Bible Bashing PTSD

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Today we're going to be Bible -bashing PTSD. Now in the minds of many people

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PTSD is essentially a brain problem and you know there's a variety of factors that's led to this point where most people when they hear any

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DSM label they're going to essentially think of those DSM labels as brain problems. And part of this is because psychiatry has attempted to package themselves as a respectable science.

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They used to be a laughing stock but now they've tried to package themselves as a respectable science and the mechanism that they've done to package themselves as some sort of respectable quote -unquote science is that they've packaged what they're doing in the language of disease.

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And so for the vast majority of people when you hear a DSM label you are trained to think about that as some sort of biological problem.

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And so if an individual encourages someone to take responsibility for their PTSD or any of these mental illnesses instantaneously you're going to have an avalanche of people who come along and essentially tell you you know like that you're just some sort of prosperity guy who is just basically telling people to pray away their cancer or something along those lines.

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And so with issues like cancer where there is actual legitimate biological evidence of tissue damage or malfunction with something like cancer you know for them for most people you don't hold people responsible for cancer unless they're you know somehow playing in radiation or something like that and conducted way too many science experiments.

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You know for the for the most part when someone gets cancer you understand themselves you understand them to be a victim of that cancer and it's something that's beyond their control you know in most cases okay.

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And so in that way you don't shame the victim you don't blame the victim you don't you don't encourage them just pray it away as if they can just if they had enough faith they can just pray it away.

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But then with these mental illnesses what people have come to understand is they've come to understand these mental illnesses due to the marketing and the advertisement and the constant agenda of psychologists and psychiatrists they understand them to be a quasi biological illnesses and so you know when you think about that and then like you think about the vast majority of movies that you're gonna watch on this topic or the vast majority of TV shows or media you're gonna watch everyone is predisposed to think of PTSD as basically something like cancer.

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Despite the fact that someone who is you know quote -unquote suffering from PTSD there is no evidence of pathology with that kind of individual so there's no evidence of tissue damage or malfunction that this individual is going to be suffering from.

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So objectively speaking there's nothing actually biologically wrong with them that can be shown through objective medical test but we're predisposed to think of them that way so you know you

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I'm sure that all of us have watched a you know soldier movie at some point where the soldier comes back from deployment and then you know he quote -unquote has you know has

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PTSD and then when he has PTSD then what you're you you're predisposed to imagine is that now he's just suffering from these you know hallucinations at times and then you know he you know he may be the kind of individual who will grab his wife by the neck and choke her because he thinks he's somewhere else or grab some random stranger in the grocery store aisle and choke them and everything else and so you know it's packaged in a very dramatic way and you're predisposed to think that there's nothing they can do about it but then when you think about it for a second it really doesn't make a whole lot of sense so like when you think about something like PTSD you're thinking about something that like this individual witness a traumatic event and now you're being asked to believe that his mind his brain is fundamentally rewired and damaged now to where he fundamentally can't he or she fundamentally can't handle life anymore but then the problem with this is when you actually think about the diagnosis for PTSD one of the things you'll realize is that when you look at the diagnostic criteria for something in PTSD there's like like there's a way to diagnose that someone has this but this isn't done through traditional means so if someone has cancer in particular or some kind of medical problem there are objective tests that can be run by a doctor to show evidence of tissue damage or malfunction but with any of these

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DSM labels when you're gonna find that you're dealing in an entirely different realm now in order to demonstrate what

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I'm talking about it may be helpful just to walk through the diagnostic criteria for something like PTSD so you can see that this thing that's packaged itself in the language of illness is very different from you know standard traditional medical illnesses okay so when you look at the diagnostic criteria for something like PTSD it's important to realize that you know this is packaged itself in the language of medical illness but then when you look at how this is actually diagnosed you'll realize that there's nothing actually biologically wrong with this person and it's not identified on the basis of objective medical test and so you know as we look at this list of criteria notice the first criteria so there has to be some sort of stressor in order for an individual to be diagnosed you know quote -unquote with PTSD so the person was exposed to death threatened death actual or serious injury or actual threatened sexual violence in the following way so there's either direct exposure they witnessed the trauma or they're learning about it like in a secondhand way from a close friend who is exposed to it or indirect exposure to adverse details of the trauma usually in the course of professional duties and so you know in this way basically this first criteria is complicated as it might sound it's just a very simple criteria they either witnessed either directly or indirectly some sort of traumatic event now when you go to the second criteria there must be some sort of intrusive symptoms and so one is required so one of the following is acquired so the traumatic event is persistently re -experienced in the following ways and so this is where the flashback kind of stuff comes from so there's intrusive symptoms there's a sense in which like you keep on remembering it and then you can't turn your brain off you can't control it so you keep on remembering this thing so there's unwanted upsetting memories there's nightmares there's flashback there's emotional distress after exposure to traumatic reminders and then there's physical reactivity after exposure to the traumatic reminders so now when you think about something along these lines realize that you know so far an individual has witnessed this traumatic event and now he's experiencing he or she is experiencing reminders at this point so so far nothing medical has happened you just witnessed a traumatic event you're having trouble forgetting and you're constantly being reminded of it the third criteria is going to be this avoidance criteria so now like you the this criteria reads the follow -up so avoidance of trauma -related stimulus after the trauma in the following way so you know basically you know don't overthink this what's happening is this individual now he's going to try to avoid things that remind him of this traumatic event okay so he's going to avoid trauma -related thoughts or feelings and then trauma -related external reminders and so you know if he experienced this traumatic event while driving he may not want to drive in the car anymore if he experiences traumatic event while going to a store he may not want to go to the store anymore and so there's basically going to be some sort of avoidance behavior now you know the fourth criteria criteria

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D is going to be negative alterations in cognitions and mood and so two of these are going to be required so notice no medical tests have been performed so far these are just subjective like criteria based on you know thoughts feelings and behaviors related to this event so so notice now you need two of these negative alterations in cognition and mood so what what qualifies under this language well first inability to recall key features of a trauma so inability so some sort of like memory loss at that point overly negative thoughts and assumptions about oneself in the world okay so you experience a traumatic event and then you have overly negative thoughts and assumptions about you or the world there at that point exaggerated blame or self exaggerated blame of self or others so you may you know in the minds of you know psychologists anything that constitutes blame is going to be a you know a negative you have some sort of negative effect some sort of decreased interest in activities some sort of feeling isolated some sort of difficulty experiencing a positive effect so so far like so far if we just remind ourself where we've been you've witnessed a traumatic event right you've witnessed a tragic traumatic event now you have trouble like keeping those traumatic thoughts about that out of your brain then you're going to try to avoid something and then that's going to affect your mood in some way either you know by having negative thoughts about yourself or the world or inability recalling key events and then feeling isolated or decreased interest in certain activities and then finally alterations in arousal and reactivity so trauma related reality arousal and reactivity that began or worsened after the trauma on the follow ways so you're going to experience irritability or aggression risky or destructive behavior hypervigilance heightened startle reaction difficulty concentrating difficulty sleeping so so far you know you basically you have a witness this traumatic event okay witness a traumatic event and then you're having trouble you know not remembering it and then you're going to avoid things that remind you of it and then that's going to affect your mood and then you know it's going to so that's going to affect your mood in your cognition at that point and then yeah it's also going to lead to other things like irritability aggression risky destructive behavior hypervigilance heightened startle reaction difficulty concentrating difficulty sleeping so now notice notice notice what's important here none of that's medical there's no medical test to show that that individual is suffering from any kind of illness this is what we're talking about is just a normal response to life that's what we're talking about we're talking about normal responses to traumatic events that are like I mean they're exact this is your exaggerated responses traumatic events but we all understand these kind of things are are very like normal responses traumatic events that have been magnified just slightly okay so now you think about what else is required these symptoms you know notice how it's packaged in the language of mental disorder these symptoms have to last for more than one month and then you know notice criteria

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G functional significance which is required symptoms create distress in functional impairment in social or occupational areas and so like it's like this is starting to impair your ability to handle life in general and then you know criteria

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H exclusion required notice notice what it says here symptoms are not due to medication substance abuse substance use or any other illness so what that's telling you is it like these are these symptoms which were like we're told are some sort of quasi medical symptoms they they essentially can't be due to some sort of other illness can't be used due to some sort of substance use or abuse or some or medication right and so you know as you think about this there's two specifications there's this associative specification in addition to meeting the criteria for diagnosis and individual experiences high level of either of the following and reaction to trauma related stimulus so he's either there's either depersonalization the experience of being outside observer or attached from oneself like feeling as if this is not happening to me as if it were a dream or derealization experience of unreality distance distortion things are not real so it has to have like disassociative specification and delayed specification so a full diagnostic criteria are not met until at least six months after the trauma although onset of symptoms may occur immediately so what you're being asked to believe is that this normal kind of exaggerated response to life so these are just normal kind of things that would happen to any person who goes to a significant trial you're you're asked to believe that now you witness that trap that traumatic event and now you're trapped in some sort of biological prison of pain that you fundamentally can't help and that fundamentally is beyond your control and that now you're just trapped you have this mental disorder and this is just the way it works and so you know in order to think through these kind of things you know from a biblical perspective it's it may be helpful just to think through like an example of how this could work and popular culture and talk through how the diagnostic criteria are manifesting himself in a specific scenario a specific situation and so I was going to give you an example from forged in fire the popular

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TV show where a group of blacksmiths get together to have a competition to see who can forge the best weapon and so here we go

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I'm Adam Jankowski and I am from two crooks Wisconsin I served in the army and during that time

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I did deploy to Iraq in 2008 I suffered from PTSD for now notice he says there he says that he suffers from PTSD so he's you know packaging what he has gone through so he was in the military and if there's anything that's true you're not really allowed to criticize individuals who say that they are there in the military so you know the left has their approach irreproachable categories of individuals that you're not allowed to criticize and the right also has their categories of you know irreproachable people that you're not allowed to criticize so on the left it's all the sexual deviance any of the me too stuff you know any you know any person like both camps kind of any person who says they're suffering from some sort of mental disillness illness you're not allowed to criticize and so you know

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I I'm in trouble both ways there but then when he says he's in the army that really immediately you know you have impulses on the right basically just to put this person in a victim category so he has two victim labels on the right so he has a you know he was in the army he was deployed and then he also is suffering from some sort of mental illness so notice what he says he's suffering from PTSD everything has given me a purpose

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I feel safe in my forge it's like a nice comfy blanket all right so 14 for him is like a security blanket it's just this place where he feels safe from the outside world and so this is a place where he can get away from everything be be alone you know not have to handle just the normal kind of stresses of life so this this for him is just an area where he feels safe and where he feels you know comfortable you can't seem to get a good rhythm with the heating the hammering

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I can't focus on what I'm doing the clock is running down I need to finish this he's got a long way to go yeah right so notice what's happening there he basically is describing himself as is being fundamentally unable to concentrate being unable to focus and so he's already packages himself at the beginning as suffering from PTSD and so anything that happens from now on you're predisposed to think that whatever is happening to him is some sort of biological thing that he can't help and so if he doesn't perform well in this competition and he doesn't he doesn't perform well he's already given you to like victim labels he's like he was in the army and now he's suffering from PTSD and you know as we read through the diagnostic criteria there's absolutely nothing wrong with this individual there's nothing wrong with his brain so you know he like and nothing that's happening right near here is happening like has any relationship whatsoever to what you know whatever happened to him in the army but you know he's basically told he's given you his excuse to not handle this trial of the forging competition the way that everyone else is going to handle it and so you're supposed to be sympathetic towards him and you're supposed to like your heart's supposed to go out and you're supposed to basically give him a free pass so that's what how you're supposed to think so Adams got his blade laying on his anvil right now it's not in the fire it looks like his coals have died down with PTSD my ability to focus is limited all right so notice what he says with PTSD his ability to focus is limited so he's blaming his ability to focus so in life now so he went he was in the army years ago now you know with life he fundamentally is unable to handle life anymore he's unable to focus and in all of it comes down to blaming it on this label when all the label is doing it like the label is not like some thing it's not some bogeyman in the closet that's you know affecting him like the label is just a description of how he's interacting with the real world okay so the

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Bible tells us like when you think about what the Bible says about things like this Bible tells us to be strong to be courageous to act like men you know over and over again as you read through the scriptures you're going to see that we're not to fear anything that's frightening this is an anxiety like this is one of the big five anxiety disorders and Bible says be anxious for nothing but with everything with parents application with Thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God and the peace of God which surpasses all understanding will guard your heart and mind in Christ Jesus and so what you have is you have an individual who can't handle stress in life and he's blaming it all on some event that happened to him in the past but then stress is just a normal part of life like we're told to be strong in the

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Lord and the strength of his might we're told to stand firm and resist the lies of the enemy like we're supposed to think whatever is true whatever is noble whatever is good was if there's anything excellent if there's anything praiseworthy to think on these things the

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Bible tells us that God's not given us a spirit of fear but a spirit of power and love and self -control and a sound mind and so you know all these

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Bible verses have absolutely nothing to say to this individual because they are persuaded that they can't handle the normal normal stressful situations that everyone else is able to handle because they've gotten this label and this label for them has become the excuse that they used to fail to handle life

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I can't concentrate what's going on at this moment

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I'm out of it I'm lost in the sauce I can't get what's in my head of what a cookery is supposed to look like and apply it to the piece

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I'm working on Adam needs to just focus on tip belly waist tank so notice the other one of the judges basically essentially he he was in the army and he's basically telling him the way out the way out to this is focus on what's true in this moment so you know the way out of like a stressful situation like this and you know this competition is stressful composition where you have a limited time to you know basically do something in which you know normally for most of them would take him you know several days to you know build a weapon like at a normal pace but you know the judge is basically telling the way out to focus on what's true and to focus on like the reality in that moment to get your brain focused off of yourself and start focusing on the task at hand but with him you know for him you know he's lost in the sauce he's gone you know he's like the

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PTSD has taken over he can't think and you know none of it's his fault so none of like you know his way of handling stress is to like he can't handle it because he has

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PTSD essentially make sure it hits the parameters do your best work I have to dig deep really deep and here we go

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Adams back on this crank he's getting that coal forge going again that's exactly what he needs to do

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I want to turn in a completed blade I want to prove to myself that I could do this

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I really want to quit but I can't then PTSD won I can't let it all right so when you think about something like this like you know notice what he says he says he can't let the

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PTSD win so he's you know basically anthem promorphized PTSD PTSD has taken on like human traits at this point and now it's afflicting him and you know he triumphantly is going to try to get himself together which shows

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I mean it shows there's absolutely nothing wrong with him like physically or biologically it's just a matter of getting his thinking right and learning how to handle stress and learning how to handle stress like everyone else's learn to handle it and so he's an individual who's basically given himself a pass at handling like these normal issues of life and so there's nothing wrong with him at this point like there's nothing wrong with him there's a way out he somehow he you know he gets himself going again which shows you like there's absolutely nothing biologically wrong with this individual but then you know like we're back to kind of the excuse language so like his goal is to not let

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PTSD win as if it's just passively happening to him as if he's not responsible for what happens in his heart so the

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Bible will tell us a good man of the good treasure of a good heart brings forth good the evil man of evil treasure of an evil heart will bring forth evil you know out of the heart the mouth speaks you know out of the heart comes sexual immorality and theft and all these other things and so like stress like his hearts filled with stress his hearts filled with anxiety and no one else is producing that anxiety but him like this is his heart that's doing these things and there's a way to handle it

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I mean the Bible teaches us how to not be mastered by anxiety not be mastered by fear but once you adopt this label basically you just have this built -in you know quasi biological excuse to not really handle life anymore

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Adam unfortunately your blade doesn't make parameters because it's just not a kukri for that reason we cannot have you move forward in this competition this is experience was enlightening even in the midst of my absolute mind brokenness

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I still wasn't able to complete a blade all right so notice notice like in the midst of his mind brokenness in that way so he's basically understanding this to be some sort of biological you know affliction that's happening to him and it's something that he's taken no responsibility for and this is just the way that we're trained to think about this so once an individual says that they're a veteran and once they say that you know they're suffering from PTSD then basically what we're being asked to do is just give them a pass on handling life like a normal human being is supposed to handle life and we're supposed to make allowances for that and certainly

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I think there's a category for showing sympathy to people you know you know many people experience trials and you know

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I'm not sure what kind of trials he experienced in the army I mean they could have been significant they could have not been you know there's both of those things are absolutely true but you know you know as individuals who are

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Christians we don't necessarily we don't need to just view individuals like this harshly like there's a kind of sympathy that you can show them but like part of the problem is that we're demanded to show the kind of sympathy that basically says that you're suffering from an illness and this is not your fault and you can't do anything about it and that's the kind of sympathy that's off -limits to the

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Bible and there's nothing more hopeless to a biblical worldview than adopting one of these like one of these materialistic labels to think that an individual is trapped in some sort of biological prison of pain indefinitely because they witness some sort of you know traumatic event that's just materialistic magic like that's insane like and as Christians we have to reject that kind of thinking and the true hope that we can offer individuals like this is that you know you don't have to be dominated by anxiety you don't have to be dominated by fear and in fact you know you think there's no temptation that's overtaken man but what's common right so there's no temptations overtaking you but what's common to man

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God's faithful he's not allowed you he will not tempt you beyond your ability but will with that temptation provide a way of escape that you can bear it so you know there's great hope in the knowledge that you know what like I may not have been to you know

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Iraq or whatever I may not have been there but I've been through plenty of like traumatic events in my life and I've learned how to handle difficult situations

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I've been in you know significant wrecks I've seen you know death you know close up at different points in my life you know individuals who've died you know

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I've been in situations where you know I almost died and so you know I can look at situations like that and I can learn how to handle stress and the way to handle stress is to take responsibility personal responsibility for your reactions you know and as long as you're leaning like here's the problem as long as Christians are leaning on these materialistic labels they give individuals built -in excuses not to not only not handle life but they put them in this hopeless situation where they're gonna be stuck there for the rest of their life and you know as Christians we need fundamentally reject that this has been another episode of Bible bashed we hope you have been encouraged and blessed through our discussion we thank you for all your support and ask you to continue to like and subscribe to Bible bashed and share our podcast with your friends and on social media please reach out to us with your questions pushback and potential topics for us to discuss in future episodes at Bible bashed podcast at gmail .com