Something traumatic happened in my neighborhood this week. I can’t really talk about it yet since it just happened but as per usual during a crisis I was pretty calm and collected during the night of the event and then the next day, when all was calm again, I was a wreck. After doing some reading about this I’ve learned that many people with PTSD are calm under pressure, calm during a traumatic event and then feel the effects afterward when everything is more back to normal. The trauma I can handle because I’ve experienced trauma before. When others panic, I can make decisions and react how is needed, like when dialing 911.
Maybe this is a perk of going through some horrible events in my life? Is there an upside to PTSD? I’ll be writing about this more but I like where this is going in my mind. I want to think there are some good things that have come out of my abuse and of course being calm during a scary event is a great thing to be able to do. Its the falling apart later and having paralyzing anxiety that’s not so great.
I’m going to do some more research, write in my personal journal, and talk to my therapist about the possible upside to all of this. Its not easy but I think being able to see the positive aspects of something instead of concentrating on the pain could do me a lot of good.
If you have been through abuse or have PTSD, have you found that you can handle stressful situations in a calm and collected way until you don’t need to? I’m curious if this is common.
Abuse Survivor Blog 
Hey Sarah,
Yeah, I get this. For years I worked in nursing, on a ward where cardiac events and death would happen fairly routinely. In the moment, I did everything I needed to pretty calmly. But in the days following? A mess. Shaking so hard I couldn’t do so much as hold a pen, revisited by trauma nightmares.
Maybe it IS a trait of those of us with trauma…could it be a form of disassociation? In the moment, we can pack it away, find *somewhere else* to park it and let it exist while we get on with what is required of us in the moment? Only for it to revisit us later to remind us we still need to *deal with it* ?
Maybe. Be interested in any updates after you’ve talked to your therapist about it, if they are appropriate to share.
Matt
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