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Nonprofit Helps First Responders With PTSD
In March of 2023, Joe Stapel founded Help Michigan Heroes to support first responders experiencing PTSD and assist them with co-pays for therapy.
MUSKEGON COUNTY, Mich. — A former Muskegon police officer is asking for the community's help to support first responders in Muskegon County. This fall, he's hoping to organize a fundraiser to help first responders who suffer from PTSD. Joe Stapel started this non-profit last year after realizing a few years ago that he suffered from PTSD during retirement.
"It only takes 90 days for a PTSD incident to take a full, full hold of you," said Stapel.
After serving as police officer for 20 years in Muskegon County, Stapel was diagnosed with PTSD in 2017.
"I found out that I had it by accident. As a police officer, I've always got these memories, you know, and I assumed that all police officers remembered all their fatal calls. I was told, Joe, you got cumulative PTSD," said Stapel.
According to Institutes of Health, one in three first responders develop PTSD and 80% experience traumatic events on the job. In March of 2023, Stapel founded Help Michigan Heroes to support first responders experiencing PTSD and assist them with their medical bills.
"God, their co-pays for mental health care are ridiculous. We're going to raise money to help those people with those co-pays. I don't want these young people retiring and finding out by accident, like I did, that they have PTSD," said Stapel.
Stapel said during his time as a police officer, he's seen some horrific things that have stuck with him.
"Fatal incidents that I still remember, everything from plane crashes to a young child in a school bus to double fatals on the highway," said Stapel.
He hopes to have a fundraiser this fall to raise money for first responders' medical co-pays for treatments and therapy. That's why he's asking for the community's help to continue his mission.
"So many of us have had help from our first responders sometime during our life, from a police officer, from a firefighter, from a EMT, or from an emergency room nurse, and now it's their turn to get help from us," said Stapel.
Signs And Symptoms Of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
The 17 symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can include anxiety, depression, negative thoughts, and impulsive or self-destructive behavior. PTSD is an anxiety disorder that can develop in response to a traumatic event, such as natural disasters, sexual abuse, or war.
PTSD symptoms can vary in intensity and frequency. You may develop symptoms right after a traumatic event or weeks, months, and even years later.
About six out of every 100 American adults, which is about 6% of the population, will have PTSD in their lifetime. Read on to learn about PTSD symptoms and when to contact a healthcare provider.
PTSD can strike anyone who has gone through a life-threatening event. That means not just war but also: Imprisonment Motor vehicle accidents Natural disasters like earthquakes or hurricanes Physical or sexual abuse Terrorism This also includes illness-induced PTSD, or medical PTSD, in which going through a traumatic medical event can cause symptoms. Research has found the life quality of people with illness-induced PTSD to be similar to those who developed PTSD after an external event. Medical PTSD is not well researched but seems to commonly appear in people with cancer, stroke, and chronic pain. People may develop PTSD if they experience a trauma firsthand, witness a traumatizing event, or learn about violence or tragedy that happened to someone else. You may also develop PTSD after repeated or extreme exposure to details of traumatic events, the way a first responder might. This criterion doesn't apply to exposure to media unless that media is work-related. Not everyone who has gone through trauma will develop PTSD. This doesn't mean you are weak-minded if you do. PTSD is not an indicator of strength or resilience. More research is needed to understand what causes some people to develop PTSD. It's likely a combination of factors. Adults may be more at risk after trauma if they've previously experienced childhood trauma, don't have a support system, are dealing with another stressor after the event, or have a history of mental illness or substance misuse. Genetics, brain structure, and hormones can play a role. Flashbacks and unwanted, intrusive memories are known as "re-experiencing symptoms." You may feel like you're reliving the traumatic event. Smells, sights, and sounds like a car backfiring, the whirring of a helicopter, a news report, or the sound of someone's voice can all trigger flashbacks. Flashbacks can be random and vivid. You may experience sweating or your heart racing when they occur. Nightmares, or upsetting dreams about the traumatic event, are also considered re-experiencing symptoms. They can make people with PTSD feel like they're back in the time and place of their trauma. Researchers don't know the exact relationship between PTSD and recurring nightmares, but they seem to create a scary cycle. Some evidence suggests that nightmares can occur through any stage of sleep but often happen at later points of the night. PTSD-related nightmares occur at the scene of the trauma or re-enact the trauma altogether. Recurring nightmares can exasperate symptoms as a result. Nightmares can lead to sleep disturbance or cause someone to avoid sleep altogether. Many people with PTSD go out of their way to avoid anything that reminds them of the original trauma or could be a trigger. You might stop driving after a car accident or avoid watching movies about hurricanes if you've been through one. This avoidance can become broader than a specific person or setting. A person who has experienced sexual assault at a university might avoid going to classes or men altogether. People with PTSD can also avoid their own feelings, thoughts, and memories. This type of internal avoidance may go unnoticed. Some people will attempt to emotionally numb themselves with distractions or misuse of alcohol and drugs. Research has shown that the rate of alcohol use disorder among people with PTSD ranges from 9.8% to 61.3%. A common fear is that your feelings will get worse or never go away if you acknowledge them. Support groups and different styles of talk therapy may provide you with a safe space to explore these scary feelings. This PTSD symptom is called hypervigilance. You're scanning the environment all the time or on high alert constantly. This might mean always sitting with your back to the wall in restaurants or lecture halls so you can see everyone and everything taking place in front of you. Hypervigilance can be exhausting, stressful, and frightening. This heightened awareness can contribute to sleep problems in people with PTSD. Falling asleep and staying asleep can be more difficult if any small noise or change wakes you up. This symptom, sometimes called hyperarousal, is closely related to hypervigilance. People with PTSD often have an exaggerated reaction when they're surprised or startled, especially if the intrusion reminds them of the original trauma. This can make you extremely tense. Hyperarousal can interfere with sleep and concentration, and it may come out as outbursts of anger. Diagnostic criteria for PTSD include mood-related symptoms like depression, anger, guilt, shame, and hopelessness about the future. People with PTSD often disengage with people around them or show less interest in activities they used to love. You may feel like happiness is impossible or that no one cares for you. These symptoms aren't necessarily unique to PTSD, but there might a change after the trauma. You might feel a lot of guilt. It's very common to overestimate how much control you have and blame yourself. These emotions can lead to negative beliefs about yourself, like "It was my fault" or "If I hadn't taken that one drink." Survivors of sexual assault may also be dealing with shame. They often feel very vulnerable and ashamed or that they've contributed to it in some way. Adults with PTSD may also feel irritable and angry. A specific type of arousal symptom is outbursts, sometimes with little or no reason behind them. This symptom may manifest in verbal or physical aggression toward people and objects. Anger can surface when you're in survival mode. People with PTSD often live constantly on edge and, therefore, react to even small stressors with full intensity. Adults who experienced childhood trauma may also feel anger toward what happened to them as children. Anger is not simply being mad. You may feel increasingly tense and alert, vindictive toward those around you, late or work poorly on purpose, or even injure yourself. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) may help provide relief to your PTSD-related anger or at least begin to help you learn coping mechanisms. Remember, your anger does not make you a bad person. A study published in 2015 found that reckless or self-destructive behavior—in this case, exhibited by veterans—included substance use, self-harm, excessive gambling, and aggression. These behaviors could contribute to a higher risk of suicide. The most common forms of "risky" behavior in people with PTSD are alcohol and drug use, drunk driving, gambling, and aggression. These behaviors could increase the chance of another traumatic event. Not everyone with PTSD has chronic pain, and not everyone with chronic pain has PTSD. The two conditions can sometimes overlap. Between 15% and 35% of people with chronic pain also have PTSD. The trauma itself can also cause pain: headaches from a brain injury or back pain from a spinal injury, for example. Chronic pain, in some cases, reminds a person of the traumatic event, which can increase PTSD symptoms. Research has found that people with both PTSD and chronic pain are more likely to experience anxiety, depression, and opioid use. People with PTSD might experience panic and the physical symptoms that accompany it. Your heart races, you sweat, your blood pressure rises, and your muscles tense. Some people get dizzy, develop blurry vision, or hear ringing in their ears. Others may feel nauseous or even vomit in response to certain triggers, like a specific smell. People with PTSD may experience panic attacks or later be diagnosed with a co-occurring panic disorder. Panic disorder is different than PTSD. The panic attacks that come with it are often spontaneous and unrelated to a past event. A person with PTSD may experience a similar-feeling attack where their chest gets tight or they have shortness of breath. Flashbacks and nightmares may force someone with PTSD to relive their trauma over and over, but they may find themselves unable to recall a significant aspect of their experience. This memory loss, if not caused by a head injury or substance, is called dissociative amnesia. It's different than ordinary forgetting. Three types of dissociative amnesia exist: Generalized amnesia: You can't remember your identity or history. Localized amnesia: You can't remember an event or period of time. Selective amnesia: You can't remember a specific aspect of an event. PTSD can leave you in a persistent negative emotional state of guilt or shame. A study of veterans published in 2019 found that participants also reported shame when they reported guilt. Shame is often internalized: You feel ashamed of what happened to you and may think of yourself differently or as "less than." Guilt occurs when you have negative feelings about behavior or action (or inaction): Feeling guilty you didn't "do more" or like you could have prevented the trauma. People with PTSD often have trouble forgiving themselves. CBT may help you begin to address your feelings of guilt and shame. The effectiveness of trauma-informed guilt reduction therapy (TrIGR), a type of intervention that focuses on guilt and shame, is being assessed. Some evidence suggests thatTrIGR could be effective in reducing trauma-related guilt. Another arousal symptom of PTSD is having problems concentrating. Research has found that people with PTSD can have deficits in verbal learning, speed of information processing, attention or working memory, and verbal memory. You may find yourself having trouble focusing, paying attention, or remembering details. Going through a trauma or living with the ramifications of PTSD, especially if it has gone untreated, can lead to suicidal thoughts or ideation. People with PTSD have greater instances of suicide ideation than people without. An indicator of PTSD can be when people experience depersonalization or derealization (without substance use). Depersonalization is when you feel detached from yourself and your emotions, possibly like you're watching yourself out of your body. This could mean feeling like you're in a dream or that time is moving slowly. Derealization is when you feel like your surroundings aren't exactly real. The world around you may feel dreamlike or distorted. It's usually called acute stress disorder (ASD) when symptoms last anywhere from three days up to a month after trauma. Symptoms are more likely to be PTSD if the symptoms last more than a month. Health problems and drug or alcohol use must be ruled out as underlying causes of these symptoms before a PTSD diagnosis. ASD often comes before PTSD, but not always. Symptoms of PTSD can appear immediately following a traumatic event, or they can appear weeks, months, or even years later. Anyone at any age can get PTSD, but the symptoms listed above are most common in adolescents and adults. Child-specific symptoms include: Acting out the traumatic event while playing Becoming unusually clingy to their parent or trusted adult Forgetting how or being unable to talk Wetting the bed after using the bathroom PTSD is not contagious, so you can't spread it or catch it from other people. Research has shown that it's possible to develop secondary trauma if you're around others with PTSD. Symptoms like anger and irritability can affect relationships with friends and family. Talk to a healthcare provider if you have PTSD symptoms that persist for long periods. Talk therapy, medications, or both can often help alleviate PTSD symptoms. Get immediate medical attention if you're: Feeling overwhelmed Struggling with severe PTSD symptoms Thinking of harming yourself or others Unable to control your behavior PTSD symptoms can include anxiety, depression, negative thoughts, and impulsive or self-destructive behavior. You may develop symptoms right after a traumatic event. It's also common to have symptoms weeks, months, or years later. Consider talking to a healthcare provider if you're experiencing some of these 17 PTSD symptoms. They can determine the help and support that's best for you.
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