By Jeremy Z. YOung

One of the nation’s foremost experts on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder came to South College July 14 to speak to a group of students, law enforcers and firefighters.

Dr. George Everly, co-founder of the International Critical Stress Foundation affiliated with the United Nations, is part of the faculty at Johns Hopkins University and serves as an adjunct faculty member for several federal agencies, including the FBI.
“I think today you will find he has a worldwide expertise in this field,” South College Dean Kenneth Halbert said. “(Everly) has taken care of thousands of people, who in turn, have taken care of millions more.”

Everly pointed out that stressors, events that happen in our everyday lives, aren’t what causes us to be stressed. He said it is our reaction to those events that determine how they will effect us.

“As long as we blame the event, we are less-likely to solve the stress,” Everly said. “It’s dictated, not by the event, but by the person and their resilience to stressors.”

Everly said that blaming a traumatic event for everything else that may be happening, can convince that person they are a victim.

“Saying an event caused life to go bad, is a disservice and makes that person a victim,” he said.

“You want to blame (George W.) Bush, blame the weather, your spouse, your kids and it’s not helping you,” he said. “It’s not what happens to you that matters, it’s how you take it.”

Everly, a specialist in dealing with traumatized soldiers, firefighters and law enforcers, pointed out that these are “folks who put their lives at risk by design.” He defined a traumatic event as a stressor that involves death or threatened death, or a stressor that involves intense horror or fear.

“Terrorism may be the most pathogenic of all stressors, due to its unpredictable and unrestricted nature,” he said.
Everly posed the question: Can we become immune to stress and trauma?

He pointed out that some people seem to be resistant to stress, such as a child who grows up in a crack-house who becomes impervious to the surroundings and later becomes a well-adjusted adult. Not everyone has resistance to such stress and everyone reacts differently.

Everly said that roughly half of all Americans have been exposed to trauma in everyday living, including terrorism. However, some people are more resilient to that trauma.

Everly is researching what makes people resilient to stress, what makes people bounce back quickly from stress. He said that what we expect to happen, coupled with our personal experiences can build self-confidence and resilience.