Return from Chaos: Treating PTSD | Peter Tuerk | TEDxCharleston 

Sending my love to anyone who experiences PTSD and those that experience some of the symptoms. 💚

I'm a trauma therapist. I explain theories of trauma to clients every week. This explanation is so concise and clear, I'm adding to my mode of explanation. Thank you!

This talk is a good, simple explanation of PTSD. People understand cancer - your body is at war. They know it will take time, treatment, and energy for your body to fight the disease. They understand if you’re not able to function at 100%. People understand injury. If you lose a limb, it will take hours of physical therapy, hard work, and major adjustments in your life to deal with the physical trauma. People understand why you’re changed. Most people do not understand that mental and emotional trauma can be just as debilitating. If your mind doesn’t work, you can’t function. With PTSD, your mind is at war with itself. Anything that has a connection to the trauma is a trigger that can put you back in that traumatic experience. Places, sounds, smells, people, dreams, even thoughts can all be triggers - emotional land mines everywhere. Hit a trigger, and you relive the trauma mentally and emotionally. You want to avoid those land mines, right? You avoid people b/c they may make a comment that’s a trigger. You avoid sleep b/c you have nightmares. You may avoid silence because when it’s quiet, you think, and your mind is full of triggers. You’re constantly anxious. Emotionally, you’re all over the place from numb, to angry, to sobbing in a corner. You can’t concentrate enough to accomplish anything. All of this makes it extremely difficult to function in the world. PTSD is not something you can just get over. With physical illness or injury no one expects you to just “will” the cancer away or for your arm to magically grow back. Like cancer, it requires treatment and time to recover. Like a traumatic injury, PTSD requires therapy and hard work to adjust to the trauma. Thanks for helping people understand.

39 years. My whole life, if you can even call it that. I am endlessly grateful to the people I’ve never even met that have saved my life by making this information available. It was impossible before I knew what it was or that people have been able to treat it. I couldn’t even identify that the abuse, neglect, homelessness, parental void, and every other struggle that made my childhood was “trauma”. I truly believed it was just life, and people had it worse. That I was a horrible person because I wasn’t just getting over it. People told me I was a survivor, a fighter so it’d be fine. I should just get over it. I never wanted to be a fighter. I am so sick of fighting, especially myself. I’m going to live one day thanks to complete strangers 💚

To every person dealing with PTSD, I cannot recommend enough reading the amazing book " The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma" by Bessel van der Kolk M.D. It has helped me so much

I'm in my 60's and have seen several therapists who told me i couldn't have PTSD because i've never been through enough trauma, i've not been thru war, or never been shot. Seriously, where are these "therapists" getting their training?? The most disturbing comment from these medical professionals was, "Get over it". Suicide promotion.

I've never even grasped the concept that PTSD may not be a permanent disorder for me... until just now. Thank you, Dr. Turek.

PTSD is not just in the forces, believe me I know first hand, my trauma like many others in the comments, stems from childhood, were my innocence was ripped away, I take it one day at a time. For people trying to help there family member or friends with PTSD, the best thing you can do is *just be there* for them, let them talk to you, Its like the old saying "You can lead a horse to water but you can't make them drink.

I don't usually open up about my PTSD which developed years after my deployment to Iraq. However, I felt like this was a place where whatever I write is anonymous enough that it wouldn't matter. Every week I am on the phone with the VA crisis line which has turned into the only thing that actually calms my thoughts down. I feel this overwhelming sense of causing harm to those around me and myself. The crisis line mellows me down enough to get threw another week. I don't step outside of my house in fear of sniper attacks.. I don't drive the speed limit to avoid being a target of attacks or possible IED's. I always take different routes and I am constantly sweating bullets when I am outside my home. I have surrounded myself in the woods with camera systems everywhere. The worst part of it for me is having a daughter who want to spend time with her dad but, when she's here I shut down as a person. Then when she leaves I punish myself for not being better and doing better. I don't open up about it in real life, because I feel targeted and exposed. All of my appointments have been telehealth since 2016. For most people the pandemic altered the way they lived and for me its been business as usual. I've been waterboarded and tied up and beaten. I have been run over by a car and shot at. I have been actively searching for ways to cope or get better but, I haven't found anything that works or that I can do without panic button always being pushed internally. I'm not sure why I'm writing this. I guess its because this video is from 2015 and no one will see it or care.

My whole life from infancy to now has been controlled by PTSD. I was only a few days old when my mother started to pinch, probe and whatever she could think would hurt me in some way. And she was good at it. Not knowing any better, I transferred that unloving relationship to anyone who was capable of hurting me...which was almost everyone in my environment from very little to my now 81 yrs. But, let me tell you that I have found a way to love myself which is not an easy task........I developed multiplicity. I began to find other parts of myself who developed in spite of everything, an awesome ability to love me and lots of me!!

Trauma can consist of several layers of defense that need to be peeled off like an onion. A faster and more efficient way is to start by sitting safely and closing your eyes. Think about the trauma, where it feels in the body, the body is in flight fighting or playing dead where emotions are disconnected. What feeling does it evoke in you, fear, anger or emptiness? Search for who you were before by looking for the good in you, safe, happy and alive. The subconscious can then be helped by the conscious thought of who we really are and release the alarm button that has been pressed and where the amygdala lacks time perception until we have solved the problem / shock

I'm so sorry there are do many of us dealing with PTSD or CPTSD. Meditation is about the best method I've discovered to stay in the NOW, instead of obsessing over bad memories. Alan Watts has a video on meditation and so does Eckhart Tolle. It's Important to meditate each day. There is no need to meditate hours/day - start with 5 minutes and build up to 20 minutes. You will notice, in time, that your mind and emotions get quieter. Please try it. Life is a struggle and I've found consistent meditation to be most useful.

As A 18-year-old girl who has PTSD I realized that a lot of people fail to realize that PTSD isn’t just from terrifying events it’s more than that. a lot of people who have PTSD went through childhood traumas and I have been going through it since day 1. My family was very toxic negative neglectful and pressuring and even had child predators and rapists that weren’t reported. But for years I kept my mouth shut, kept my distance and my family didn’t quite understand why I felt and acted the way that I did. I couldn’t really even explain it, but I knew that there was something wrong when my legal guardian would kick me out of the house and tell me to get myself together. Every time I tried I didn’t understand what I was doing wrong to help the situation and why I wasn’t getting better it wasn’t till a years later that I was diagnosed with PTSD and depression. My family understands a little bit now but they still haven’t tried helping my situation because I don’t think they know how.

I have also heard this be described as a nervous system disorder where your constantly in a fight or flight situation and you have to recall yourself back to where you can relax because you can’t relax and still be in a state of hyper awareness. So retraining your system to relax over time helps get rid of it. Such as meditation and yoga etc etc

Most of this is spot on for me except... you don’t ‘actively’ push the event away... and the memories are not ‘easily accessible’. Not even close. Your body does it all subconsciously when it represses traumatic events.

Ptsd is caused by a lot of pain

PTSD sufferers need comprehension, and, sometimes only that.

I am a Correctional Officer in Melbourne and I went through PTSD, my claim was accepted by the insurance company after an investigation that lasted 28 days, received professional help that it was just a joke, I then took massive action and I started to research on my own, I dug deep into the human brain how it's been programmed, I started to understand why we think what we think and how to manage those thoughts and stress and take advantage on them. That happened early 2020 before COVID, and today, August 2020, after just a few months not even half year, i am having the time of live, I have allowed myself to learn from that experience with PTSD and also, I have started to help other brothers in blue who are struggling with the same nightmare as I was. I have become a coach out of my work hours, to Emergency and Law Enforcement Personnel because when I was dwelling on that dark place I couldn't find exactly what I needed so I became my counselor, my therapist my coach and I met other coaches around the world, sharing my story, being vulnerable and trying to break the culture of silence that exits among Law Enforcement Officers. My first step to get out of that situation was changing the way I was communicating to myself , understanding that we don't own what we think, we don't own what we feel, we are not feelings, emotions or thoughts, they come and go, we are above and beyond any emotions, feelings or thoughts. We tend to get attached to labels such as depression, stress, anxiety, etc those labels disempower people and is very easy to fall into those traps and make them mean everything, but that's the way we've been programmed to live in, I am seeing it every day with the Officers I am currently helping. We might be different in many aspects of life but at core.... We all the same, we all have the same basic needs, we all want to be good enough so we can be loved. I trust this little story of my life can inspire you or at least can make you see that we can overcome everything in life, sometimes we need someone to guide us, someone who's been there before. Regards Bruce Sanchez

Acupuncture and float therapy help expel the trauma of the memory from the mind, body, and emotions. Highly recommended for PTSD.

The 1st 7 minutes was one of the BEST explanations of PTSD I've ever heard! Very understandable and relatable. The "going to the store to buy milk" routine was a perfect example of how a normal routine can be changed to something perplexing or traumatic, making things more difficult to process and sort away. Thank you sir

I get pissed of when people cough. It’s my trigger

I feel heard and validated. Thank you for this video. I have come a long way since my traumatic relationship about 6 years ago with a much older, vain and vile man, and my mother figure who kept emotionally abusing throughout childhood. I m in a much better place. Thank you ❤️

If you have PTSD and struggle to be happy find an EMDR therapist, it worked wonders for me and many other people

Exposure therapy was a horrible experience for me. I did not get better the more I sat with the memory, I got more and more crazy. I totally lost my marbles and thought my husband was my abuser. I’m glad this works for some, but this was very dangerous for me. I did it for about 3 months before having a psychological break. I am now working with an EMDR therapist.

As someone with childhood PTSD this helped me understand a bit more about it. I've been dealing with it for 5 years now from physical abuse, and ive often been told to stop exaggerating, to just forget about everything that happened to me. I wish more people thought like this person, life would be a bit better. (I'm still a kid, and no one really listens to what Im going through, they act like everything I went through was a lie. I've never been able to find actual good advice to live through it all.)

I am less afraid of my life being threatened and more afraid staying alive just to suffer more.

We have to learn to not judge or compare PTSD. I adopted the concept of not comparing for example getting lost in the grocery store as a kid, to going to war and seeing beyond disturbing things. Trauma is trauma to the brain regardless of the source of the experience. I have to remind myself of this while healing from PTSD myself. Something to think about. Thx

I am diagnosed with C-PTSD. This culminated from childhood neglect/abandonment, along with military combat and deciding to be a police officer and paramedic after my service overseas. It’s been a long long road to recovery, but thank God I have made it through the storm.

PTSD…is so hard to overcome…. The past traumatic events still linger in my head as a choas. I will just have to keep talking about them.

The chaos is here! Im 67, crippled. Va is garnishing my social security

Mental shocks can be felt early in life. Even in infancy. The damage is traumatic & can cause life long stress. Here’s a poem with an implied cure. Poem's title is “The New One’s Center Had Moved.” The new one’s center had moved. The infant’s place of anchor had gone. Neither the boy nor young man knew. Their lives were marked as well. All lost to empty time of living, Where wisdom & books have no meaning. They each looked to the man to be. “Grow up,” The man yelled. “Look out for yourself.” They all wanted a way back, Back to the place of beginning. They asked a fix from him. “Between the rising & setting sun,” He exclaimed, “Go to the beginning there. Breath out the flames which burn your heart. There your body & voice of being can be found. A life of quiet, joy & peace.” Hurry - The old man is coming!

I suffer with (C)PTSD & even now living in 2016 people don't understand it...

Other treatment options for PTSD include EMDR, EFT Tapping, using MDMA in a theraputic setting, and the newest one is to block memory reconsolidation by first activating the fear memory and then taking propranolol right after.

Thank you so much for your talk. I was demolished by my psychologist and Psychoanalyst. Her association and corporation whitewashed her completely. Leaving me totally devastated without raising a finger to help me. Shame on her and her organisations that protected her (and thrir reputation) along with her capitalists lawyers that defended her at the detriment of the truth and justice.

I always thought dealing with post-traumatic stress the best way of dealing with it was head-on without medication after a while you become numb to that experience that caused it and it no longer bothers you. I see it as a form of insensitivity training similar to tolerance training for allergies example tolerance training for penicillin for people who are allergic to it

Thank you. I broke my arm in gymnastics a year ago. It was a bad break. Both bones completely snaped. I want to get back to gymnastics but i have panic attacks when i do anything related to it. Thank you! You helped me a lot

I got diagnosed with PTSD yesterday and I know I have a journey ahead of me. I am having a hard time finding ways to heal from it and get on the road to recovery.

This talk explains PTSD in an easy and simple way.

right off the bat this described it so well.

I have ptsd it's never ending the NHS in the uk doesn't offer much only councilling.....but exposing one self to horrid memories of the past creates fear so I believe training the brain to see the memory as just an image and defusing it so it has no power over you will be my victory

Whenever I read or study PTSD, I remember one of my uncles named Justin. He is an Army veteran that was deployed to Iraq in 2007, and Afghanistan in 2008, along with Thailand in 2004 to help provide humanitarian aid. He's never talked about the things he's seen or experienced. He is also a severe alcoholic. He would drink until he passes out. He's only 35, and he's suffering every day.

I recently managed to nearly extinguish my severe ptsd. At one stage I was thinking about everything that happened to me every second of every day. It got so bad that I would maybe sleep 3 or 4 hours per day. It was horrible, and recently I managed to overcome my fears, and I would like to share this with anyone else that might see this. I know ptsd is not gonna just go away, but I found a way to bury it in my subconsciousness. All I did was I consistently told myself whenever I felt my nerves kicking in, (Most people are good people, most people are good people, most people are good people, most people are good people, most people are good people), and I would repeat this over and over and over again until I believed it. And it's true, most people are good people, but always remain vigilant and it's good to always have a plan of action no matter where you are or what time it is. And it helps to take protective measures to protect yourself and the ones you love. Working alarm systems, good armed response, finding ways to barricade your house and once again, being vigilant. But to ease ptsd, just remember, most people are good people. Thank you.

Yes exposure therapy works for (not all) people with PTSD, just be carefull not to use it at the begining of the relationship (patient/therapist), and also to ask if the patient is ok with it, to make sure it's not going too fast and too hard, and to find coping skills with the patient before begining exposure therapy

I tried EMDR earlier this year it changed my life. I recommend it to anyone. I did mine online, effectively you can choose a therapist from anywhere in the world which is great.

Whoever who is facing ptsd including me you tell to yourself yes you can get rid from your thoughts you can change your thought process promise to yourself you take yourself out from this thought process yes I am changing my thought process from now I will never think unnecessary things just enjoying the current moment from now

Great analogy, if someone doesnt have the same file folders how can you talk and release it without feeling misunderstood? This is the best explanation of PTSD I've heard yet. Its spot on

Very well-spoken man!

tnks 4 sharing the info.

Thank you. Thank you so much for posting this.

Very well presented. Thank you!

thank you for this man!

For 2 years suffering sadly it took an year for doctor to diagnose it..this condition is soo terrible everyday feels like being in the same timewhere i suffered …and it never ends

good info! thanks!!

Thank you for your time with this subject. I have been needing to hear this for too long.

Great information. Thank you

Thank you for sharing. Really helpful!

You've nailed it Peter!

Thank you very much , this video helped me a lot.

Thank you! 🙏

I got goosebumps listening to this. You said it so perfectly.

Outstanding. Such a clear explanation, covers cause, treatment, etc.

The problem with trauma is that your subconscious buries it beneath conscious thought. Most of the time we're not even aware what the trauma is, despite its hidden presence ruining your life.

It's enlighting to know that it actually wakes you up x

Been a counselor for 7 years, this is the first time I am hearing of this approach! Wonderful, hopeful video, thank you!

Great video, thanks.

I have ptsd surrounding my experiences in nursing school. My family life on top of school just completely diminished and destroyed my psyche. I'm ready to go back and I will confront all my feelings regarding nursing school I will go and not look back.

Thanks for the inspirational video, when searching for answers, when music doesn't work the loop, it, understanding and clarity goes a long way with this condition.

Thank you for the hope and the positivity that came with your talk. I have been battling this for probably 40 years and I just was diagnosed correctly and will start treatment soon. I have been on benzos for nine years and it's a bandage and I am still bleeding. I know now that the bandage can cup off and I can heal. Thank you!

Thank You

Thank you

Bravo!!! Watching this now in 2021

Prolonged exposure therapy did not work out for me. It was the most painful experience ever, and has serious consequences days after the session.

Amazing talk…first time I’ve actually understood about symptoms of PTSD 👍🏼

A great talk for further understanding of PTSD.

What a great Ted Talk. Great information, great presentation, very useful and interesting.

Thank you for this vulgarization to people about PTSD. It's amazing how this video will be a reference for me to send it to loved ones so they understand a little more my reality. Things do get better even when we don't recognize it.

Going to get some help now because yes I'm very tired of it. You make me think it can happen. Maybe there is hope

I don't have PTSD but for months I've been having constant flashbacks from horror/psychological thriller movies I have watched and I don't know why. I had never had problems with such films before and now I'm absolutely terrified when those flashbacks kick in. Sometimes it's the scenes themselves, sometimes I associate them with things in real life and it gets worse. And it's not like the things most people experience after watching a horror movie, because they are usually paranoid for 2-3 days after the film and then it's all gone. In my case the scenes never leave my mind, I just try to suppress them by doing some kind of an activity. I've been trying to tell myself that those are just movies, that they are not my reality, but it doesn't seem to help much. The worst part is that those flashbacks prevent me from living my daily life in a good way. Sometimes all I can do is lay in my bed and do nothing. I'm still at school, but I'm so worried about my future. I don't want to live like that for the rest of my life.

I got diagnosed last year and have been doing exposure therapy for a few months now. It's been rough but also problematic. When I'm under a lot off stress, I emotionally shut down. Like a switch. Then I can speak freely as if the event was nothing. Which kind of beats the purpose! Would be nice to hear about your experiences in this treatment 😊

I downloaded a PTSD app today after listening to this; it helped.

great video. I remember you and I have a lot to talk to you about. I'm extremely aware of my problem.

I had my PTSD from losing both of my parents and ever since I lost all of my will to live. The only reason why I still live right now is because of my brother. I don’t want him to repeat the pain once again. What can I do now? My life is miserable but I can’t die.

⚠️ Warning !!! Some of these comments are triggers⚠️ Just watch the video

needing this right now :/ currently 19 and I’ve been diagnosed with ptsd since 16 and it’s just been such a struggle to live it feels like even

Ironic. Mutaliated myself in a accident in Charleston where I was in school. The PTSD is getting to me several months later, so I came searching for answers; and found this video for helping the ptsd that very place gave me

His voice is currently making my tension headache disappear

I want to know more suffering severely with ptsd, I wish this was true, it's so hard to get through it every day 😢

You are not alone...

Thank you. I have CPTSD and I intend to pursue this method.

It is spevific comprising reeperiencing symptoms arousal and avoidance. Reexpereincing in the form of vivid and intrusive memories and nightmares.

well presented

The majority of people who speak about PTSD professionally have no personal experience of PTSD itself outside their relationship with the people they treat within their profession. Every time I try and seek peace through one of these videos I feel frustrated, misunderstood and patronised, though I realise this is no fault of the speaker - they have never had to endure this pain, confusion, paranoia and the stress it puts on their relationships with the people around them. I feel as though I should write about PTSD first hand so that sufferers alike can communicate with those from their own pain-felt community

"A wide laugh is better than a packet of tablets for depression" -Anne frank

PE is a great tool!!

God damn this is intriguing.

I feel the havoc to my life caused by ptsd ... It is damaging to the core

I need this

I’m suffering so bad. I wish Canada had assistance for mental health. I spent everything I had 3800.00. I made it to the second phase of healing before I ran out of money. All my symptoms are back. I just want to feel better.

I have it do you stress only. I lived on constant stressful environment for 3 years which ended of having paranoia and siucide attempts. I still have some memories in my brain that when I thought about I slap my face badly. Recently could not focus on my work and taking many pills to sleep

When I took the propranolol treatment it was still in it's experimental phase, it helped me get off psych meds and actually function