It was a dreary day and the road conditions were treacherous on a trip to visit a friend at Michigan State University.  I was traveling from Cincinnati and the road was partially covered with water from melting snow.  In front, an 18-wheeler was proceeding cautiously and so was I.  We were traveling on a two-lane road and suddenly a car appeared to my left that was traveling at a high rate of speed.  The car careened out of control and the 18-wheeler left the highway to avoid an accident.  The person who caused the accident, hit a telephone pole and was trapped in his car.  I attempted to help get him out of the car until the emergency workers came with the "Jaws of Life".  At that point, I went to see what happened with the truck driver.  The truck had Jack-knifed, went up a hill, and landed in a low area.  When I topped the hill, it was apparent that the truck diver's body was scattered across the area in a gruesome fashion.  

Acute Stress Disorder
I cancelled the trip and drove back to my apartment in Cincinnati.  I was extremely nervous and had a sense of impending doom the entire drive back.  For two days after this incident, I felt emotionally numb, and for the next two weeks, I only left my apartment when necessary.  I was unable to sleep for several days, could not eat, and had a great difficulty with the visual image of the truck driver's remains.  Eventually, this wore off, but not before I began questioning my mental health.

In later years, I discovered that I was suffering from Acute Stress Disorder.  You may recognize the symptoms if you experienced Hurricane Charley.  Many of the residents of Charlotte County had similar experience right after the hurricane.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
The same symptoms are called Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when they occur two months or more after the threatening event takes place.  These symptoms include flashbacks to the event, intrusive recollections of the event, violent nightmares, numbness, the "thousand mile stare," avoidance of

activities that would bring a reoccurrence of these feelings, and hyper-vigilance, checking out the people around you and feeling on guard. 

The symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can arise after any event that people consider threatening.  People have normal coping skills and when an abnormal event happens to them, they cannot process what happened.  The event is stored in the most primitive part of the brain that handles emergencies.  So when this part of the brain is cued by one of our five senses, it reacts as though the person is actually experiencing the abnormal event again.

Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR)
Recently, new treatments for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Acute Stress Disorder have been developed.  One of the approved treatments Is called Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing, or EMDR.  This treatment has been researched and tested for its ability to alleviate the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.  The results indicate that the treatment is very effective, so that the people who have this disorder still remember the events that happened to them but do not have the trauma and emotion that was attached to the events.  Usually, the treatment takes a short period of time and the symptoms do not reappear.  The treatment has proven to be effective in helping people who have troubling images of events that have happened in the past.  It has also been utilized for people who have phobic reactions.  For instance, with people who have difficulty driving after an accident.

If this information and the treatment had been available after that dreary day of the accident, it would have helped me understand and, not doubt, my mental health.  If you are experiencing these symptoms and don't know where to turn, help is available at Beacon Clinic.

Article Written by Gerald N. Ross, Ed.D., Psychologist
Dr. Ross utilizes EMDR to treat people in need.