Fight or flight response is triggered also and you are correct it get complicated from there.

right - and whammies what neurotransmitters you've got and messes up your blood sugar.

Incidentally, blood sugar spiking and dropping can do the same thing.

Do you feel exhausted, spent, after a trigger?

When I can get a handle on it before it complicates, it does not exhaust me. It remains in the league of recovering from an unexpected person in the hallway.

When it complicates, exhaustion is the best I can hope for.

how do you get a handle on it before it complicates?

I don't know - here's my deal. Yes, there's stuff from childhood remotely starting to surface - so I don't have triggers and flashbacks from that stuff - at least the triggers I am unable to link to childhood.

The last nine months of my marriage was psycho hell. That was 24/7 feeling trapped with a crazy man that looked, and made sure by telling me constantly, that he was going out of his mind. Those nine months are the straw that broke the camel's back and the PTSD symptoms surfaced with a fury six months later. I feel like I don't have the reserves to deal with stress of any kind.

Just this last week, a pharmacist said 'he (osteo) is prescribing such strong doses' and that's all it took - I was gone. Chronic fear is what I am living in right now and it is not my norm. I hate how my life is right now. This osteo had me on way too high of thyroid and refused to lower it until his nurse fought long enough for me to get him to lower it, then the clinic director stepped in. That's why those words sent me into orbit like they did - I was one day away from a psyche ward on that thyroid and felt so helpless, so at the mercy of the doctor, when it needed reduced. It wasn't tablets that I could break in pieces - I was literally breaking open capsules and trying to divide the powder and drink it until I got a new script - then I was smart enough to get the pharmacy to do it 3x's the smallest dose so I could lower it again, if I needed to, and I did.

I guess I feel like I'm caught in this vortex where everything is out of control. I can't get a handle on my health - my energy. $ stresses are constant.

I had four good days last week, followed by four bad. I just want some balance, some even keel. Maybe it is after a trigger, I dive into despair that 'I'm not loveable, I'm too much trouble' . . . because in a trigger, I panic and those around me have to fend for themselves, or I'm drowning them right along with me in three feet of water.

Studies have shown PTSD to indicate lowered levels of norepinephrine (the NT that faciliatates our ability to handle stress); serotonin (the feel good NT); and glycine. Also, lowered immune system.

My test resulted in exactly the above. I feel much calmer taking Gabatrol - but I still feel like nothing is right in my life. Happiness is hauntingly sparse - and I've always been a glass half full girl.

Oh, this is just a typical 'crash' for me . . . the feeling of despair.

I don't know what did it - I walked twice one day last week, the second time late in the evening in the heat. I think I was doing fine up before that . ..

This is very typical, so I need to concentrate on, this, too, shall pass.

Anatomy:
Autonomic nervous system, controlled by the "midbrain", creates fight or flight response when we feel threatened. Fight or flight is what we call the experience of a particular array of neurotransmitter chemicals and hormones being secreted.

The midbrain controls impulses, emotions- is a more primitive part of the brain than the forebrain where conscious rational thought is created. This is why fight or flight response often overwhelms our conscious thinking. Once fight or flight mode is fully triggered it takes at least 15-20 minutes for the body to mop up those chemicals after the triggering has passed (given the nervous system can completely settle back down again.) Ongoing (even low level) fight of flight response effects the forebrain and its decision making, is linked to lessened ability to cope (research of Hans Selye decades ago.)

My metaphor of a trigger: If a day is going along pretty well, I feel like I am a captain at the helm of my ship, making progress through the waters of life. But locked below deck is this sleeping monster, and if the ship runs into rough waters than the monster wakes up and starts rampaging and tries to break out on to deck. If that happens then I have to be dealing with the monster just when i need to be trying to keep my ship on course--- or the ship could sink. I need to fight with and coax the monster back down below and lock it up again. This is how I think of my forebrain trying to deal with this midbrain response with a big trigger.

Just my take on it.

Good take on it. I go with that 15 to 20 minutes to flush it out of my system.

My inspiration for this thinking was my reaction to thinking I am alone in the house and up pops an unexpected family member. This happens allot to this should-be-empty nest housewife. It startles me and it takes me that 15 or 20 minutes to shake it off, even with laughter and somebody who shared the shock with me.

In some of my recent lightmares where blinding light wakes me in full hysteria, I have been noticing some of the same physical sensations I have after the above mentioned scares.

if my ifs are all in alignment, the next step might be getting a therapeutic something between the adrenaline shot and the complications.

I remind myself again that I.F. Is an acronym for Idiot Factor...

Again, today, I turned to the sea salt (1/4 tsp in bottle of water). Before, when every positive anything was drained, I have, in desperation, reached for the sea salt, hoping for an actual, physical, biological positive charge. It worked everytime and worked again today. I've gone from despair to happy.

It's crazy, it's nuts, and I love it! Why natural medicine thrills me.

A few hypothesis: it contains the natural lithium mineral; it effects the serotonin and melatonin; it is a 'charged' element, therefore, goes directly to where the body needs it; I think the electrical part of it sort of 'flips the breaker' where it is needed. It is reported to regulate the adrenal system, as well. This site below even says it helps reduce shock and trauma.

http://www.zenchillblog.com/2007/07/benefits-of-celtic-sea-salt.html

Absolutely. Adrenaline is a hormone secreted by the adrenal gland, and I had so many PTSD experiences in too many years in a war zone I actually depleted mine! Every 2 weeks I drop by the doctor's office and get a hormone shot to maintain a normal physical hormone level in my body.

It also had to do with my developing diabetes: adrenaline rushes/blood sugar spikes. Thankfully, well under control now.

What you guys say here is right on!

Arfie,

But how is the idiot? Your midbrain? It's not the whole of YOU

I often think of my forebrain as trying to be the good mother to my midbrain- midbrain freaks out like a frightened child.

Arfie I had the experience of an unexpected person in the hallway thing a couple years ago, just terrified me. My H whom I am seperated from now had a habit of entering the house,walking without making a sound. At the time it happened I was babysitting my 10 mnth old grandchild. I was in a room that had 2 doors, a hallway that ended and began at both doors.I was holding the baby,both of us hearing foot steps in the hall. We froze. This was a trigger as several incidents similar to this has happened to me years ago from a violent ex.

My first thought do I have time to break through one of two windows while holding the baby? H then made his appearance at one of the doors. I was so weak I had to sit down trembeling. I knew I had locked the doors then hearing someone in the house at an unexpected time of the day just un nerved me. This something I deal with everyday listening for the footsteps of the unexpected even in the middle of the night I wake up frequently because of it.

sis2, I'm with you on this one. I'd be scanning for my escape route, too. I still get spooked about my ex and go into hypervigilance.

yep back to the wall always, scan every area in a store or when getting in or out of a vehicle way beyond the norm, someone touches you when you dont expect anyone around you. The house settles in the middle of the night, sounds like someone is walking thru the house.

Just quit a councelor that couldnt understand why after 19 years I still have major PTSD just from the violent ex.

SiScat, good for you. It's been 45 years for me, so that therapist apparently needed to go back to school. In my world, PTSD comes and goes, but it's chronic. I've tried every miracle cure out there and have had every well meaning instant fix, medication, you name it. If wishing made it so, I'd be the most cured PTSD person ever.

But peace for me comes from acceptance, signing up here, and sharing, imho.

Hang in there. Hope you find a new good therapist.