Trauma related resources

There were many resources available on the internet to deal with PTSD. However, because PTSD messes up cognitive abilities I was not able to find them before, when I found them, I was not able to comprehend the information, and even if I understood it, I would forget quickly. So, I highly recommend keeping an easy to reach list of resources. Here is mine. Have a look at my Daily functioning tips and emergency list at When you cannot cope for the things I found useful.

Information about PTSD

The Body Keeps the Score, Bessel Van Der Kolk. I was shocked when I started reading this book. Somebody wrote a book about me without even meeting me. Actually, the book was written even before I was injured. I learned about it only at the end of 2021. The best book I have read about PTSD. It helped to understand many this. Life could have been much easier if I read it after I got injured.

PTSD following a road traffic incident

Stressed - A Documentary Film | 4K OFFICIAL - a very good documentary about trauma's impact on the body.

I write about my experience and especially troubling or less widely know PTSD symptoms.

Erasing Fears & Traumas Based on the Modern Neuroscience of Fear | Huberman Lab Podcast #49

Dr. Paul Conti: Therapy, Treating Trauma & Other Life Challenges | Huberman Lab Podcast #75

Trauma responses

There were two well know trauma responses:

• fight (and the danger is over) or
• flight (if you cannot fight and will need to keep avoiding it in future).

Some people mention:

• freeze (when you cannot even run, so freeze to save energy and hope you will get chance to run latter, helpless all the time).

However, three is one:

• fawn (when you cannot flight after freezing, so just do everything possible to please aggressor to survive and do not dare to think of any other option). Unfortunately, it affected me a lot and I was not aware that it does or how it works for very long time.

https://www.ptsduk.org/its-so-much-more-than-just-fight-or-flight/

https://psychcentral.com/health/fawn-response

https://www.verywellmind.com/the-four-fear-responses-fight-flight-freeze-and-fawn-5205083

Useful suggestions

https://www.amymyersmd.com/article/adaptogens-stress-adrenal-fatigue

Interesting research to help to understand trauma and its impact

Forced treadmill exercise can induce stress and increase neuronal damage in a mouse model of global cerebral ischemia https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352289516300200 - This is nice experiment that highlights damages of long-term stress, when you cannot control even such simple thing as the time when you exercise. The need to have control over what is happening to you in your life is way stronger when you have PTSD.

Self-administered exposure therapy by a Vietnam veteran with PTSD is a short and interesting article by Frueh, B. Christopher. A case study where Vietnam veteran was able to significantly reduce PTSD symptoms by self exposure.

Other resources for PTSD, that are not applicable for me

Heal For Life is a nonprofit organization helping people with childhood trauma: Trauma Counselling Therapy Programs - You Can Recover | Heal For Life. Unfortunately, they do not have services to help people with PTSD that comes from other types of trauma.

Ketamine as treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder: a review interesting article about new protentional treatment.

Brain injury

Puzzles Helped Me Recover from a Traumatic Injury - The New Your Times. Uplifting story of recovery. I can relate with my own story. Only I have been working for almost 9 years trying to recover and it still feels like a very long way to go. Now it feels almost bad that I was trying to force my self to be productive so hard and limiting my resting time, that includes games. I was thinking that I being able to solve Sudoku again is not that important part of recovery. I will try to learn from this experience.