![[dr. bob]](/dr-bob-sm.gif)
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 6 of 6. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by ClearSkies on March 21, 2006, at 16:18:45
Wow. Who would have thought that a bureaucratic process could initiate a PTSD trigger. Yet this is what has happened with my efforts to renew my passport. Boring details are on the Politics board; although I am certain that my experiences could be echoed at many places around the world.
But I'd never experienced such an event-specific trigger before. It was so much more intense than the original events and so traumatizing.. I can't really give it enough credit. It is hard to be gentle with myself, to give myself enough room to feel and let this pass.
I have to remember that these triggers WILL PASS. I am not going through the original event again. I am not in the same personal damger I felt myself in previously. This is just an autonomous reaction in my head, a firefighting trait to protect myself against further damage.
Breathing slow doesn't help. Thinking about any other possible thing else doesn't help. Giving myself into the feelings at the moment is terrifying, it is nasty and sweaty and dirty. No amount of showering can make me clean from this experience, of being made to feel inferior based soley upon the city and province where I was born. I am not from a country with a history of civil war - vigourous unrest, to be sure; but nothing that can be attributed to this upheaval of burocratic red tape.
ClearSkies
Posted by Dinah on March 21, 2006, at 18:06:56
In reply to PTSD *trigger* though it is very specific to me!!, posted by ClearSkies on March 21, 2006, at 16:18:45
I think based on what you've said here and there that I understand what you're going through. It's more than just annoyance and time spent.
I admire your thinking on the topic, as I've admired the ability you've gained to keep your moods in perspective. But I know it sometimes takes a while for those rational thoughts to seep into the more primitive parts of our brains. What was it noa called it? Flaming amygdalas?
Posted by fairywings on March 21, 2006, at 19:56:24
In reply to PTSD *trigger* though it is very specific to me!!, posted by ClearSkies on March 21, 2006, at 16:18:45
I'm sorry trying to get a passport has been so triggering clearskies. Wonder why they've made it so difficult.fw
Posted by ClearSkies on March 21, 2006, at 21:22:26
In reply to Re: PTSD *trigger* though it is very specific to me!! » ClearSkies, posted by fairywings on March 21, 2006, at 19:56:24
I asked my mom about her experiences as a post-war immigrant. She was a naturalized citizen of Britain, and then of Canada.
She says that things were so innocent then that the implied guilt - of being born in a country which, after she left, came under communist rule - was not even questioned. You were born in the wrong place, and you had to stand in another line at the airport because of it.CS
Posted by special_k on March 22, 2006, at 5:04:04
In reply to Re: PTSD *trigger* though it is very specific to me!! » fairywings, posted by ClearSkies on March 21, 2006, at 21:22:26
(((cs))))
i'm sorry i didn't realise what a nightmare it was turning into :-(
makes sense that it would be triggering.
don't know what to say. but i'm sorry it is such a pain in the *ss
:-(
Posted by fairywings on March 22, 2006, at 13:52:42
In reply to Re: PTSD *trigger* though it is very specific to me!! » fairywings, posted by ClearSkies on March 21, 2006, at 21:22:26
> You were born in the wrong place, and you had to stand in another line at the airport because of it.
>
> CSI had no idea it was like that CS! It's akin to the racial prejudice I've heard others express with such intense pain. I'm so sorry.
Wish ppl could just be kind and get along - even if it took blissful ignorance.
fw
This is the end of the thread.
Psycho-Babble Psychology | Extras | FAQ
Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.org
Script revised: February 4, 2008
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/cgi-bin/pb/mget.pl
Copyright 2006-17 Robert Hsiung.
Owned and operated by Dr. Bob LLC and not the University of Chicago.