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332
JOHN
G.
WATKINS
”How did they respond?”
I
inquired.
He laughingly replied, ”They thought
I
was psychotic.”
The Resolution of
a
Personal, Acute PTSD Experience
During my service inWorld War
I1
at theWelchConvalescentHospi-
tal, Daytona Beach, Florida,
I
personally suffered a life or death trauma
as follows.
At the end of eachworking day,
I
would swimaround the long pier at
Daytona Beach, which extended approximately a quarter of a mile out
into the ocean.
This
one daywas very stormy,aweather disturbance that
the paper later called a “baby hurricane.’’
Unwisely,
I
went for my usual swim but, recognizing a severe side-
ways current,
I
began it about a half mile further up the beach. Midway
during the swim, it wasclear that
I
wasbeing draggedby the current into
the pier and was in danger of being dashed against its barnacle-covered
pilings. Even with redoubled efforts (and
I
had been a competition
swimmer),
I
gotnonearer to theend of the pier asthesame
two
end posts
visually continued to line up.
I
became desperate.
At the last minute, a huge wave rushed me past the end of the pier,
with maybe
5
feet to spare. Then, swimmingback to shore,
I
found that
the current turned out toward the sea.
I
became panic-stricken as the
harder
I
tried to swim shoreward, the less progress was made. Finally,
exhausted,
I
gave up and prepared to die. But at that moment, during a
wave trough,
I
felt sand under my toes and, encouraged, was able to
struggle to the beach, where
I
collapsed.After being taken by the Coast
Guard to a shelter,warmed, givencoffee, and rehabilitatedsufficiently,
I
returned to my barracks. However, every night for the next week,
I
was
overwhelmed by nightmares of being engulfed by enormous waves.
Obviously, this was
a n
acute PTSD experience, not unlike that of the
combat soldiers whom
I
was treating but
of
a
lesser magnitude.
Realizing that something must be done while it was still acute
and
had not yet consolidated into achroniccondition,
I
made two decisions:
1.
It
was unwise to be swimming
around
that
pier.
I
must
stop
it.
2.
I
had
to
master the experience
by
doing
it
one more time.
The next weekend the weather was calm, and
I
easily swam around
the pier. The nightmares immediately ceased and did not return.
The therapeutic principle here was alsoconfrontationandmastery of
the situation but in vivo (not internalized hypnotically with a
coexperiencing therapist, as in the other cases). This was possible
because my ego’s strength relative to the trauma was raised by absence
of
the storm. The threat was attenuated.‘
‘A
humorousaspect:Afterroundingthepierand swimmingforshorethe second time,
I
was followedby
a
lifeguardwhoshouted,”You‘renotallowedtoswimaroundthepier.”
I
replied (undoubtedly to
his
bewilderment),
”Go
onback.You’reaweek too late.”
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