If you have post traumatic stress disorder, you are suffering.
You may also be in pain.
It is important to know the difference.
Pain without Suffering.
You can be in pain without suffering.
Don't believe me? I have given birth to two children.
Both were painful experiences, but I did not suffer.
It was price I knew I had to pay to be a Mom.
Have you ever gotten a tattoo? You expect some pain.
It is the price you pay for body art.
Pain, yes.
Suffering, no.
Pain is a physical event.
Pain is a warning message from the body.
Pain means something is happening that needs your attention.
A new person is trying to enter the world.
You had better pay attention! An ink laden needle is piercing your skin.
You really do need to be aware of that.
Suffering causes pain.
You can create pain for yourself out of your suffering.
You have been betrayed by a lover.
You cry, a lot.
Your sinus get clogged, your eyes burn, your caustic tears burn your cheeks, leaving them streaked with red.
You cry yourself to sleep and wake up feeling worse than hung over.
A coworker trashes your reputation.
You experience no physical pain, but you are angry.
You go over and over it in your mind.
What will happen now? How can you get even? Your jaw clenches.
Your trapezius muscles clench.
Soon the tension will pinch the nerves in your shoulders and neck.
You are on your way to a tension headache.
In both cases, you have created physical pain out of your suffering.
Pain happens in your body.
Suffering happens in your brain.
You create suffering with your mind.
Suffering is the child of your memory and your imagination.
If you have post traumatic stress disorder you suffer as you relive the traumatic past and imagine an equally unpleasant future.
Both are pain and suffering are real.
But they need to be treated differently.
Here is how you treat them.
Suffering.
In post traumatic stress disorder, you suffer because what you believed about the world, maybe even about yourself, has been proven wrong.
You thought the world was a safe place, at least that there were lines decent people did not cross.
Decent people included yourself.
Then you crossed those lines.
You saw awful things.
You did awful things.
You are not who you thought you were.
The world is not what you thought it should be.
You are anxious, afraid, ashamed, depressed.
Medication might help your anxiety and depression.
Your fears and your shame are probably best handled with some form of talk therapy.
It will be difficult.
Your suffering may increase as you look your new knowledge in the eye.
You will have to make changes, in your attitude, and your actions.
You will have to grow into your new knowledge.
You will become less tense, less fearful as you do.
Accepting the truth, no matter how ugly that truth is, reduces suffering.
Pain.
The traumatic experience that led to your PTSD may have caused physical injuries that leave you with pain.
You have to deal with the injury.
That may require surgery or physical therapy.
Your pain may temporarily increase.
Medication can help, and you need to do your part to follow medical advice.
But that pain will dissipate.
If your injury has been treated, but your pain is chronic, there are other ways to mitigate it.
Biofeedback, hypnosis, long-term medication.
Do whatever it takes.
Here it is even more important to recognize that the way you think about your pain, really does matter.
You do have pain and that is awful.
Maybe you will always have pain.
That really sucks.
But if you fight the idea of the pain, then you will suffer, as well as enduring the pain.
Post traumatic stress disorder causes both pain and suffering.
But knowing the difference can help you heal.