This is going to sound like a strange thing for a Chaplain to say, but I don't hate Christmas. After the videos I put up yesterday and the ones from today, I felt as if I should make that very clear.
This has been an awful year for most people and thinking about how we want to spend Christmas, but not being able to, can be really depressing, so I want to lift the mood a bit.
Last year we moved back to New England. We were able to enjoy Thanksgiving and Christmas with family and friends after 15 years living in Florida, spending it alone. It sucked! We missed them because we love them. It is because we all love one another, we are staying away this year.
Strange things happened this year that were not good but next year, strange things can happen that are good ones too.
Finding these videos lifted my spirit, especially the ones that I couldn't share that were too adult for most people (if you get my drift) and I hope they do the same for you.
It has been a hard year all around, and just when we thought things would get better, another let down. After months of no help from Congress, they finally got together and passed 2 bills. One to fund the government and the other to help so many of us suffering. When you run out hope, even less help than you need helps. And then just like that, we got a lump of coal.
It is hard to find something to hope for as the days tick away. When we get a glimmer of something good happening, then see it snatched away, it can be devastating. All of this got me thinking about PTSD. You can wake up one morning, feeling hopeful out of "nowhere" then do something that makes you feel better for a while. The next morning, you are depressed all over again. That is because that is not healing. That is manufacturing a high.
Healing takes time but it lasts. Sure you'll have some bad days, but instead of a rollercoaster ride, it is more like a kiddy ride. Healing is a give you give yourself and to others that lasts. Next year your life will be better because there are some things you do have control over in your own part of this world.
For now, enjoy these funny Christmas video songs and the last one is Paul McCartney Let It Be.
and the one we'll be thinking about tomorrow night!
My job has been to help people understand how much power they do have over PTSD, give them hope of healing and then get them to go to professionals who can offer more help than I can. If they fear it, they will not seek help. That is why the tagline of PTSD Patrol is Clearing The Way to #TakeBackYourLife.
That is the earliest post I could find that was still live online. While it goes back to 2005, I started working on PTSD online in 1993. I started writing about it in 1984, 2 years after researching it began for me, and a lifetime of surviving events. So far, it has been over 10 events, not counting the hurricanes I went through while living in Florida. I know what it does from living through them but I know more from living with my husband and leaning all I could about how to change our lives.
When the Pulse Nightclub massacre happened, I was not far away, and remember what happened, how people responded with love after this act of hate destroyed so many lives. The thing is, it kept destroying lives, including those of the first responders.
I was only able to help a few of them, because no matter how hard I tried, no matter how much I posted, my work was hard to find. To this day, whenever I read about people suffering with PTSD, instead of healing from it, my heart breaks!
Don't let more hearts break because they think there is no hope for them after surviving something that could have killed them. Help me give them the information and support they need so they get on the right road to find the help they need from groups and providers!
What The World Needs Now
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
No not just for some, but for everyone
Lord, we don't need another mountain
There are mountains and hillsides enough to climb
There are oceans and rivers enough to cross
Enough to last 'til the end of time
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
No, not just for some, but for everyone
Lord, we don't need another meadow
There are cornfields and wheatfields enough to grow
There are sunbeams and moonbeams enough to shine
Oh listen, Lord, if you want to know
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
It's the only thing that there's just too little of
What the world needs now is love, sweet love
No, not just for some, oh, but just for every, every, everyone
'What The World Needs Now Is Love’ is the charity single sung by Broadway for Orlando, an all-star group of artists from the theatre and pop world: Sara Bareilles, Idina Menzel, Audra McDonald, Gloria Estefan, Carole King, Sarah Jessica Parker, and many more.
The single was created to honor the victims of the Orlando shooting massacre at the Pulse Nightclub.
100% of the proceeds from the sale of the song will benefit the LGBT Community Center of Central Florida.
Today was not a good day. I was thinking about how lousy this years has been for everyone, especially people who had already been living with PTSD. I set out to see what the newest numbers were, knowing the trauma of the pandemic would increase the need for this work. Sadly, I was shockingly right.
These are the numbers from COVID-19 as of December 21, 2020
It is important to note that the majority of people exposed to trauma recover within 30 days and do not develop PTSD. The type and severity of trauma exposure strongly predicts development of PTSD, with perpetrated interpersonal violence having much higher rates of PTSD than exposures like transportation collisions, fires, and natural disasters like hurricanes, etc. Motor vehicle crashes and natural disasters are associated with ~10% rates of development of PTSD, being in a combat zone ~18%, physical assault or experiencing heavy combat ~30%, and sexual assault and torture up to 50%.
It is often underappreciated that medical events and procedures associated with life threat, even when they are successful, are associated with relatively high rates of PTSD development. For example, myocardial infarct / acute coronary syndrome is associated with up to 15% rate of PTSD, as is unexpected discharge of cardiac defibrillation devices. Major thoracic surgeries such as cardiac aretery bypass graft (CABG) and open abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) repair, even when scheduled and expected, are also associated with ~20% rates of de novo PTSD.
Particularly relevant to the COVID-19 pandemic, prolonged treatment in intensive care units (ICUs) such as for sepsis, and in particular, intubation, are associated with some of the highest rates of medical PTSD, with 35% of ICU survivors having clinically significant PTSD symptoms 2 years subsequent to the ICU care. Thus, in addition to “post-intubation syndrome” in survivors, once a patient is medically stabilized, it is important to assess and provide care for psychiatric responses like PTSD that are expected to be common.
The last update on PTSD in the US is 8 million.
U.S. PTSD statistics
About 8 million adults in the U.S. have PTSD during a given year. (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, 2019)
PTSD affects more than twice as many women (10%) as men (4%). (U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs, 2019)
70% of adults in the U.S. experience at least one traumatic event in their lifetime. (Sidran Institute, 2018)
The lifetime prevalence of PTSD in the U.S. was 6.8% as of 2001-2003. (Harvard Medical School, 2007)
Which means we're headed into landslide territory!
I don't like doom and gloom but right now, we have to face the gloom so that less people will have to face doom alone. At the very least, we can give them something to fight back with.
The only appropriate song I could think of is Arms Of The Angels...if you share this work, the you could be an angel to those who are searching for hope that they can heal!