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    "Life is Difficult" and O.T.S.D.
    "Life is Difficult" and O.T.S.D.
    "Life is Difficult" and O.T.S.D.
    Ebook87 pages57 minutes

    "Life is Difficult" and O.T.S.D.

    By Joseph Lynch

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    About this ebook

    "Life is Difficult" and O.T.S.D. tells of my medical journey over thirteen years and counting. I share details of unusual medical diagnoses with hyperlinks for more information. I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker so I share my ideas for a new mental health diagnosis: O.T.S.D.-Ongoing Traumatic Stress Disorder. I believe many people in many different types of situations deal with O.T.S.D. I share my ideas for treatment, coping skills and identify what is not helpful. My wife Trish and I share our fears, shame, discouragement, hope and experience in the belief that it may help others deal with the time when they have experiences that lead them to say "Life is Difficult."

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherJoseph Lynch
    Release dateAug 13, 2013
    ISBN9781301861859
    "Life is Difficult" and O.T.S.D.
    Author

    Joseph Lynch

    Joe Lynch is a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Harrisonburg Virginia. He has worked for many years with teenagers to help them make informed decisions about their sexual behavior. Joe was a part time faculty member at James Madison University Department of Social Work and taught "Working with Teens" and "Violence in Families." Joe is also a Certified Sex Offender Treatment Provider.

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      Book preview

      "Life is Difficult" and O.T.S.D. - Joseph Lynch

      Life is Difficult and O.T.S.D

      By: Joseph G. Lynch LCSW, CSOPT

      Published by Joseph G. Lynch at Smashwords

      Copyright 2013 Joseph G. Lynch

      This eBook is licensed for you only. This eBook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you're reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Shashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      Chapter 1: How it all started

      Chapter 2: Guillian-Barré Syndrome

      Chapter 3: Paecilomyces variotii

      Chapter 4: AAA- No not the American Automobile Association

      Chapter 5: Coming back from the edge

      Chapter 6: It is a long road back and I am not sure you can get there from here

      Chapter 7: What is O.T.S.D.?

      Chapter 8: Treatment and Coping

      Chapter 9: Trish's experience

      EPILOGUE

      FORWARD

      Dr. Scott Peck in his popular psychology book The Road Less Traveled has an opening line in the first chapter: Life is difficult. I find that to be the case. Life is difficult without even doing anything to invite difficulties into our lives. This book is about my journey during a time that my life became much more difficult. The letters O.T.S.D. stand for Ongoing Traumatic Stress Disorder and is a new way of thinking about trauma. I found that P.T.S. D. - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder did not quite account for the nature of coping with ongoing exposure to trauma – trauma that is beyond the individual's control. With this book I am practicing a principle of 12 groups: I share my strength, hope and experience.

      Chapter 1: How it all started

      I was on vacation last week. I had cut the grass prior to the vacation and now it needed cutting again. But it was raining so the grass could not be cut that weekend. On Wednesday it was dry and the weather service was predicting rain again for Thursday so Wednesday night after work was the day to do the cutting. The yard is small - less than ¼ of an acre. Using the self-propelled walk behind mower and I started on the front lawn and made about four passes back and forth - a total of maybe 50 yards. And then it started - the pain in my hips. The pain started out gradually at first and then began building. I kept going, walking a little slower and then eventually down to a hobble behind the mower. By the time I put the mower away about an hour later I was in lots of pain and my balance was off. I very gingerly walked back to the house.

      This was not a crisis. The pain and hobbling was familiar to me. It was one outcome of a long journey that started on August 26, 2000. I had an active life. I loved to play golf. But did not play it very well - loved to be out on the course walking 18 holes, carrying my bag or maybe using my little pull cart up and down the hills. I would call my buddy Ron and we might get in 9 or 12 holes after work one evening. Then we would go to a local restaurant and have some dinner and have selective memory about our shots out on the course. I needed more selective memory than Ron. Ron was about 7 years older than I and our buddy Jim was about 20 years older than I. They were both better golfers than me. I also had a buddy David that played about like me but he was a busy attorney and had several children so he did not get out on the links with us quite so often. All of us enjoyed each other's company out on the course. All of us enjoyed walking. Jim had an electric cart with a remote control that would drive his bag down the fairway while he walked in the woods looking for brand new golf balls that someone had just put there the previous day.

      At 48 I was not really athletic or in good shape but I could enjoy walking up and down the hills at my local golf course. But on August 26, 2000 I woke up with a sharp pain in my chest on my right side. I called my Doctor and was able to get into see him that morning. He did not like the looks of things and said I needed to go to the hospital. I said OK I will drive on over. He said no you don't understand, you need to go to the hospital and you are not driving yourself there - it is either the Rescue Squad or a friend but you are not driving. I called my buddy Ron but could not get him so I called my buddy David and he had time to get me to the hospital.

      This part is a bit of a blur to me. My functioning began to go downhill fast. The pain in my chest kept increasing. I was getting various tests and was put on some pain medication and became a bit groggy. David stayed with me for a good part of that day. My family was in Baltimore, Maryland - about a 3.5 hour drive away so they could not help right this minute. I told David that my girlfriend of just about 3 months - Trish - was to meet me at my office at the end of the day and could he go over to the office and let her know what was going on with me. Trish told me later that as she arrived in the ER and came in to see me that my skin was ash colored and I was not very responsive. They put me on heart monitors and admitted me to the cardiac unit of the hospital. At some point in the

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