A world nourished by nature
Nature Therapy CIC
  • Home
  • Free Activities
  • Courses
  • Older people
  • Adults
  • Families
  • Children
  • Store
  • Nature Therapy blog
  • Intranet
  • Product
  • Drum Medicine Course
  • Order form Senior Sense Box

Hearts and Minds Nourished by Nature

Dr Kim Brown, Founder Director of Nature Therapy CIC

PLEASE NOTE - A NUMBER OF PEOPLE WHO WRITE ESSAYS FOR A LIVING ARE COPYING ITEMS FROM THIS BLOG. THIS IS KNOWN AS PLAGARIASM. IF YOU ARE FOUND TO HAVE USED ANY OF THIS INFORMATION WITHOUT WRITTEN CONSENT THEN YOUR UNIVERSITY, SCHOOL OR COLLEGE WILL BE INFORMED.

Home

Post Traumatic Stress in older people

3/4/2015

0 Comments

 
Picture
I am never sure who reads these blogs or if they are sometimes more for my benefit through a process of catharsis. However something very personal happened recently that I feel a need to share with all of you who are interested in PTSD, especially with those who are ex armed forces. It is very relevant to the work we do around sensory perception, PTSD and dementia.

One of my dear friends was a prisoner of war many years ago. He has recently been diagnosed with a dementia and has virtually lost his vision. He turned up at my house very early one morning quite distressed as he believed there were Japanese soldiers coming to get him and he had to protect us. He could see them, smell them, hear them and felt the terror of their presence. He knew what they were capable of as he had seen his friends beheaded by them in the past. He stayed on guard at the door requesting absolute silence as the soldiers were moving around outside the front gate.

My heart ached for him and for what he had experienced as such a young man - the beatings, threats and starvation. It also hurt for him as an older man re-living these experiences. It made me wonder if help had been available when he returned from war all those years ago - would it be different for him now? I was unsure if it was the PTSD or perhaps something like Lewy Body dementia causing his reality to be slightly askew.  It could even be something as simple as an untreated infection as this can cause hallucinations in an older person.  Whatever it was causing it, the common link was the changes that had taken place for him in how he sensed the world around him to create a reality.

He responded well to some grounding techniques and challenging his current reality.  For me - I need to research this in far more depth to see what studies have been done on links between PTSD, dementia and sensory perception.  Watch this space.



0 Comments



Leave a Reply.

    Author

    Dr Kim Brown

    Archives

    April 2020
    August 2019
    July 2019
    May 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    May 2018
    August 2017
    May 2017
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    September 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    December 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly
Photos used under Creative Commons from HikingArtist.com, Schwarzwert Naturfotografie, bagsgroove, symphony of love, vastateparksstaff, Martin Pettitt, Vilmos.Vincze, Sam Droege, rs-foto, TAKUMA KIMURA, Sumana Khanom, Joybot, Mr. Frosty Man, VinothChandar