I got a nerve block for PTSD, here's what happened - opinion

File this one under things that go bump in the night: I went through something during the last year. I don’t want to talk about “it” right now. But the body got stuck in a stress loop that pinned me against a wall and wouldn’t let go.

Estimates put PTSD cases in a range anywhere from tens to hundreds of thousands in Israel. I was a highly functioning tech executive in Israel – and a post-traumatic, white-hot stress coil. It’s one of those things you can kind of hide, but not really. Everyone around me paid the price in different ways.

PTSD might cost Israel’s economy over $50 billion in the next five years. This figure is based on “The impact on productivity, health-care costs and welfare benefits and the associated costs of related issues, such as addiction,” according to a study cited by eJewishPhilanthropy.

The numbers are high, but the costs to our loved ones and to future generations are astronomical. Israel urgently needs a multi-pronged plan to help everyone heal, and “it will be okay” won’t work on this one. Until the state steps up, individuals have to keep on taking care of themselves.

When I first heard about the injections to treat PTSD from my doctor, I felt even more nervous – what if it actually worked? After making many classic and alternative attempts, here was something new to me – and new in Israel: a procedure called stellate ganglion block (SGB).

The treatment is approved by Israel’s PTSD advisory council, but the Health and Defense ministries do not currently subsidize PTSD treatments, so patients pay out of pocket.

Stella Israel is currently subsidizing all SGB treatments itself through philanthropic partnerships.

How it worked:

I got on the list. At a quiet medical facility, I got a hospital bracelet, an IV port in my arm, then got two shots, a week apart, into nerve clusters in each side of my neck.

The ultrasound-guided injections shut off the part of my nervous system that does the flight-or-fight thing, for a few hours. It looks scarier than it is. So then, the “rest-and-digest” part of the nervous system goes “my turn!” – and in my case, I just felt like laughing, and like sleeping.

The nice American doctor tells you to eat ice cream and to take it easy the next day. The whole thing takes two hours door-to-door. You do need someone to come with you and take you home. Apparently it’s inadvisable to drive without your flight-or-fight network.

There is never a silver bullet for these things. And everyone is going to have a different recovery experience.

But here are some observations from week 1:

Presence – I was able to sit on the floor and just play games with my little children,

Sleep – I slept through the night, unmedicated, sometimes 10 hours,

Dreams – bright colors set in hotels, on vacations, and among friends,

Slower – A familiar but forgotten sense of calm and ease,

Chiller – Better reactions to things, and

No ghosts – I was here, in the present. I could focus more on the task at hand.

What this means:

I am learning that if you’re going through hell, “just keep going” is not the only option. Apologies to my Soviet upbringing.

I am learning that using all available techniques and technologies for a recovery process is kind of like cross-training. The body is a complex system, capable of change.

I am learning that leadership is not only about being high-functioning and “crushing it.” If you’re responsible for other people – at home or at work – you owe it to yourself, and to them, to take care of yourself, and to ask for help if “it” is crushing you.

There is no shame in this. There is only strength.

The writer uses tech, data, and public opinion to turn outsiders into insiders. She is a senior technology communications executive and a nonprofit leader, and advocates for the economic inclusion of immigrants to Israel, as co-founder of The Reboot Startup Nation and the Economic Integration Org.

Contact Stella Israel at https://israel.stellacenter.com/ (Hebrew) or 073-332-9259.