Re: Nutritional Treatment of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Jurplesman, first of all, I am glad you are better after your own terrible traumas. I can't imagine the horrors you wrote about.

I still, though, cannot even move closer to your hypoglycemia theory.. I am very glad and amazed your diet helped you get better, but it is still very hard for me to believe that this was the sole cure-all. You do seem to acknowledge later on, in another post, that some sort of emotional/psychological healing is beneficial as well, but I think you see it as a second to the nutritional.

So, did you use any type of therapy method on yourself, or was it truly & soley nutritional?

In my opinion, our whole being should be treated as one. What affects us emotionally, affects us physically, and vice versa. What I am trying to say is that a good plan to cure PTSD, must also involve some kind of heavy duty therapy - counselling, EFT, neurofeedback, meditation, whatever is effective! I am a very firm believer in that it is the BRAIN that rules the body, not the other way around! My last visit with an alternative doctor believed, this as well. He said most everything is rooted from the brain. And, so, mine was rooted in the central nervous system as verified by a diagnostic machine.

I thought your question about why some people experience PTSD and others don't, was interesting, because I recently read a free PDF article by Deirdre Fay, and she commented on this very thing.I personally thought her answer was very sound, because my own PTSD was initially triggered by a head trauma, which then catapulted me having to (no option here!) deal with years of repressed childhood abuse. You don't have to agree with what she says, but I'm going to cut and paste a portion of it below..

As a last comment, I would like to answer your question myself and this is based on my own experience,and other sufferers I have come to know. I think that people are more prone (please know I am speaking generally)to have PTSD or any other mental illness because: They are not connected to other people, and do not have a good network of safe people (friends,family,support groups) who they can openly and honestly share,talk to, and confess to. These same people can be lonely, and do not feel loved, do not feel loved for who they are, and don't feel supported... In summary, as human beings,we have a deep need to 'be known', to love and be loved, and to be supported and connected. I cannot express enough that without being bonded to others, life can be scary.

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Here is Deirdre Fay's article:

Why some traumas are harder to deal with than others

As we’ve learned more about trauma, we’ve found there is a profound difference between adult‐onset and childhood trauma. When someone grows up with a relatively stable childhood, they show greater resilience in dealing with a later traumatic event, such as a car accident, rape, or war. If a person had a chaotic or abusive childhood, however, the picture is quite different. Without secure and safe adult relationships to help them buffer life’s difficulties and make sense of the world, the child will grow up to have less resilience in handling a traumatic event later in life. Think of it this way. Let’s say little Mary is running playfully and then suddenly falls and scrapes her knee. Mary’s immediate response is to cry and to look for a parent, caretaker, or someone to comfort her. Her caretaker soon comes to her aid and tends to her hurt knee. Little Mary’s nervous system calms and her young, developing mind stops being flooded with stress. This scenario is repeated daily throughout childhood all over the world. The attachment research shows the intricate internal dance that happens when a child is reassured and soothed.

Simple, isn’t it? Now let’s take a look at what happens to little Marcie in the same scenario. She falls, hurts her knee, and cries. Unfortunately, her adult caretaker is involved in a phone conversation, or working on the computer, or trying to take care of the rest of the family. When little Marcie falls, her caretaker either ignores her or yells at her in anger. Or even worse, the caretaker might respond with violence. What happens to Marcie when this gets repeated over and over, when her caretaker consistently fails to comfort her? Obviously, she learns that no one will take care of her, that she’s on her own. What’s less obvious is how she has to learn to override her own physiological systems. For a child, the natural response to distress is to cry and to turn to an adult for help. But if she can’t cry and can’t rely on an adult then she has to find another way to deal. Her mind might find a creative and ingenious solution: to cordon off, or compartmentalize the distress and continue on. The powerful result for little Mary is that her distress gets integrated. She realizes that when bad things happen, she gets comforted, and life goes on. Life doesn’t overwhelm her. For little Marcie, though, it’s a different story. Over time, this consistent lack of adequate caretaking creates discord and causes her to compartmentalize, rather than integrate, how she experiences distress. Little Marcie has to continue functioning in the world, so the hurtful feelings and negative thoughts get shoved into an internal box. It’s a phenomenal coping technique. The problem, however, is when this compartmentalized material gets triggered by something and breaks out of its box, and shows up later in life through behaviors and symptoms. (We’re learning more about the relationship between attachment and trauma. Some wonderful work is being written about this and I’ll write another paper to address this specific subject in the future. Make sure you are on my mailing list to get upcoming information.

Email me at dfay@meditation‐ptsd.com to get on my mailing list or sign up at http://www.meditation‐ptsd.com.)">http://www.meditation‐ptsd.com.)">http://www.meditation‐ptsd.com.)