Post Traumatic Stress Is NOT A Disorder. Medical Marijuana Can Help.
Our troops are just some of the people in society who suffer high levels of Post Traumatic Stress
(Click to enlarge)
PTS is a normal reaction to an abnormal act. 
There are three ways to suffer a condition called Post Traumatic Stress (disorder) and one way to call it what it is.
What an RN may think of the word and what an untrained civilian may think matters. It can be the difference between understanding and stigma. It is not a disorder in my opinion, humble and not medically trained. In medical dictionary terminology a disorder is “a derangement of function; a morbid physical or mental state.” (1). In my dictionary disorder is just another insult to injury.
If PTS is not a “disorder,” what is it? My humble opinion says PTS causes a reaction in the physical body and the emotional part of our being that changes the way we operate, react, think and plan. It is not disorderly in my mind at all. Quite the opposite, PTS causes changes that are well-defined, very consistent, always rational-based on personal experience.
This morning, I watched the news that featured scenes of a music concert gone bad in Indiana this past summer with the collapse of the stage setting that killed 7 and wounded dozens. Those interviewed, folks who had been present and witnessed the almost instantaneous destruction had a consistent message. “The event changed me forever,” was the theme. Forever.
Forever seems like a long time but for these witnesses it has finality. What they are saying is it will affect them through the course of their lives. As a person who has been designated as a PTS patient I believe those testimonies are correct.
These folks are part of the triumvirate of PTS patients. A person can be affected by being the cause of the trauma, the recipient of the trauma or a witness of a trauma. Those I saw interviewed were the witnesses and I'm sure there are others, hurt but surviving who find themselves in the recipient state. It will not matter into which category they will fall, all will react about the same.
Nothing will be safe again. Life will have an end and while we know from early on we will die, these folks know it better than they used too. They will live with a voice in their soul which will urge caution, will push them to live in quiet places removed from threat as they understand threat. Their friends, those that they will cherish will be much like them, damaged or enlightened depending on your view. Their work and view of life and goals were instantly made over, priorities changed. Remember when your dad said to you as a child, “It'll be OK?” and you believed him. That warm fuzzy feeling will never be there again.
Our sailors, soldiers and Marines are, and have been, coming home for years with all three degrees of PTS as part of their being. Forever.
Cannabis is good for PTS-affected humans. The Veterans Health Administration says that is so, not just me (2). Cannabis is for the military and the folks scared by death and destruction in Indiana. The problem is that those who have not been in the three categories of trauma think that these folks have a “disorder.” Get over it. Buck up! Take it like a man!
PTS is a normal reaction to an abnormal act. Those who suffer its consequences need to know cannabis can help them get through their forever. I hope you will expand your knowledge of the use of cannabis for PTS symptoms by going to www.medicalcannabis.com to learn and then take that knowledge with you and do something with it – do something.
(1) Dorland's Medical Dictionary, 24th edition
(2) VHA Directive 2010-35
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Wednesday, 02 November 2011
