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

“Trauma destroys the fabric of time. In normal time you move from one moment to the next, sunrise to sunset, birth to death. After trauma, you may move in circles, find yourself being sucked backwards into an eddy or bouncing like a rubber ball from now to then to back again. ... In the traumatic universe the basic laws of matter are suspended: ceiling fans can be helicopters, car exhaust can be mustard gas.”
― David J. Morris, The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

“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

“The initial trauma of a young child may go underground but it will return to haunt us.”
― James Garbarino

“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

“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

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

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

“There was an essential me that no abuse could ever harm. The me before I felt that I had to be perfect. The me before I felt shame. The me that wanted to be kind, not as a distraction of what was happening to me, but simply because it was the purest expression of love I knew. All of that was always within me. That was what I had to remember.”
― Amy Griffin, The Tell: A Memoir

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

“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

“There are serious long-term adverse health effects associated with being a police officer.”
― Steven Magee

“Why are many police officers corrupt? For some of them, it is coming from the long-term side effects of their risky and stressful job.”
― Steven Magee

“Cumulative Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CPTSD) is one of the many occupational hazards for police officers.”
― Steven Magee

“If adults that were bitten by dogs as children still reacted to dogs with fear, was it crazy to think that such an intense event from my teenage years could live in my body and continue to be triggered by a similar situation?”
― Megan Farison, Dissonance

“Memories of Chris were like songs I couldn't get out of my head, a greatest hits album that played in a never ending loop morning, afternoon, and night.”
― Megan Farison, Dissonance

“Something was wrong, and I didn't know how to explain it in a way anyone would understand. It was as if there was an invisible thread between me and Chris, connecting us, and it didn't matter that he was over a thousand miles away in Florida. He was with me everywhere I went, invading my mind and body, stealing the life I could have had.”
― Megan Farison, Dissonance