The Trauma Experience

By Tom Deighan

This is a story about irrational fear. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is the label for it.

In 1995, my life changed drastically through an incident of big rocks being thrown through the front window of my apartment. My bed was in the other room. I did not realize at first what had happened. All of a sudden loud voices and noises caused me to be fearful. It wasn’t until later that the diagnosis came.

My friend Eric had warned me that he had grown a beard. At Logan Airport, returning from Oregon, his beard scared me. Actually it was an episode of terror.  It was hard to equate 20 years of friendship with this reaction.

There are many types of treatment. One treatment that I tried was Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It is a rhythmic set of eye movements, which are thought to accelerate the processing of trauma. This was used in a Learning Connection Class with a trained professional. Although some in the class got relief from this, it did not seem to work for me.

Another treatment is Thought Field Therapy. It is about tapping certain areas of the body in a pattern.  It is like a sophisticated acupressure.  While in counseling, I was introduced to this. Trying this was not a problem, but believing in it was. It just seemed silly. The pressure points were different than acupressure. On the Internet you can find two versions of this technique. You often have flashbacks of the trauma event.

Thankfully, my case was different. The fear causes all kinds of bad reactions. It can lead to episodes of anger, depression and much more. Often it is impossible to deal with it.

There are many treatments, but my experience has led me to only 3. The 3rd treatment is called Trauma Relief Unlimited. This was created by Brown University.

In 2001 the Providence Journal published an article on this process. At the time a grant was providing it for free. Work prevented me from trying it. Many years later with little work and a few dollars, I tried it. After a complete session, the irrational fear was gone. No more jumping at bus brakes, horns, sudden noises, etc. The treatment is very simple. In fact, looking at what it entailed, I thought, you have got to be joking.

This is a left brain creative therapy. You draw specific areas with colored markers on a paper. Now you are asking how that could possibly help you.  It is because trauma imprints on the brain. The creative process erases the trauma from the brain. So you do an evaluation and then one or more treatments. It healed my trauma. Check out Trauma Relief Unlimited web site and see if you want to try it. The success rate is high, but no guarantees are given.