PTSD: Dropping the “D” and Stopping the Symptoms

by Dr. Bill Tollefson and Dr. Lisa Palmer of The Renew Center of Florida
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an invisible epidemic in our society and is more widespread than most people realize.  We would like to take the mystery out of this reaction. Understanding is the first step toward healing. One of Sir Isaac Newton’s proven and accepted laws of physics is that “for every action there is always an equal reaction”. So based on Sir Isaac Newton’s law Post-traumatic Stress is a “normal reaction to a perceived overwhelming life event”.

PTSD is not a disease. We would like suggest that Post-traumatic Stress be normalized to just a life reaction. Dr. Bill Tollefson and Dr. Lisa Palmer of The Renew Center of Florida has combined experience of almost 40 years in the psychiatric inpatient and outpatient field looking for the pathology in survivors of abuse and trauma, but what we found was that the aftereffects of experiencing an overwhelming life event was not a mental illness but rather it is a normal reaction to an abnormal life event. The reaction or the response produced was a result of how the individual perceived the impact of the life experience. Therefore we would like to put forth for discussion that our society take on that the “D” or the “disorder label” be taken off and shortened to Post-traumatic Stress (PTS)...finish reading article