PTSD is a variation of Panic Attacks.

Copyright 2003 -  Revision Sunday March 16, 2008

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This site is about a conflict of human physiology that shaped history but was undetected  until the 1960's.

In the entire history of man on the planet Earth this phenomenon was discovered only once.

It caused mental breaks for office workers.

You will find this material hard to believe.

This phenomenon is explained in first semester psychology lectures where students don't believe it either.

For that reason I wrote a demonstration that will allow you to experience the phenomenon.

The Everquest Connection page has the explanation and assumes you have not taken basic psychology.

The solution for this problem was the office Cubicle.

This site argues that the this phenomenon causes College Suicides and Missing Students.

The phenomenon causes mental events around the world, Chaco Canyon.

If you use computers in unprotected workspace such as homes, dorms, student apartments, and small business offices read  ...Prevention... at the bottom of most pages.

Long  term exposure can cause severely altered mental states. Qi Gong  Kundalini Yoga

If you are visiting the site as part of a school project send the person responsible for controlling violence at your school to this site.

Site overview, what it is all about.           Click this line to skip this introductory text and go to top of the page, PTSD.

A little known conflict of physiology was discovered when it caused mental breaks for Knowledge workers  The Cubicle solved that problem by the 1960's.

Those designers and psychologists thought they had caused the problem for the first time. But the mental events happen other places. For almost 3000 years users of Qi Gong, the slow motion martial arts exercise received medical benefits from their exercise. They did not know why. An elaborate explanation developed that the exercise balanced the flow of "chee" (Qi) in the body.  This explanation includes the existence of a Universal Life Force. When users begin to have psychotic episodes experts blame them on not doing the exercise correctly. Now most sites state that the psychotic episodes happen when too many sessions are done in a compact time frame. But those sites still argue that powerful life forces cause the mental breaks.

Kundalini Yoga causes the same psychotic episodes. Again, users don't know why. They blame failure to control the "Awakening of Kundalini." This exercise has an even more elaborate belief system. Again there is a  belief that there is a untapped source of life energy available to be released.

Both exercises use an eyes-open exercise period where deep concentration is engaged. That is the same mental state that Knowledge workers must use to be able to  read for comprehension, perform math, or other business duties. While in that mental state they can all subliminally detect movement of others near them. This creates vision reflexes including the "startle reflex."

Humans quickly learn to ignore vision reflexes so we can continue to concentrate. But we can't stop "subliminally seeing, detecting" the movement that triggers the reflexes. When your brain understands the repeating signals generated to cause a reflex as reinforcement of contemporaneous thought and activity Accidental Operant Conditioning happens.

If the exposure is concentrated in a short time frame a temporary episode is created. When exposure is slow but persistent, long-term users experience a permanent, narrowly-focused, psychotic, altered mental states.

When Vietnam era veterans began having  flashbacks of their combat experiences, it was blamed on stress caused by those experiences. There is no evidence that this is so. No one can open the box and look inside to determine the cause of flashbacks.

But there is a problem of physiology that will cause mental breaks if there is exposure to Subliminal Distraction above normal harmless levels. This phenomenon creates fear and paranoia. If the victim does not recall past experiences the attacks are general episodes of fear and have somatic symptoms, Panic Attacks.

When the dissociative mental event happens each person experiences the mental break in relation to their fears, memories and stressful associations.  Culture Bound Syndromes are evidence of that. Dissociative and psychotic mental breaks are experienced in terms of ethnic and cultural belief around the world.

Understanding the phenomenon is critical to understanding this presentation. If you did not perform the psychology exercise on the Demonstration page or read the Everquest Connection, save those pages to your hard drive so you can do that off line.

__

This page began construction for search engines the weekend of October 22.

It is unfinished. There are links to discussions on other pages until I finish this article.

The revision date in the upper right corner is the last date I worked on it.

PTSD

US Army Caption

"January 7, 2005
Soldiers returning from duty in Iraq to the Southern European Task Force complete mental health screens to detect symptoms of post-combat depression this past summer."

Arrangements of computer based video labs cause Subliminal Distraction.

"January 22, 2007

TILT: Language Learning Via Video Gaming  Photo by AFN Europe
The battlefield is going virtual. Petty Officer Joe Ebalo tells us how Soldiers in Vicenza, Italy, are using a video game for more than just recreational use. "
 

These arrangements are found in colleges here in the US and in video game playing businesses in Asia. Reading a computer screen engages the level of concentration necessary to set up the "special conditions" that allow exposure from Subliminal Distraction.

There is no exposure unless movement is subliminally detected in peripheral vision.

Exposure can happen anywhere the ''special conditions" are created. Slight dissociation not the nature of the activity determines if exposure can happen.

Too-close side-by-side duty stations have the potential for exposure. Small movements are difficult to detect thus limiting exposure. 

"KADENA AIR BASE, Japan -- First Lt. Chris Satkowski, an air weapons officer, and other air battle managers verify and control fighter aircraft during a live air-to-air training scenario July 26. They are assigned to the 961st Airborne Air Control Squadron. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Richard Freeland) "

"January 31, 2007

38th Division Soldiers working in the Command Integration Center participated in a voice over internet protocol (VOIP) conference call as part of the Warfighter Exercise."

Increased use of computers means increased exposure from SD if the Army fails to provide 'Cubicle Level Protection'.

Negative outcomes  require many hours of exposure. Single limited time events are not long enough to cause these outcomes.

"January 17, 2007

25th Infantry Regiment Photo by National Archives
Buffalo Soldiers of the 25th Infantry Regiment take a break in a tent."

Single-room living arrangements have existed in the Army since tents were used during the 1800's.
 

Soldiers must perform some activity that engages slight dissociation while there is repeating detectable movement in their peripheral vision to cause exposure. Daydreaming is enough dissociation.

In the 1880's 'Jumping Frenchmen of Maine' provided evidence that single-room arrangements cause exposure from SD. Bunkhouses in  lumber camps caused  the strange startle-matching behaviors that are now found around the world as Jumping Diseases.

"September 23, 2004

Soldiers in the new modular barracks have their own bedroom, which includes a computer desk, dresser and television stand."
 

New private bedrooms provide adequate 'Cubicle Level Protection' if the computer is located correctly.

Introduction

PTSD arose as a diagnosis in the DSM when Vietnam veterans began having attacks of flash backs. Sometimes there were cases where violence happened. When you search  the term "Combat Fatigue" you will find it defined as PTSD.

The stressful condition was first seen in the Civil War where it was called "soldiers heart." Victims had racing hearts, difficulty breathing, chest pain, and a fear that they were dying or going crazy.

Then doctors began to diagnosis PTSD in people who were not Vietnam veterans and had never been in combat.

PTSD is defined as:

"Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, is a psychiatric disorder that can occur following the experience or witnessing of life-threatening events such as military combat, natural disasters, terrorist incidents, serious accidents, or violent personal assaults like rape. People who suffer from PTSD often relive the experience through nightmares and flashbacks, have difficulty sleeping, and feel detached or estranged, and these symptoms can be severe enough and last long enough to significantly impair the person's daily life."

"In 1980, the American Psychiatric Association added PTSD to the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) nosologic classification scheme. Although controversial when first introduced, the PTSD diagnosis has filled an important gap in psychiatric theory and practice. From an historical perspective, the significant change ushered in by the PTSD concept was the stipulation that the etiological agent was outside the individual (i.e., a traumatic event) rather than an inherent individual weakness (i.e., a traumatic neurosis). The key to understanding the scientific basis and clinical expression of PTSD is the concept of "trauma."..."

Note that this site is from the Veterans Administration.  http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/facts/general/fs_what_is_ptsd.html

But there are so many symptoms of other disorders that co-occur in PTSD that it has been suggested the definition be expanded.

PTSD --- Psychiatric Times  November 2001  Vol. XVIII  Issue 11 by K. Elan Jung, M.D.

  This 2001 article is typical of the thinking behind the DSM . As you read this article remember that no one knows what causes PTSD. Current belief is that:

 "...severe trauma ... exceed ordinary coping mechanisms ..." ---  "The majority of psychiatric disorders are diagnosed according to symptoms, signs and traits. Posttraumatic stress disorder is unique in that etiology is a primary diagnostic factor..."  ---  "...many patients exhibit multiple symptoms concomitantly or at different times..." ---

"...The classification posttraumatic stress disorder should be replaced with posttraumatic spectrum disorder, using the following subclassifications:

• PTSD with psychotic features;
• PTSD with depressive features;
• PTSD with anxiety and panic features;
• PTSD with dissociative features;
• PTSD with borderline features; and
• PTSD with other clinical features. ..."

http://www.psychiatrictimes.com/p011158.html

Other disorders appear in PTSD.

"If an individual meets diagnostic criteria for PTSD, it is likely that he or she will meet DSM-IV-TR criteria for one or more additional diagnoses. Most often, these comorbid diagnoses include major affective disorders, dysthymia, alcohol or substance abuse disorders, anxiety disorders, or personality disorders. There is a legitimate question whether the high rate of diagnostic comorbidity seen with PTSD is an artifact of our current decision-making rules for the PTSD diagnosis since there are not exclusionary criteria in DSM-III-R. In any case, high rates of comorbidity complicate treatment decisions concerning patients with PTSD since the clinician must decide whether to treat the comorbid disorders concurrently or sequentially."

Veterans Administration same link.

Let me repeat that, no one knows what actually causes PTSD. For that matter no one knows what causes any mental disorder unless there is a brain injury, a history of substance abuse,  serious inherited brain deficits, or there is diagnosable brain disease.

Canadian Journal of Psychiatry

Article One

"From the beginning, critics of the PTSD diagnosis wondered whether its advocates had discovered a disease entity in nature or whether they had cobbled together a cluster of symptoms shared with other syndromes and then traced its etiology to the unpopular war in Vietnam. Was PTSD discovered by clinical scientists or created by them?...Therapy designed to recovered alleged repressed memories of trauma was based on misunderstandings of how memory works."

Article two

http://www.cpa-apc.org/Publications/Archives/CJP/2005/november/GuestEditorial.asp

Article one     http://www.cpa-apc.org/Publications/Archives/CJP/2005/november/cjp-nov-05-mcnally-IRedit-nov.pdf

Article Two             http://www.cpa-apc.org/Publications/Archives/CJP/2005/november/cjp-nov-05-loftus-IR-nov.pdf

The mistake that has been made is to assume the subject of a flash back or panic attack is the cause of that episode.

That is not necessarily so. The subject of flash backs in panic attacks can be the most distressing memory the victim has. If there has been childhood abuse that, rather than combat memories, would appear in the context of the episode.

If someone has flashbacks of alien abduction... do we assume that the abduction was real and the flash backs are evidence of experiencing trauma? Believe it or not there is a small group of therapists that take this view. But a more reasonable view is that the alien abduction is a creation of a sudden dissociative event. Thus the installed memory becomes "real" even though the event never happened. We can determine that a veteran served in combat but the specifics of the flashback may or may not be real experiences.

With childhood abuse there have been cases where the therapist caused the creation of false memories when someone presented with symptoms of emotional disturbances. The patient eventually remembered abuse even though there had been none.

In the case of Culture Bound Syndromes, episodes of disturbing behavior that happen around the world,  each ethnic group experiences a dissociative episode in terms of their belief system. When Native Americans had sudden onset attacks while over-wintering in small shelters they believed they were being pursued by or were becoming the Windigo. A Windigo is the boogey man of their culture. Today Ghost Sickness is believed to happen because of contact with deceased tribe members. Taboos exist regarding dealing with the dead. But the symptoms of Ghost Sickness, hearing voices, argue that a subtle mental break is involved.

When Japanese have panic attacks they experience the belief that their appearance or bodily functions have offended someone.

Many of the features of Culture Bound Syndromes appear in victims of  PTSD. Amok, as in running amok, is a sudden attack on people or things. For the Navajo it is called Iich'aa. The sudden violent event became known as Going Postal in the United States, and is listed as a CBS. One mental event, Cabin Fever, was a sudden berserk violent attack on a cabin-mate by fur trappers wintering-over in tiny cabins in the Rocky Mountains, 1830's.

There have been fist fights over chess games on Russian space missions and there is an unverified story of an ax murder, again in a fight over a chess game, in a Russian Antarctic station. In both cases two or more people confined in too-small living/working spaces allow the special circumstances for exposure to Subliminal Distraction to be created.

Looking back to Culture Bound Syndromes, the too-small traditional housing, mud huts, kivas, igloos, and other primitive housing allow the same circumstances and exposure to be accidentally created. The evidence of this is found in the jumping diseases, also called startle matching behaviors. They are so strange that they cannot be mistaken for anything else. There are investigations to prove that these behaviors are of neurological origin. But they only appear when many people live and work in single-room arrangements. In 1880's Maine it was bunkhouses for Jumping Frenchmen of Maine. In Malaysia entire villages live in longhouses creating the same experience for exposure. Latah is the jumping disease there.

The error of believing that sudden strange episodes in other cultures were somehow caused by those ethnic group's "strange customs and belief systems," is typical of the racial and ethnic bias of the medical community. You will find the comments that these episodes happen to "poor, or lower class women," and there is often the reference to "low intelligence." The observation is correct but the income, social class,  or intelligence has nothing to do with it. Lower income families often live in too-small arrangements. In ethnic societies around the world the "traditional housing" is a single room hut, hogan, kiva, or other single-room arrangement.

Those strange disorders, Culture Bound Syndromes,  are caused by the same human physiology as the disorders listed in the DSM here in the United States.

What the writers of the DSM have been missing is the knowledge of an accidental discovery in the Design field.

In the period just after WWII and the Korean War there were technological advancements that required workers trained in engineering and human factors psychology. One of the advancements was the re-design of business and engineering offices. Leaders in this effort were Haworth, Steelcase, and Herman Miller Inc. They researched all the factors they had knowledge of and began to produce  workstations they intended to be moved by occupants to group them for each project.  But a problem arose. Some of the workers using those new workstations began to have strange episodes.

The problem was researched and it was discovered that Subliminal Sight and Peripheral Vision Reflexes, operating in those "special circumstances," were causing mental breaks. At that time those episodes were temporary. The Cubicle became the industry standard to block side, or peripheral, vision to prevent the subliminal detection of "threat movement' to trigger a peripheral vision reflex.

Those designers and psychologists thought they had created the mental breaks for the first time and that the only place it could happen was a business office.

But when you review strange events through history with the filter of those "special circumstances" being available where the mental breaks happen a pattern develops.

Native Americans in the four corners area of the South West, 1100 to 1300 AD,  began to construct protective dwellings and eventually abandoned the area. They exhibited extreme paranoia but experts can't determine why. The Anasazi had begun to manufacture trade goods. They placed workers close together under "brush arbor" type shades. When the work was done in kivas, due to cold weather,  the entire family would be in the room to supply movement in peripheral vision.

Chaco Canyon VPN site page.

Artisans, clerks, and small shop keepers began to disappear in 1880's France. The disappearances were uncovered only when one of the victims would recover and find themselves hundreds of miles from home with amnesia of how they got there. All the victims would have had behaviors like knowledge workers.

Dissociative Fugue Epidemic 1880's France a VPN site page.

In 1898 Belgium sent an expedition to the Antarctic. Through poor timing they became trapped in polar ice. Eighteen normal sailors and scientists began to go insane. The scientists were effected first.  There was one death and another man became a deaf mute. The Belgica, a converted whaler, used a single-room living and working area. Paranoia and depression were the common outcomes. Most of the men started to recover when they all worked outside to chop the ship out of the ice. Only one man was permanently insane.

Astronauts & Insanity a VPN site page. 

In about 1880 a New York neurologist heard of strange symptoms observed in French Canadian lumberjacks. Jumping Frenchmen of Maine was eventually discovered in other locations. Operant conditioning explained the phenomenon but the investigators could not find a source. It appeared in Malaysia as Latah. Now the jumping diseases are found around the world but experts still do not understand the cause. They all happen in locations where small single-room family living arrangements are used. Latah happened where longhouses were used and Jumping Frenchmen of Maine happened where bunkhouses were used.

Culture Bound Syndromes a VPN site page.

The symptoms of jumping diseases, also called startle behavior matching, are so striking they cannot be mistaken for anything else. Upon being startled the person will copy any action demonstrated to them. They will also upon being startled perform any action commanded of them. This happens even if the action is harmful to them or to someone else. They often repeat the last words spoken to them or their own last words. This last behavior is usually only seen in catatonic schizophrenia.

When the problem was discovered in Mooselake Maine then in locations in Canada the fact that it happened to French Canadian lumberjacks was a false lead that diverted the investigation. It did not occur to the investigators to look for differences in life in a lumber camp and life in small towns near by. Had they just examined the difference in many men living in a single-room bunkhouse rather than in multiple room houses they might have solved the problem. The second chance to solve the riddle happened when the behaviors were discovered in Malaysia. There entire villages live in longhouses. That single room housing copies the bunkhouses in rural Maine.

Now the startle behavior matching has been found around the world. With some single case exceptions it happens where ethnic 'traditional housing' is a single-room arrangement. In his book "Boo! Culture, Experience, and the Startle Reflex," Dr. Simons notes cases where the phenomenon appears in factory workers in the United States. But Dr. Simons is unaware of the vision driven startle reflex. Even though there are two he cases recorded where the detection of movement in peripheral vision caused a Latah episode, he fails to make the connection. (The book is discussed on the Dissociative Fugue page.)

The factors to cause exposure to Subliminal Distraction are so simple that they can be created almost anywhere.

This phenomenon can reasonably explain:

• A source and cause of paranoia;

• Why Schizophrenia onsets in adolescence;

• The cause of panic attacks;

• A connection for intelligence, creativity and mental illness....

...  To be continued.   Sunday March 16, 2008 09:53:01 PM -0600

Published accounts of cases

Chicago Tribune

Chapter 1: Hunted by the Nazis 60 years ago, Sonia is running again By Howard Reich
Tribune arts critic

"On the frigid evening of Feb. 15, 2001, a silver-haired woman who stood less than 5 feet tall packed some skirts, blouses and underwear into two brown shopping bags. She put on her gray winter coat, locked the door to her Skokie home and fled. After she wandered the dark and empty streets of the northern suburb for a couple of hours, the police picked her up and deposited her at a nearby relative's home. The next morning she was out the door and running again, only to be grabbed by the Skokie police once more"
 

"To her, these delusions were as real as life itself. Her psychotic visions revived a nightmarish past in which she, as an 11-year-old girl, escaped the Jewish ghetto in Dubno, Poland, as her family and friends were being shot by German death squads.

"When the police first brought my mother to the hospital, the emergency-room doctors gave her a full run of neurological exams, including brain scans, which showed no abnormalities. Her personal physicians could find no explanation for what was happening to her".

"Eventually, I learned what was wrong from several specialists I contacted around the world: My mother had late-onset post-traumatic stress disorder."
 

"Much of the medical literature on late-onset PTSD notes that a stressful event late in life, such as an illness or an important anniversary, can push a person who has been coping with bad memories into a realm of delusion and paranoia."(part 7)
 

Note that experts are diagnosing late onset PTSD with no knowledge of anything else that might cause a dissociative mental break with delusions of persecution based on previous life experiences.

Print page of article. http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/chi-031130soniareich1-story,1,2540226,print.story?ctrack=1&cset=true

Tommy Murphy

"As the United States fought abroad in Afghanistan and began its operation in Iraq, Tommy Murphy answered our nation’s call to arms in the wake of “9/11.” Tommy was a spirited nineteen-year-old. When he applied for service in the Army, Tommy gave a specific answer for his preferred location in his usual style: “As close to Osama Bin Laden as you can get me.” He became an Army Ranger, one of the most elite designations a fighting soldier can receive. Tommy served two tours of active combat duty in Afghanistan and then returned to the Middle East to serve in Iraq. Tommy earned the rank of Specialist and served as both a line squad team leader and a weapon squad team leader during his combat deployments.
 

In November 2005, still untreated for his severe PTSD, Tommy participated in a lengthy combat simulation exercise at Fort Lewis, Washington—days of intense war games training. After completing the simulation, Tommy became delusional; took guns and equipment from fellow soldiers; cleaned them; and prepared for a combat patrol. When this conduct was properly brought to the attention of officials, Tommy was charged with theft by an overzealous young JAG officer who saw Tommy’s case as an opportunity for his first trial experience.

Disturbed by symptoms of psychological problems, Tommy sought help from an Army psychologist at his base in Fort Lewis, Washington. This military doctor diagnosed Tommy with “severe post-traumatic stress disorder”—a diagnosis later confirmed by a private psychologist and world-renowned leader in the PTSD treatment field.

With alarming frequency, reputable news agencies report about the grossly inadequate manner in which the armed forces are dealing with troops returning from the current wars with PTSD. Veterans are returning home from Afghanistan and Iraq with PTSD in unprecedented numbers. Congressional committees and special news reports continue to investigate the psychological costs of war and ways to better address the needs of soldiers upon their return from the battlefield. Unfortunately, psychological injuries like PTSD are a tragic fact of war."
 

http://saveonesoldier.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=38&Itemid=72

Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania

This is the decision on an issue of benefits due an unidentified veteran. It is instructive in that it is typical of government decisions and findings relative to PTSD. Note that PTSD is a "diagnosis only," nothing more. Different doctors will reach different decisions and diagnosis when evaluating  an identical patient record.

That's the problem with the "disorders" of the DSM there is no objective standard for a diagnosis.

In the case of Jason Weed, on the 'est' page here, a psychiatrist interviewed Weed by phone and rendered his testimony in that murder case.

"FINDINGS OF FACT

2. The veteran did not participate in combat, for VA purposes, and it is the supported medical opinions, based on review of the record and examination of the veteran, that the veteran does not have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). ...

The record shows that the veteran served on active duty in Vietnam from October 1969 to June 1971. His military specialty was truck driver and he was assigned to the 554th Engineer Company. The veteran alleged, both in his personal testimony before the undersigned and in correspondence, that his Vietnam service stressors included the witnessing of one of his fellow servicemen kill another member of the unit and of a sergeant in the unit having been "fragged." ...

The report of the veteran's January 2000 VA psychiatric evaluation, undertaken specifically to determine the nature of the veteran's psychiatric disorder, shows that examiner diagnosed schizophrenia, paranoid type, residual phase.  The examiner offered that the veteran did not meet diagnostic criteria for justify a diagnosis of PTSD, either in terms of identified stressors or psychiatric symptomatology. ...

The veteran's treating records from Shadyside Hospital for December 1999 to April 2002 show that he has been seen for various disorders, to include psychosis.  Felt to be due to a hormonal imbalance.  In medical statements, dated in October 2001 and in May 2002, Dr. Richards related that the veteran's psychotic symptoms were due to endocrine abnormalities.  She also noted that the veteran suffered from PTSD, with symptoms of flashbacks and nightmares of Vietnam experiences. ...

In November 2002, the veteran underwent VA psychiatric examination specifically conducted to determine the presence of PTSD.  Following examination and review of the record, the examiner diagnosed generalized anxiety disorder, mild.  The examiner offered that, consistent with all previous examinations, to include the January 2000 VA psychiatric evaluation, and those completed in the VA clinic (August 2002 through October 2002), there was no evidence to sustain a diagnosis of PTSD for the veteran.  He did not meet criteria for diagnosis of PTSD in that he reported no specific stressor in which his life was in danger, other than witnessing at a distance a gun fight and assault by another veteran.  Further, the examiner offered that the veteran did not meet symptom criteria for a diagnosis of PTSD, despite his score on psychological testing.  The examiner offered that the veteran did meet criteria for generalized anxiety disorder, for which he was currently receiving treatment. ... "
 

http://www.va.gov/vetapp03/Files/0303459.txt

Drugs

The CBS news show 60 Minutes aired a program on the use of propranolol, a medication used for high blood pressure, to lower the amount of adrenaline present in the brain and thus lower the response of memory for traumatic events. Reactions are mixed. Government sources say erasing memory changes who we are. But advocates for mental health treatment cite the stress reduction from removing traumatic memory. In the second half of the program memory was reduced even though only a movie, unrelated to the trauma, was used before medication was given. This argues that suggestibility is involved in reducing the reaction to traumatic memory. (Think hypnosis.)

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/11/22/60minutes/printable2205629.shtml

Links for PTSD 

Links for the entire site are not the same as individual page links. The site links are a copy of the Favorites list used in the research.  Site Links

Video:

YouTube video 

These symptoms and some of the physical conditions also appeared among the crew of the Belgica. They were only ship's crew and scientists on an Antarctic expedition. The nature of that incident, all but one man recovered when they worked outside to chop the ship out of the pack ice, reveals that Subliminal Distraction was the cause of the incident. There were many physical symptoms. One became a deaf mute and another with previous heart problems died.

"Shell Shock and the case of Harry Farr"

WWI case of trial and execution for cowardice in the face of the enemy. There is limited video of shell shock victims. You will be able to see the level of fear these men exhibited. Note that the fear was so intense at first they were hospitalized but later the fear reaction could be triggered by sight or sound.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCk1bG5PBhw

"WW1 Shellshock" 1:18

This video has scenes of patients that show the nature of their fear. Some of the same video is used in the 'Case of Harry Farr' video above.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRv56gsqkzs&NR

World War One - Footage 4:13

Very limited shots of trench conditions.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZVDUXPB_sTs&mode=related&search=

Bully on Line

This site defines reaction to bullying as PTSD.

"PTSD resulting from accident, disaster, war, terrorism, torture, kidnap, etc has been extensively studied and literature is available elsewhere. The first written reference to PTSD symptoms comes from the sixth century BC; Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is nothing new - and neither is the willingness of some people to discredit and deny the existence of the disorder."

 

http://www.bullyonline.org/stress/ptsd.htm

EMDR

This treatment has been ridiculed by skeptics. But the Veteran's Administration has a page about it.

This article is dated November 2000. http://psychcentral.com/library/pt_emdr.htm

EMDR Institute history page. http://www.emdr.com/history.htm

Veteran's Administration site page EMDR. http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/facts/treatment/fs_treatment.html

Lola Green Baldwin Foundation (This site has a history of PTSD)

"PTSD was first recognized after the American Civil War. Doctors noticed that some soldiers who had been in heavy combat complained of having attacks of fast heartbeat, chest pain, difficulty breathing, and fear that they were dying or going crazy.

The symptoms were similar to heart attacks. Not having the scientific equipment to investigate further, they assumed the attacks were a form of heart disease. They called it "soldiers' heart"...."

The Laura Green Baldwin Foundation

On April 1, 1907, Lola Greene Baldwin, aged forty-eight, was sworn in as the first woman police officer in the United States. (Four years before she could vote -in Oregon.) Her appointment arose out of public concern for the "moral and physical welfare" of families and children.
 

http://www.prostitutionrecovery.org/ptsd.html

National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Department of Veterans Affairs

Startle Response In Individuals With PTSD By C. A. Morgan III, M.D., M.A. NCP Clinical Quarterly 7(4): Fall 1997

"Some authors reviewing the startle literature have wondered whether or not exaggerated startle in individuals with PTSD might be reflective of a classically conditioned response. It is reasoned that the sudden bursts of noise might be reminiscent of the sounds of the battlefield or of gun fire and thereby produce an exaggerated (fear-conditioned) startle response. This idea however, has lost considerable explanatory power given the evidence for exaggerated startle in victims of non-combat, non-firearm related trauma who suffer from PTSD."

Exposure to Subliminal Distraction can happen almost anywhere. Exaggerated startle is evidenced in Latah and Jumping Frenchmen of Maine Disease. This paper does not recognize the difference in the vision "startle reflex," and startle by other stimulus, acoustic startle.

http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/publications/cq/v7/n4/morgan.html?printable=yes

Post Graduate Medicine On Line

"Often considered primarily a disorder of military combat veterans, PTSD is now known to affect people in all walks of life. Natural disasters, violent crimes, massacres, school shootings, terrorism, and the unprecedented exodus of refugees from ethnic wars are expanding the number of psychologically traumatized people who are at increased risk for PTSD

...PTSD is an anxiety disorder that may develop in a person who has experienced, witnessed, or learned about a physically or psychologically distressing event (1-5). The event may involve death, threatened death, serious injury, or other threat to a person's physical integrity. The immediate cause of PTSD appears to be the specific stressors associated with the event or events

...Prognosis is usually good when symptoms begin within 6 months of the traumatic event..."

Note that this site has advanced the trauma theory to the point that just hearing about an incident is enough to cause the flashbacks of PTSD.

http://www.postgradmed.com/issues/2001/11_01/khouzam.htm

https://scholarsbank.uoregon.edu/dspace/bitstream/1794/1829/1/Diss_10_2_9_OCR.pdf

Note that the reality of the experience does not change for the victim but the criterion for the diagnosis and thus the definition changes. The events don't change but the definition of which are now included does.

Eventually anything the psychiatrist decides is significant is included based on his belief of how the patient was effected.

Psychobiology of Post-Traumatic Stress Distress Disorder  A Decade of Progress - Mary Crowley

New York Academy of Sciences

This page is the overview of the full report of the conference.

http://www.nyas.org/ebriefreps/main.asp?intSubsectionID=2854

PTSD 101 for Journalists Frank Ochberg, M.D.
 

"Whenever a reporter meets a survivor of traumatic events and inquires about that trauma, there is a chance that the journalist will witness - and may even precipitate - PTSD, Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. By definition, PTSD is a triad of change for the worse, lasting at least a month, occurring anytime after a genuine trauma." 

This page has a balanced approach to PTSD but does not mention Subliminal Distraction.

http://www.giftfromwithin.org/html/ptsd101.html

Military Links

101st Airborne Division Rakkasans 3rd Battalion, 187th Infantry
Vietnam 1967-68
 

http://www.3-187-rakkasans.us/

Resource page   http://www.3-187-rakkasans.us/resources.html

Vision Links

Nightwalking

"In The Book of Five Rings, Miyamoto Musashi, the legendary swordsman of 16th century Japan, implies that he fought his greatest duels with his eyes crossed, and goes into considerable detail about developing and using this strange abitlity."

The method suggested to engage peripheral vision is to suspend an object from the bill of a baseball cap and practice staring at it rather than looking straight ahead as we all normally do.

The site has a page on the physiology of the eye and sight. It describes the normal field of vision.

http://www.navaching.com/hawkeen/nwalk.html#Anchor-The-59125

Institute for Innovative Blind Navigation

Don't let the site name put you off. This site has several pages which explain sight and how the brain deals with two vision systems.

http://www.wayfinding.net/index.htm

This page has the vision material.    http://www.wayfinding.net/vsionsys.htm#four

Vision, is a set of brain level subsystems

This page explains the M & P pathways and vision processing.

http://www.wayfinding.net/visanal.htm

The Red Myth

Color in Vision

http://stlplaces.com/night_vision.html

University of Missouri

The first paragraph on this page refers to psychological factors effecting pupil dilation.

"Interestingly, the pupil/iris combination also changes in response to psychological factors. One sign of activation of the sympathetic nervous system, which is a system important in arousal, fight, and flight, is dilated pupils. For example, sexual interest results in pupil dilation. (This piece of information may come in handy some time.)"

http://web.umr.edu/~psyworld/eye.htm

 University of Utah

John Moran Eye Center --  Anatomy

http://webvision.med.utah.edu/

Kimball's Biology Pages 

A simple explanation of the eye and sight.

http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/V/Vision.html

Understanding Human Vision

This site deals with color.

http://www.pitir.com/pentile/Human_Vision.html

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