anywhere, any time. I use methods created by Lucia Capacchione. Visioning a result you wish to see by making a collage is powerful – it works. You picture the outcome, by pictures that you can look at and write about. These methods also ease PTSD when it’s there.
Having worked with people with PTSD, I would choose EFT combined with TRE to help them release and let go of symptoms.
It’s a winning combo, at least for me.