Being there for your kids - PTSD - When Bad Things Happen

Episode Date: May 21, 2025

Bad things happen to everyone. It's how we handle them that develops our character and defines our lives. Really bad things can leave emotional scars that need healing. When those scars generate flashbacks to traumatic events, that's the heart of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Check out this podcast and get a context for your healing journey. Blessings, Jon

Hi, I'm Dr. John Robinson, and this is Teachable Moments. I want to talk with you today about PTSD. It's the universal impact when bad things happen. With greater mental health awareness nowadays, post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD, has become a more prominent part of our lives. PTSD can impact you either a little or a lot when bad things happen to you. How can you get your life back in balance? Back in the 1800s, soldiers went to war and endured great heart. hardship. When things went sideways during the battle or after getting home from the war, people said they had battle fatigue. Jumped to the 1900s, wartime casualties who couldn't suck it up and get back to the action were determined to have shell shock. Still, there was no real treatment for these victims. Following the Vietnam War in the 1970s and the Mid-East Wars of the 2000s, science has finally caught up with meaningful treatment and, given these and other similar circumstances, medical diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder. A combination of psychoactive medication, structured mental health practices, and psychotherapy

can lead to recovery and the semblance of a normal life. More recent research finds that PTSD, while prevalent in wartime circumstances, that is, up to 60% of vets returning from combat theaters, are diagnosed with PTSD, it also occurs outside of wartime circumstances. Anyone who incurs unexpected, catastrophic events, can experience PTSD. The more direct and preponderant, the more intense the symptoms are. So, if your patient tells you of having been raped, assaulted, witnessed violent crime,

house caught on fire, or witness to natural disasters such as floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, wildfires, be sure to check for symptoms of PTSD. Most such patients come into therapy for other more benign reasons. They tend to hide, minimize, or deny PTSD symptoms. while feeling alone that they are the only one, were self-shaming with woulda-cuda-cuda should have done better. In addition to general symptoms of anxiety, depression, or fear, patients with PTSD have more specific symptoms.

Predominant are mental, sensory, physical flashbacks to their traumatic event, reliving the horror that they experienced. Flashbacks can be triggered by the slightest, most vague sensory experience, a smell, a sense of familiarity in a remote place, suddenly being slightly touched by another. Flashbacks lead to patients feeling like they are going crazy. With triggering events, patients withdraw, tremble, or lash out, recreating the traumatic event with visual auditory hallucinations.

These patients require both immediate triage and ongoing clinical care. Mentaligent psychotherapy, that is MPT, is a useful resource for clinicians. Use mindfulness techniques to help your patients reorient to the flashback and focus on the present. Help him identify his physical environment so that he knows where he is, who you are, what's going on. Positive psychology references

help your patient reinforce over what he's lost. Help him create a mental box where he can safely store what was, along with the mantra, that was then, this is now, I refuse to give control of my now to my then.

Cognitive behavioral strategies will help your patient focus on that over which he has control. PTSD patients often benefit from finding the blessing in their trauma and developing a calling for their lives, paying their blessing forward. Making use of psychoactive medication and group therapy with kindred spirit or other recovery resources. Treating patients with PTSD is intense and can be very rewarding. MPT is a resource you can use to guide them on their healing journey.

Blessings, Dr. John. If these comments stir questions of your own, contact me. me through my website at www. ThereformyKids.com or email me at John Robinson 0.Zero at Bellsouth. I'm Dr. Jonathan C. Robinson, licensed clinical psychology, and author of Teachable Moments, Building Blocks of Christian Parenting, and my new book, The Healing Journey, Overcoming Adversity on the Path to the Good. Blessings. Teachable Moments, Building Blocks of Christian Parenting is available online at Amazonbooks.com and in local and national bookstores.

More on Dr. Robinson at TMCP-I-N-C.com.