{"id":30877,"date":"2012-12-09T14:02:05","date_gmt":"2012-12-09T19:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=30877"},"modified":"2012-12-09T22:45:49","modified_gmt":"2012-12-10T03:45:49","slug":"the-waiting-room-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2012\/12\/09\/the-waiting-room-blues\/","title":{"rendered":"the waiting room blues…"},"content":{"rendered":"

That brings me to PTSD. Over the years, I saw a number of patients whose current difficulties were born in extreme adversity – what used to be called Traumatic Neurosis. In training, I saw a lot of cases. It was the days of Viet Nam, and the cases filled our VA Hospital. Diagnosis wasn’t a problem since they told us as they walked through the door. But diagnosis of traumatic illness was difficult if the patient [or I] didn’t know they had it. Lenore Terr helped us with that. She identified not symptoms<\/em>, but signs<\/em> – things seen over time: <\/p>\n

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  1. Trauma specific fears<\/font><\/strong><\/li>\n
  2. Altered states of consciousness<\/font><\/strong><\/li>\n
  3. Repetitive experience – eg reinactments<\/font><\/strong><\/li>\n
  4. An altered view of the self and the world<\/font><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n
    During that era, PTSD became a fad diagnosis<\/em>. There was much to be gained – sympathy, services, validation of abuse, etc. and the diagnosis was corrupted for a time. It was like the chemical imbalance<\/em> phenomenon – a generic explanation for any number of problems or previous bad experience. But if you look at Terr’s signs<\/em>, there’s another way to think about things – the patient has a unique mental illness<\/font><\/strong>.<\/div>\n