Different causes of trauma need different treatments

Different causes of trauma need different treatments
by
Chaplain Kathie

When we hear the word "cancer" we don't normally think of all the different cancers, yet looking at this list, it is easy to understand there are not just the types of cancer we hear about on TV.

Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Adult
Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Childhood
Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Adult
Acute Myeloid Leukemia, Childhood
Adrenocortical Carcinoma
Adrenocortical Carcinoma, Childhood
AIDS-Related Cancers
AIDS-Related Lymphoma
Anal Cancer
Appendix Cancer
Astrocytomas, Childhood
(See What Are Childhood Astrocytomas?)
Atypical Teratoid/Rhabdoid Tumor, Childhood, Central Nervous System
Basal Cell Carcinoma, see Skin Cancer (Nonmelanoma)
Bile Duct Cancer, Extrahepatic
Bladder Cancer
Bladder Cancer, Childhood
Bone Cancer, Osteosarcoma and Malignant Fibrous Histiocytoma
Brain Stem Glioma, Childhood
Brain Tumor, Adult
Brain Tumor, Brain Stem Glioma, Childhood
Brain Tumor, Central Nervous System Atypical Teratoid/Rhabdoid Tumor, Childhood
Brain Tumor, Central Nervous System Embryonal Tumors, Childhood
(See What Are Childhood Central Nervous System Embryonal Tumors?)
Brain Tumor, Astrocytomas, Childhood
(See What Are Childhood Astrocytomas?)
Brain Tumor, Craniopharyngioma, Childhood
Brain Tumor, Ependymoblastoma, Childhood
(See What Are Childhood Central Nervous System Embryonal Tumors?)
Brain Tumor, Ependymoma, Childhood
Brain Tumor, Medulloblastoma, Childhood
Brain Tumor, Medulloepithelioma, Childhood
(See What Are Childhood Central Nervous System Embryonal Tumors?)
Brain Tumor, Pineal Parenchymal Tumors of Intermediate Differentiation, Childhood
(See What Are Childhood Central Nervous System Embryonal Tumors?)
Brain Tumor, Supratentorial Primitive Neuroectodermal Tumors and Pineoblastoma, Childhood
Brain and Spinal Cord Tumors, Childhood (Other)
Breast Cancer
Breast Cancer and Pregnancy
Breast Cancer, Childhood
Breast Cancer, Male
Bronchial Tumors, Childhood
Burkitt Lymphoma
Carcinoid Tumor, Childhood
Carcinoid Tumor,Gastrointestinal
Carcinoma of Unknown Primary
Central Nervous System Atypical Teratoid/Rhabdoid Tumor, Childhood
Central Nervous System Embryonal Tumors, Childhood
(See What Are Childhood Central Nervous System Embryonal Tumors?)
Central Nervous System Lymphoma, Primary
Cervical Cancer
Cervical Cancer, Childhood
Childhood Cancers
Chordoma, Childhood
Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia
Chronic Myeloproliferative Disorders
Colon Cancer
Colorectal Cancer, Childhood
Craniopharyngioma, Childhood
Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma, see Mycosis Fungoides and Sézary Syndrome
Embryonal Tumors, Central Nervous System, Childhood
(See What Are Childhood Central Nervous System Embryonal Tumors?)
Endometrial Cancer
Ependymoblastoma, Childhood
(See What Are Childhood Central Nervous System Embryonal Tumors?)
Ependymoma, Childhood
Esophageal Cancer
Esophageal Cancer, Childhood
Ewing Sarcoma Family of Tumors
Extracranial Germ Cell Tumor, Childhood
Extragonadal Germ Cell Tumor
Extrahepatic Bile Duct Cancer
Eye Cancer, Intraocular Melanoma
Eye Cancer, Retinoblastoma
Gallbladder Cancer
Gastric (Stomach) Cancer
Gastric (Stomach) Cancer, Childhood
Gastrointestinal Carcinoid Tumor
Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumor (GIST)
Gastrointestinal Stromal Cell Tumor, Childhood
Germ Cell Tumor, Extracranial, Childhood
Germ Cell Tumor, Extragonadal
Germ Cell Tumor, Ovarian
Gestational Trophoblastic Tumor
Glioma, Adult
Glioma, Childhood Brain Stem
Hairy Cell Leukemia
Head and Neck Cancer
Hepatocellular (Liver) Cancer, Adult (Primary)
Hepatocellular (Liver) Cancer, Childhood (Primary)
Histiocytosis, Langerhans Cell
Hodgkin Lymphoma, Adult
Hodgkin Lymphoma, Childhood
Hypopharyngeal Cancer
Intraocular Melanoma
Islet Cell Tumors (Endocrine Pancreas)

And that is only part of the alphabet.
go here to read more of them
http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/alphalist

When we hear Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD, we assume there is only one type. Look on the web and you will find a list of causes, a list of symptoms, even a list of treatments, but what you won't find is how there are different types of PTSD and different levels of it. Until this happens we are living in a time much like cancer was regarded as God's punishment and practitioners relied on bleeding it out of patients.

While PTSD is caused by traumatic events, that is the only way PTSD strikes, there are different events and the treatment of the survivors of these events needs to be treated differently.

Natural causes
Hurricanes, tornadoes, mudslides, wild fires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, avalanches and snow storms. We know that everything we have, along with many lives, can be taken in a matter of minutes. The survivors are in shock as they try to understand what just happened. Every natural disaster after that point is a deep cause of concern for them as the memories of the event are brought back to life like a movie playing over and over again. While this type of event is life changing, they are less complex than if trauma is caused by another human. They can be more complex and harder to heal depending on what comes next.

As with Katrina, help did not arrive for days. Many died from the floodwater and did not receive help from man in time. There were many suffering after the event itself, so survival was also life threatening.

Man made accidental causes
Fires by carelessness, car accidents, work related accidents and others are easier to recover from when you know you were not a target but in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Man made causes
Crime, rapes, abuse, murders, terrorist action, like September 11, on the job as with firefighters and police officers, just as they are caused by combat. These are man involved and are harder to recover from.

With firefighters, they risk their lives to save lives and usually they do not face someone trying to kill them at the same time. While they do develop PTSD, the nature of their profession and training they receive, they are better equipped to recover from what they go through.

For police officers/law enforcement and troops in combat, they are trying to watch the backs of their brothers and others at the same time someone is trying to kill them. Police officers will face traumatic events with their lives threatened by man targeting them. Again with the training they have as well as the anticipation of the eventuality of coming into contact with someone shooting at them, the number of times this happens, plays a part in how deeply they are affected by it. Sometimes one too many times is the first time.

For combat forces, the number of times traumatic events endanger their lives is multiplied. No matter how much training they have to do their jobs, no one can really train them to prevent it from affecting them. There is a saying "No one walks away from combat unchanged." just as no one walks away the same from any other traumatic event. Each time weighs on their soul and the burden becomes heavier and heavier.

We cannot treat all PTSD the same way. Just as cancers are not all treated the same, there needs to be treatments centered around the different causes of PTSD. While the symptoms may all be the same, the depth of the stress is as different as the events.

When natural causes and accidental causes are treated the same way service related PTSD is, we are getting it all wrong. The wound caused by service is deeper, harder to recover from but also we are dealing with people more willing to help than ask for help for themselves. They are the last person to notice they cannot "get over it" and the last one to understand that sometimes, they cannot "get over it" without help.

No cure for PTSD exists. While it is known the sooner treatment begins determines the depth of the scar left behind, much of what trauma leaves behind can be healed. Still even with time adding to the way the human adapts, it is never too late to heal. There are parts of PTSD that cannot be healed, but as the survivor heals what they can, they learn to adapt, make peace, with what cannot be healed or reversed.

Most will say they want to go back to the way they were before. We need to remind them they are never the same one day to the next as all humans are changed by living. They cannot go back to the way they were but they can be made better than they were before. This can happen when the foundation of their soul is acknowledged and the thing that makes them unique enough to want to be in the profession they chose is understood. They put others before their own lives and they need to be reminded of just how deeply they cared. Treatment needs to build on this.

We need to understand what makes them so different if we are ever going to understand how to treat them properly. Their soul is wounded more deeply because they feel for others so deeply they were willing to die for them.

While we walk away from traumatic events either feeling blessed God saved us, others will walk away feeling as if God did this to them. When another human is involved, we feel as if we were a target. When we are a target because we wanted to help others, it digs deeper. When they reach the point where they know they need help to heal and help is too hard to get, it makes it worse. When they get the wrong kind of help, again, it makes it worse and then they give up. Every event feeds on others.