Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Quotes

“The conflict between the will to deny horrible events and the will to proclaim them aloud is the central dialectic of psychological trauma.”
― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

“PTSD is a whole-body tragedy, an integral human event of enormous proportions with massive repercussions.”
― Susan Pease Banitt

“...repeated trauma in childhood forms and deforms the personality. The child trapped in an abusive environment is faced with formidable tasks of adaptation. She must find a way to preserve a sense of trust in people who are untrustworthy, safety in a situation that is unsafe, control in a situation that is terrifyingly unpredictable, power in a situation of helplessness. Unable to care for or protect herself, she must compensate for the failures of adult care and protection with the only means at her disposal, an immature system of psychological defenses.”
― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

“Often it isn’t the initiating trauma that creates seemingly insurmountable pain, but the lack of support after.”
― S. Kelley Harrell, Gift of the Dreamtime - Reader's Companion

“It is as though some old part of yourself wakes up in you, terrified, useless in the life you have, its skills and habits destructive but intact, and what is left of the present you, the person you have become, wilts and shrivels in sadness or despair: the person you have become is only a thin shell over this other, more electric and endangered self. The strongest, the least digested parts of your experience can rise up and put you back where you were when they occurred; all the rest of you stands back and weeps.”
― Peter Straub, The Throat

“Trauma is hell on earth. Trauma resolved is a gift from the gods.”
― Peter A. Levine

“First, the physiological symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder have been brought within manageable limits. Second, the person is able to bear the feelings associated with traumatic memories. Third, the person has authority over her memories; she can elect both to remember the trauma and to put memory aside. Fourth, the memory of the traumatic event is a coherent narrative, linked with feeling. Fifth, the person's damaged self-esteem has been restored. Sixth, the person's important relationships have been reestablished. Seventh and finally, the person has reconstructed a coherent system of meaning and belief that encompasses the story of trauma.”
― Judith Lewis Herman, Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror

“Unlike simple stress, trauma changes your view of your life and yourself. It shatters your most basic assumptions about yourself and your world — “Life is good,” “I’m safe,” “People are kind,” “I can trust others,” “The future is likely to be good” — and replaces them with feelings like “The world is dangerous,” “I can’t win,” “I can’t trust other people,” or “There’s no hope.”
― Mark Goulston MD, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder For Dummies

“She's terrified that all these sensations and images are coming out of her — but I think she's even more terrified to find out why." Carla's description was typical of survivors of chronic childhood abuse. Almost always, they deny or minimize the abusive memories. They have to: it's too painful to believe that their parents would do such a thing.”
― David L. Calof

“Always remember, if you have been diagnosed with PTSD, it is not a sign of weakness; rather, it is proof of your strength, because you have survived!”
― Michel Templet

“Triggers are like little psychic explosions that crash through avoidance and bring the dissociated, avoided trauma suddenly, unexpectedly, back into consciousness.”
― Carolyn Spring

“In World War One, they called it shell shock. Second time around, they called it battle fatigue. After 'Nam, it was post-traumatic stress disorder.”
― Jan Karon, Home to Holly Springs

“The brave men and women, who serve their country and as a result, live constantly with the war inside them, exist in a world of chaos. But the turmoil they experience isn’t who they are; the PTSD invades their minds and bodies.”
― Robert Koger, Death's Revenge

“In order to believe clients' accounts of trauma, you need to suspend any pre-conceived notions that you have about what is possible and impossible in human experience. As simple as they may sound, it may be difficult to do so.”
― Aphrodite Matsakis, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Complete Treatment Guide

“Sometimes a soldier returns home and all he can do is share his story in the hopes that somehow, in some way, it helps another soldier make sense of things. And although the stories may not be perfect, sometimes just sharing is enough to make a difference.”
― Michael Anthony, Civilianized: A Young Veteran's Memoir

“One of the main problems for anyone working in health care, social work or addiction treatment is the struggle to hold on to some version of a safe world for ourselves when we are seeing the evidence and hearing the stories of trauma that offer other important and disturbing information: that the world, for very many people, is not a safe place.”
― Linde Zingaro

“Being trauma informed must include respecting and honouring the fact that what is learned from the experience of trauma is a kind of knowledge, in the same way that what we learn about trauma is knowledge. In both cases, what is known is contextual and deeply nuanced.”
― Linde Zingaro

“traumatic diagnoses such as post-traumatic stress disorder and dissociative identity disorder describe a shared array of human responses to degradation and dehumanization (Good & Hinton, 2016; Ross, 2011)”
― Michael Salter

“We find ways of protecting ourselves, of shifting blame, of burying emotions until the dam bursts and the weight of guilt and regret acts as an anchor, pulling us under. And it’s at that point we make the decision, the choice, to simply give in and allow that weight to become the one thing above all else that defines us.”
― Garry Crystal, Red Lights

“When war is "over," it is never simply "over." The first war takes place during wartime. The second war, the far longer one, occurs when the fighting stops; this war is not over for years, most often for generations to come.

Notes

The Faithful Gardener (1995)”
― Clarrisa Pinkola Estes

“I'm a writer. I was just diagnosed with PTSD. This unfortunate diagnosis, I assure you will not stop me.”
― A.K. Kuykendall

“The scene looked somehow divorced from reality, although reality, he knew, could at times be terribly unreal.”
― Haruki Murakami, Men Without Women

“You are mistaken. The Nazis and their helpers were not from Germany. Gyava nepnek nics hazaja. Cowards have no country of their own. Those demons were from Hell."
Uncle Zevar
The Faithful Gardener (1995)
Clarrisa Pinkola Estes”
― Clarrisa Pinkola Estes

“Malgré les symptômes qui continuaient à la secouer - apathie, tremblements, accès de panique soudains et inexpliqués -, Andréa avait du mal à le croire. Elle n'était pas un soldat. Elle n'avait rien vécu de véritablement traumatique.
- Peut-être que si, a insisté le médecin.
La répétition de stress de moindre intensité semble avoir les mêmes effets qu'un seul gros traumatisme. C'est comme une boîte où l'on amoncelle des tas d'expériences difficiles, et à un moment, la boîte est pleine et tout déborde.”
― Maylis Jean-Préau, Coltan Song

“Kurt was crazy, who wouldn't have been?”
― Geoff Widders, Kurt Langer : Nemesis of Terror

“The former marine, David J Morris, author of a book on post traumatic stress disorder, notes that the disorder is far more common and far more rarely addressed among rape survivors than combat veterans.”
― Rebecca Solnit, Recollections of My Nonexistence: A Memoir

“For the last time I have my sh*t together ; I just forgot where I put it!”
― Elena Melanson

“The military needs an ample supply of gullible people.”
― Steven Magee

“The brains of war veterans often have weird damage that the brains of healthy people do not.”
― Steven Magee

“The world was not a place she could enjoy like any normal child; it lacked excitement and stimulation for her. She had been deadened to everything because of what she had suffered. It was heartbreaking.”
― Cathy Glass, Damaged