PTSD & High-Performance

Addressing Post Traumatic?Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Learning about PTSD and trauma can help you and your family. This awareness will enhance your performance, and it will help you to protect yourself and those you care about.

PTSD is a symptom of trauma.

If we are truly after better human performance and we want those performance outcomes to translate into sustainable business results, trauma and its inner workings needs to have a seat at the table.

Let me explain:

When a doctor finds clear psychological symptoms, the victim may be diagnosed as having Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Although we often hear the term PTSD when reporters talk about soldiers returning from active duty, anyone suffering from a trauma can potentially be diagnosed with PTSD. It is important to recognize that PTSD is not a disease like chicken pox where you either have it or you do not. There are degrees of the condition and a good analogy to describe this is the example of being overweight. Any amount of excess weight is a concern, but more weight brings more problems. Just as everyone who is overweight should take action, we should all seek to address trauma held in our subconscious minds. As demonstrated in a study previously mentioned by Dr. Ganzel of Cornel University, people in New York at the time of the World Trade Center disaster clearly showed help was needed for the secondary victims despite the absence of the PTSD.

While studying PTSD, researchers have made some interesting observations. Women suffer more PTSD than men, as apparently men often have an easier time of letting go of a past trauma and moving on. Among other species, elephants are known to suffer PTSD. This is the basis for the saying that an elephant never forgets. The observation that PTSD is not confined to human victims indicates that PTSD does not come from our conscious thought.?

There are also Symptoms of PTSD to know ... but not to focus on.

PTSD has three main clusters of symptoms. The three clusters of symptoms are re-experiencing, hyperarousal and avoidance. A victim need not exhibit all symptom clusters to be diagnosed with PTSD.?

• The re-experiencing cluster involves the threat to safety or the loss associated with the trauma. It can include painful or stressful thoughts, flashbacks, and nightmares. In extreme cases, a victim might act as if they are crazy.?
• The hyperarousal cluster arises from how trauma changes the way we think. It can involve feeling agitated, angry, irritable, and confused. The victim is suffering from excess stress hormones and needs relaxation.?
• The avoidance cluster is based on how we relate to other people. It can involve a general numbing of emotions, a lack of interest in others, a feeling of isolation, and no purpose in life.

Below is an experiment conducted by Charles Darwin that demonstrates that we humans are not equipped to consciously control certain things. Today there is a growing hunger to figure out how this works and The Trauma Code, is part of that process.

Look at The Trauma Code, Unlocking your performance. Watch the cover video and when you have questions let me know.

Learning about trauma is good for people and is great for the bottom line.

Dr. Charles Darwin - Loses the battle

Dr. Charles Darwin made the journey to the London Zoological Gardens to try a simple experiment with a snake from India called a Puff Adder. The walls of the terrarium where the snake made its home were made of thick, clear glass. Dr. Darwin stuck his face against the glass with a “firm determination of not starting back if the snake struck.”? He was testing the ability of his conscious mind to stay in control. He knew that he was in absolutely no danger because of the glass barrier; and because he had never been bitten by a snake, he was not suffering from the trauma you experience afterward.?

Charles Darwin writes,

“As soon as the blow was struck, my resolution went for nothing, and I jumped a yard or two backward with astonishing rapidity. My will and reason were powerless against the imagination of a danger which had never been experienced.”? Darwin had set up a confrontation between his conscious mind and his subconscious mind. While it is not always as obvious as in Dr. Darwin’s experiment, our conscious actions are generally controlled by the dominant power within us – the subconscious mind.

We all suffer from trauma but trauma does not need to control us.

Stay tuned for future news/updates and remember: When your brain sees a better path, it is bound to follow that path.

Have a great day!

Doug

Free Trauma Checklist and more resources at www.DougSmithPerformance.com

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