Hey everybody.
It's finally Friday.
And thank god,
because even though this was a short week it's felt really long.
And for any of you who are thinking of getting married,
be prepared for the name change extravaganza.
Or as I call them, metamorphosis.
I also am having like a identity crisis.
And been waiting at a lot of government buildings.
But I think everything is finished, now I can do everything online.
Thank you 2014. Amazing.
So, anyways.
I'm glad it's Friday, and I hope that you're glad it's Friday.
And it's nice here in LA, and even up in Washington where my momma is.
She was saying that it's going to be hot this weekend too.
So enjoy the sunshine.
And get out, get out and do something.
Meet with people. Hang out. Have a good time.
Okay, I have three questions.
I am on facebook on Fridays if you don't know.
If you are new to my channel, welcome.
And we use the #KatiFAQ
On Tuesdays I'm on tumblr.
On Wednesdays I'm on my website katimorton.com and on youtube.
Thursdays I'm on twitter.
And Fridays I'm on facebook.
And Mondays is my topic video.
So that's just a little run down on what I do every week.
And without further adieu I have three questions. And stay tuned to the end for my journal topic.
So question number one: 'I have been diagnosed with PTSD from childhood sexual abuse. I have been seeing a counsellor for years.'
'My question is; I am an EMT and I see traumatic things quite often. Am I more likely to have flashbacks about'
'those events because I already have PTSD?'
The short answer is no.
The things that may trigger your own flashbacks would be similar situations.
So lets say if you rush on the scene to someone and it's a child that has, you know, been abused by a parent or something.
And you come to protect them.
I don't know what kind of calls that you could potentially get.
But anything that would possibly trigger your own past and your own memory.
PTSD isn't something that we kind of catch, and then any traumatic event will bring it back up in us.
It's more of a thing that has happened to us, and our own experience and what we have kind of characterised it as.
And if something happens that falls into that characterisation it can stir us up and can give us flash backs,
it can make our anxiety go through the roof, we can have panic attacks. Stuff like that.
So don't worry, being an EMT and seeing trauma is not going to give you flashbacks more.
It just, honestly it's just a hard job.
And I am thankful that we have people like you to come and save us when bad things happen.
But when you run into situations that are similar to the trauma that you experienced it may cause flashbacks then.
So you might want to let, potentially your boss know, if you do find yourself having this trouble with it when you come on the scene or something like that.
But other than that you should be just fine. Okay.
Question number two: 'I am feeling strong just now and able to talk back to my'
'eating disorder. I am fighting with everything I can throw at it. But even when I use every other coping mechanism,'
'I have binges, binges still get the better of me. How do I keep trying when I keep failing? '
And this can be really hard, and I actually wanted to bring this one up because often times I forget to mention,
that when we are trying new coping skills to fight our depression voice, our eating disorder voice, our self harm voice, whatever negative voice we have going in our head.
It's going to take quite a few of those new coping skills we have created to override the bad negative urge.
Does that make sense?
So lets say I have urges to binge and purge.
Now even if I am fighting it, and I have like my colouring book and a journal and I call a friend, and all these things.
I may have to do like five or six of those things in order to get over that one urge to binge and purge.
And so I wanted to highlight that because I know that I don't always say that.
And some of you get discouraged.
And the thing about this question is that she is saying that if I just keep failing and I am trying everything,
that's at the point in our recovery and our path that we need to reach out for more support.
That might mean seeing a therapist two times a week if we are only seeing them one.
That might mean also seeing a dietician or a nutritionist, whatever you have available to you in your area
where you can work in those craving/binge foods in a healthy way and find a way to eat them in your regular diet.
There are a lot of different things that we can do.
But I would encourage you to find the help that you may need.
It may just be a little bit more support in order to get you through those urges. Okay.
But keep fighting because I promise it does get better.
Sometimes we just need a little extra support to get us there.
Question number three: 'Hey Kati, I hope all is well with you.'
It is, thanks for asking.
'Here is my question; how can I have PTSD without having PTSD? My psychologist, after taking a test to test my'
'neurotransmitters deemed that I had PTSD characteristics without having a traumatic event.'
'At least not one that I can remember or have been told about. However I can't really remember my childhood,'
'only bad memories from it. Thanks.'
I thought that this was interesting because we talk about PTSD, and I have a video on it.
And for the person who asked this question you might also want to watch my video on PTSD,
so please search that on my channel.
I talk about the diagnostic criteria and stuff like that, but
PTSD, the trauma doesn't have to be this one big event.
For many people it is.
It can be a car crash.
It can be abuse.
It can be witnessing someone getting harmed.
It can be a number of things.
Being in an earthquake.
There are a ton of different things, the only thing that makes it PTSD is, did we think it was life threatening.
And if we thought our life was in danger, often times that's what we can have is PTSD.
But we can have it without having one big moment.
It could be, like.
It sounds like you don't really remember your childhood but the bad memories.
It could be just that.
Or you might not have full blown PTSD, but you have a lot of the symptoms.
Because many of us don't meet full criteria for one diagnosis for whatever reason.
But that doesn't mean that we don't have the symptoms of it.
Like many of you when you ask 'Do you think I have an eating disorder?'
I always say 'If you think you do, you probably do.'
Just because we don't meet all these criteria, doesn't mean we don't have one.
It just means that within the DSM 'diagnostic criteria' we don't quite meet it.
And I think that's kind of bullshit.
And it kind of puts us in these buckets where we feel like we don't really deserve to get help, we dont deserve to have these symptoms.
But from what you are saying, it sounds like either:
a) something did happen in your childhood,
and our brain is really adaptable to block out all of that negativity and bad stuff so we can keep moving forward and keep living.
Or two; it wasn't one of those big things, it was just that you have had bad things happen over time.
And your brain is responding in a way that someone with PTSD would respond.
If any of you have experience with this, because this is something that I haven't heard of before.
Other than people talking about it, I've never heard of the test when they test for neurotransmitters and finding it
without you actually having it.
So you can leave your comments and your experiences below because that always helps.
Now our journal topic today is a quote and it's from Brent, so thanks Brent for sharing this.
And it says: 'Change the 'what if' statements to 'why nots'.'
And I think that's perfect for the summer because when people say, you know,
'Do you want to go out or whatever?'
Don't ask why, ask why not.
And I think that when we always say that 'Oh but what if something bad happens, and what if I don't like it, and what if I get there and I am unconfortable?'
Well why not?
It could be amazing.
We don't know.
So, I'd like you to challenge yourself.
Think of, we'll do two. We'll start with two.
Two situations you have kind of been putting off, or you don't know if you want to go.
Or you don't know if you want to do it.
And then I want you to journal about why not.
What could be great that comes out of it?
I want you to focus on the positive.
What could be amazing?
What makes you kind of want to go?
And then maybe we go.
Ta-da.
So have a wonderful weekend.
I will see you all on Monday on my topic video and Tuesday I will be on tumblr.
So I will see you there. Bye!
Subtitles by the Amara.org community