Time, to me, is an everflowing container of both subjective and objective past, present, and future states of reality. While we all have our challenges, healthy people appear to appreciate the past’s impact on their lives, live within the present as best they can, and plan and act for the future. That is, the past has impact, but the passage of time lessens that impact; the future is something that can be shaped by personal actions, and the present is capital that is spent with as much focus as is possible.
However, PTSD and opiate addiction warps the time-container because of what I think are two (2) outcomes of a trauma event: 1) Fear; and, 2) Shame (as illustrated in the image contained in this post).
After a trauma event, fear and shame become filters that weigh the trauma event such that even if many years pass, it still holds great adverse impact. The past doesn’t fade, but rather, defines the person who experienced the trauma event. That is, if someone experiences a trauma event, and if he or she is triggered, then he or she will relive the experience as though it happened right then and there. The present is just time passing until the next bad thing happens which then turns the future into a dark abyss where bad things happen.
Really, I believe that people turn to opiates as a way to numb the adversity of the trauma event. Doctors use Morphine to treat pain, and I strongly suspect that most people who abuse opiates are trying to self-medicate. The problem is that opiates present a risk for physical addiction. This physical addiction adds to the shame and fear filters that already exist because of a trauma event. When PTSD and Addiction manifest, the present is nothing more than a means to obtain opiates that will numb the past. Someone with both PTSD and Addiction really has a hard time even seeing a future because the past and present are consumed by fear, shame, and opiates.
Maybe I’m wrong, but I doubt it. Experts consider PTSD an anxiety disorder and fear is at the root of anxiety. Shame is the reflexive idea that the “self” is bad. When someone filters his or her life through fear and shame, it’s easy to see why he or she may turn to opiates.
I believe that these same ideas can apply to an entire community. We need to come together to build the idea here within Northern New Mexico that we can participate fully within the larger community and that there is value within that participation. Until we begin that process, we will remain stuck within our traumatized and addicted culture and we will suffer the same fate as all untreated addiction: we will die.
