PTSD, Alcoholism & Legal Drugs

According to the men in white coats PTSD has three main types of symptoms:

Re-experiencing the trauma through intrusive distressing recollections of the event, flashbacks, and nightmares.
Emotional numbness and avoidance of places, people, and activities that are reminders of the trauma.
Increased arousal such as difficulty sleeping and concentrating, feeling jumpy, and being easily irritated and angered.


Reading this I immediately thought that the second and third could describe what alcoholics/addicts go through, especially when they become sober.  On further thought this is logical, most of the recovering alcoholics and addicts I know made a lot of trouble while still abusing the substance of their choice. Often they get themselves into very traumatic situations.
Further reading shows me we have a “chicken or the egg’ type of riddle here. PTSD people “self-medicate” themselves with alcohol.  Which caused which? Actually that is of little concern for people that attend Strange Classrooms, the object is primarily on finding solutions to cope, if not heal, with this problem.  The esteemed medical profession, especially in America, tend to treat both alcoholism and PTSD with…. drugs. From my experience and observation this is not the answer at all. Legal drug addicts are one of the best kept secrets in the medical profession.
The old school members of Alcoholics Anonymous advocate that you cannot claim sobriety if you are on ANY mind altering substance. This has changed and often I attend meetings when I am the only one that is not on some psycreatic medication. I hear the people saying the EXACT things my mother use to say 40 years ago, every six months or so. “Oh, the doctor has changed my medication; the pills I was taking were not working anymore so we are trying something new.”  She died  relatively young, from a combination of legal drugs and alcohol, her body just shut down.  A saying in the Rooms, “If nothing changes, nothing changes.” Here nothing has changed in four decades! My conclusion has to be drugs are not the answer. How did the old school AA guys get it right? Well, that is written about in my first series of Strange Classrooms.
That’s it for now, need to go do some more research and speak to a few people.







A compilation of my Strange Classrooms is soon to be released, please “Like” and  keep an eye on this page.
THE MEXICAN HORSE THIEF
Here is a story of developing and breaking an addiction, while dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome at the same time.
THE CHRONICLES OF THE MEXICAN HORSE THIEF II