Resource PTSD information

PTSD is real, painful, and disabling!
The injury is real. The injury is physical. It is not mere confusion or misdirected thinking, or sign of a weak character. It most certainly is not a case of “just get over it.”

If the body keeps sensing danger and sending out stress response signals. The person keeps living “in the moment.” If this goes on long enough or is severe enough, the person develops PTSD. Long after the original trauma ends, the person suffers from the symptoms. He or she lives and responds to “now” even though “now” may be a memory fragment from long ago. He or she cannot separate “now and safe” from “now and danger.”

The longer the vigilant state lasts the higher the chances of permanent damage. The cool hippocampus cannot get to the long-term memories. The amygdala keeps shutting them down. Without the ability to access the cool, cognitive solutions, the PTSD sufferer has trouble checking the safety of a current event, and sometimes cannot distinguish danger from safety. Current, safe events trigger flashbacks and other strange memory or emotional signals. So the brain keeps retriggering itself all over again into the hyper-alert state. Each new challenge and event is as dangerous as the last. This phenomenon is sometimes known as sensitization.

The Battle Buddy Foundation strives to raise awareness for Post Traumatic Stress, Traumatic Brain Injury, the 'invisible wounds' of war. TBBF also works to provide Post Traumatic Stress service dogs to the injured veterans who need them. The Battle Buddy Foundation is registered with the Ohio Sec. Of State as a nonprofit and our 501(c)3 status is pending.
LEARN MORE here at: www.Battle-Buddy.org
https://www.facebook.com/battlebuddy

Battle Buddy organization is putting out information to raise awareness and teach people about PTSD.  

http://www.ptsd.va.gov/

 PTSD Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at first was identified in soldiers.  Then they noticed other people with the same array of reactions but were not veterans.  From this beginning initiated a split in getting help.  Soldiers felt civilians couldn't possible understand the horrors of war.  Civilians didn't want to admit to being raised in a living hell.  Doctors, psychologist and social workers started grappling with this complex disorder that seemed to be effecting so many.  Definitions vary widely.  

NIMH gives a general over view http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorder-ptsd/index.shtml

Complex PTSD is explained here:
http://knowledgex.camh.net/amhspecialists/specialized_treatment/trauma_treatment/first_stage_trauma/FirstStageTT_ch6/Pages/criteria_complex_ptsd.aspx

The one thing that I learned from living with PTSD at a severe level that when I ignore it or pretend it is not there, PTSD runs my life.  If I face it head on, recognize its potential for interfering with my life, and adjust my behavior to fit my needs, I run my life.  I consider PTSD similar to diabetes, I can manage it or it can manage me.  Resources for soldiers give me valuable information on coping and more information.