What is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and learn how to recognize the symptoms.
https://www.kathysconsulting.com/ to learn about resources or schedule a consultation
https://www.ptsd.va.gov/ learn about VA resources
Welcome to knowledge for caregivers. My name is Kathy, the host of this podcast. I have been a geriatric nurse for the past 10 years, I am going to share with you the knowledge that I have learned helping seniors age in place. This is the same knowledge that I use to take care of my own age loved ones. I hope you can use this knowledge to help your own age loved ones age with dignity, and grace.
I was 11 years old, living in South Vietnam. This is where my parents were working. They were Americans. We were the only ones in this big city. Next thing I know, mom and dad have rushed home. They tell me to pack my suitcase. The North Vietnamese have begun their offensive and many parts of the country are falling quickly. My parents had just met with a CIA operative who had said they were on the execution list if ever caught. We packed our suitcases. The CIA brought a white man to our house. We piled in as all the neighbors watched us leave. I saw their haunted faces. I knew this was probably the last time I would ever see my friends. They whisked away to the airport or we got on a prop plane. We landed at a military base where many other Westerners were arriving. They put us in a transport plane, took all of our luggage strapped it down. And we sat in bucket seats. We flew into the capital city, Westerners were staying in each other's homes as all the hotels were full. We were camped out on couches, mattresses, sleeping bags, we waited for civilian flights that were flying into the airport as quickly as possible to evacuate as many Westerners as possible. I arrived in Singapore in shock. my suitcase had my homeschooling books, since there were no American schools where I lived. Somehow mom was trying to carry on life as we lived on a hostel waiting to see what would happen in Vietnam.
We were all in a little bit of shock and not quite sure what to do. I was just 11 I didn't know what was going on. Somehow this memory faded into the background. And I never really talked about it. I never really thought that it had affected me at all. We moved on to the Philippines where my parents started over with a different line of work. And then I went off to college at 18. I was trying to adjust to American life in Alabama. And then everyone was so excited. They were all talking about this show called mash. And the final episode, I think I'd seen a few episodes, maybe some helicopters flying around. But I was very busy in nursing school. My workload was very heavy, I didn't have much time for TV. And back then we didn't have anything called Netflix and Amazon. We all gathered in the big TV room to watch the final episode of mash. All I saw was airplanes packing up and evacuating people. And suddenly that memory of when I was 11 years old came flooding back to me. I left immediately and crawled into my bed in a fetal position just crying and bawling my eyes out. I didn't even know what to do with this admission. It triggered a memory in me that I guess I somehow had repressed.
Now I'm telling this story because I want to talk about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. What I have is not really PTSD, which is an acronym for post traumatic stress disorder. Maybe it is just a small glimpse of what PTSD people live with. I do have triggers of that moment. It happened again, when I saw the evacuation of Katrina and again, with all the news and the evacuation of Afghanistan. So all I have to do is turn all that off and avoid the news for a couple of weeks until the new cycle changes. But people who live with PTSD have these triggers. Many times we have now associated PTSD with people who have come back from war. Here in America. Many people have PTSD that came back from Korea or Vietnam, especially the Vietnam War.
I met a gentleman once when I was having measurements made. He had come back from Vietnam. But I think the biggest trauma was he said he had food and everything thrown at him as he was trying to process out. He was considered an enemy just for having been drafted into a war he didn't necessarily want to go with. He was angry and frustrated. And that made the flashbacks even worse. He said he hated everyone. But he found a horse. And somehow he bonded with that horse, and he was able to get help and go on to live his life. But he never totally is back to normal.
In my line of work, I meet a lot of Vietnam vets, it seems that they are frustrated because somebody can't fix them. They struggle with a lot of health issues, and mental health issues. But PTSD can happen to anybody who goes through a trauma. Now, for me, it is not debilitating. Like I said, I don't have PTSD in the sense that PTSD is usually a debilitating condition, I just have that one experience that somehow triggers sometimes a great emotional response. But it doesn't happen to me very often. And it doesn't affect me that much. But people who have PTSD, I think, experience what I experience, but on a more frequent basis. And I guess that's why I'm telling that story. Because we may think, why are they acting this way. And it can be any trauma that someone has been through.
We have done studies in nursing, that people who have been in the intensive care unit, especially if they've been on a lot of life support mechanisms, that they actually are experiencing forms of PTSD when they get home. So that's kind of a little bit of what relates to COVID. You might say, somebody got really sick, they ended up in ICU, and then they come home and you're like, hey, what is going on? Why are they having all these struggles.
So some of the symptoms and physical reactions that we have, they have nightmares, they have unwanted memories, they want to avoid a situation. Like I said, there are times when I'm seeing a lot of things in the news. And it kind of triggers that emotional reaction in me, I just couldn't turn off the news. Like I said, mine is a very mild situation. They have heightened reactions. That's a set thing that is very common mild situation. They have heightened reactions. That's a set thing that is very common that I see with Vietnam, veterans in that, it seems like they get so angry very easily. And they're trying to deal with the medical system. And the medical system is really trying to help them but it doesn't take much. And then they get very angry, you know, just someone, just someone didn't get their needs met maybe quick enough. And they just get so mad. They also struggle with anxiety, and depression. And I don't know, I'm just now thinking about it. I have struggled with anxiety a lot as an adult, who knows, maybe there was some of that, but I don't have those memories or nightmares. One of the things that is really common for people who have PTSD is they're going to try to avoid things that of course trigger that no one wants to cause emotional pain. But the problem is if they go to such avoidance that that can create problems if they're trying to avoid things that are simple things like just driving in the car. I can remember for a long time when I left Vietnam, I used to jump every time I heard a loud noise because we were used to listening to Is there a mortar attack coming? Is there a bombing coming? Is there a gunfire coming, and then we are going to duck and get out of that situation?
There are things that just remind them of their trauma. So things like anniversaries, those will be times that they will have extreme distress, there'll be more upset. We talk about triggers, and all the anger that comes with it. And they just feel helpless. And they feel like they're living through that trauma. Again, sometimes it's new events that do that, and monetize. We think well, the war was, you know, whatever Vietnam was many years ago, trying to think 50, but they're still experiencing problems. PTSD, thankfully, is something that is now recognized. So I think in our war on terror, a lot more of our veterans are being treated a lot earlier. And the one thing with trauma is the sooner that you can do treatment, the better they can be. So the only thing I want people to be aware of is if you meet a veteran, or if you meet someone and it's like man, they've got these triggers or these short tempers or something like that. Find out it could be a major car wreck, it could be something that they witnessed a crime. All of these things can cause PTSD. trauma in childhood, can cause PTSD.
And I'm not here to give like a simple solution, because PTSD is very complex. There are very complex treatment processes. And that's one reason I don't put a lot in here about it. There's a lot of psycho therapies. There's exposure therapy and that they tried to get them to slowly decrease those triggers. They do things with eye movement, they do medications. It takes a whole team of people to work with somebody who is struggling with PTSD. And you may think, Well, my older person isn't struggling with that. But it's always good to know about it. Because we live in a community that we have a lot of veterans. And I know most of my audiences in America and other some that are in other countries, but our veterans are everywhere, especially since the war on terror. So we have younger veterans, we have older veterans. And I know this podcast is about older people. And I just see a lot with the Vietnam Veterans, especially that a lot of them do have PTSD. And maybe as they get older and have more health problems, they may have more trouble dealing with those emotions than maybe they did when they were younger.
So let's just be understanding of what people are going through. And we ourselves may need to go and get professional help if we're living with somebody, or have a family member with PTSD, so we can learn, what can we do to sort of decrease their anxiety? What can we do to set boundaries and what can we do to also take care of ourselves, because it's something I preach all the time. Whenever we're a caregiver, we also must make sure that our emotional, our mental, our social, and our spiritual health is also being taken care of. Otherwise, we're going to burn out or we're going to have too many physical problems and we're not going to be able to take care of the person that we love. So thank you for listening. And thank you for going on this caregiving journey with me.
If you like the podcast, share it. See the show notes for more information. If you want to see resources or set up consultation services for your unique family needs. Go To www.kathysconsulting.com that is www.kathyconsulting.com. Remember, all content is for informational purposes and not meant to replace consultation with a medical professional.