WHY ARE YOU SO ANGRY?

Christian Veteran/First Responder, why does your spouse have such difficulty connecting your anger to your tour of duty or the stresses on your job?

Mrs. Christian Veteran/First Responder, why do you think your spouse gets upset over simple things? 

Veteran, do you get stressed & angry over insignificant things when it's just you involved? 

Spouses, do you find yourself in a Christian marriage that has significant anger issues? 

How many times have you wanted to leave your marriage, but God's law frowns on divorce?

Can the solution to your spouse's anger be solved with:

More church attendance?

More Bible study?

More prayer?

Can a Christian be saved and still have chronic anger issues that they can't seem to get control over? 

Does Scripture have anything to say about your situation in a PTSD relationship?

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 Hi. 

• This is Dr. Jim Carmichael and welcome to my PTSD Reformation Podcast. 

• As we Marines say, semper fi - always faithful - & I want to add as a Christian, "Semper fi in Jesus."
  

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Before I get into the biblical, theological, & confessional nuts & bolts of answering the questions I introduced the podcast with, I want to tell you what happened to me this weekend involving my dog, Shelby.

Shelby is our diminutive 13-pound, black/white terrier.  On Friday, Shelby started having severe breathing issues. She sounded like a warthog. Our regular vet had closed his clinic for the Memorial Day weekend. That gave me one option: call the emergency vet number. My first trip to the emergency vet that weekend proved quite expensive. Worse, the vet there couldn't give me a definitive diagnosis. Shelby's problem might be allergies, but it was upper respiratory.   

My second trip to the emergency vet that weekend was because I suspected a spider bit her on the face, causing her face to swell. Within ten minutes, the inflammation had moved down toward her throat, which would eventually block her airway, then paralysis, & death--if I did nothing.

I suspected Shelby needed a steroid. Benadryl! But I can't get a Benadryl down her throat due to the swelling. I can't afford another large vet bill, but she will probably die if I don't do something. The situation created in me a lot of stress, stress I recognized from years of experiencing various triggers. This trigger was multi-pronged: I couldn't get the Benadryl down Shelby's throat, and the swelling was progressing toward blocking her airway. I thought she would be gone in thirty minutes, give or take. My regular vet was closed. I would have to drive thirty minutes to the emergency vet & I probably didn't have thirty minutes. I started to get angry, Vietnam angry; kill somebody angry. 

A week and a half before this domestic disaster, I stopped taking venlafaxine for PTSD, which the Mayo Clinic says is more challenging to get off of than heroin. I had been going through withdrawals, although they weren't too severe, praise God, but that factored into my lack of emotional equilibrium. 

My wife was in North Carolina for a week, and I'm alone with my sick, possibly dying, dog. It's Shelby & me. I wasn't simply stressed. I was angry and stressed.

I.  Why I have abandoned psychology as a method for treating PTSD or traumatic stress in favor of a Biblical, Reformed, & Confessional approach

1.  My experience with PTSD psychology in the VA system

• Sioux Falls, SD VA's PTSD program

• Jefferson Barracks, St. Louis, MO VA's PTSD program

• Denver, CO VA's  PTSD program

• Oakwood, GA VA's PTSD program

2.  My experience with Christian PTSD Counseling

• Three separate "Christian counselors"

• One Christian Counselors Assoc.

A. Most veterans & First Responders don't want change or to seek help, especially from God.

• But we do want answers that will: 

• Satisfy us. 

• Connect the dots.

• Create harmony in our relationships.

II.  What happened in my brain when Shelby's face started swelling & she resisted every effort to give her Benadryl.

1. Amygdala created an exaggerated response to Shelby's situation.

2. Hippocampus hormones were released, creating high levels of stress, damaging or destroying cells in my hippocampus, which had become overly sensitive and easily triggered.

3. Prefrontal Cortex (PFC) Chronic stress of an abusive parent & combat had already caused structural changes in my PFC; 1) loss of dendrites (a. the receiving or input portions of a neuron or nerve cells that had atrophied & decreased in numbers) and 2) spines (a. tiny protrusive fingers from input nerve cells b. connecting each nerve cell to the neighboring axons [places where electrical impulses in the nerve cells travel from cell to cell]; c. a decrease in spine density; d. immature spines increase, & e. can no longer interpret the danger correctly). 3) Chronic stress switches control of behavior to the top of the spinal column, basal ganglia, which controls body sensations and impulses; 4) making rationally clear decisions becomes harder.

4. Sympathetic nervous system (SNS) sustained hyperactivity of the sympathetic nervous system's autonomic branch: 1) controls involuntary bodily functions, a. including heart rate, blood pressure, respiration, digestion. 2) SNS releases stress hormones, adrenaline and cortisol. 3) it prepares the body for survival. 4) leading to hyperarousal and chronic stress. 

5. Parasympathetic Nervous System (PNS) Chronic stress activates the SNS making it difficult for the PNS to restore the body to a calm state.

6. This survey does not include the simultaneous chemical, neurobiological, biological, anatomical changes that occurred in my brain due to Shelby's situation that I couldn't alter.

IV.  What has God done to bring the Person & work of Christ to bear on the effects of my PTSD?

The first Adam, living in Eden, plunged all humanity into sin, misery, & death, binding them under the Covenant of Works. (Sin brought about the first and all subsequent wars. War brings about the possibility of traumatic stress for 10-20% of the population worldwide.)

What do we mean by the Covenant of Works? There is no such phrase in the Bible. Nevertheless, knowing and understanding the implications of this term is crucial to our theological understanding as it relates to Christian veterans, First Responders, etc, with traumatic stress.

The first covenant was that of law (Gen. 2:16-17). Genesis 2:16-17 reveals the stipulations and curses (covenant of works) for breaking the covenant between man and God. God covenantally told Adam in Eden that if he ate the forbidden fruit, he would die (Gen. 2:16-17). In this covenant arrangement, God promised life to Adam, and in him to his posterity (Gen. 3:22; Rom. 5:12-14; 10:5) upon the condition of personal and perpetual obedience (Gen. 2:17; Gal. 3:10). Adam and his descendants would receive eternal blessing if he kept the covenant, not eating the forbidden fruit. Moses reminded Corporate Adam, Israel, what He told the first Adam: Do this and live (Lev. 18:5). The way of life comes through perfect and personal obedience- law-keeping.

Adam disobeyed God's covenant law. His disobedience brought upon all humanity spiritual & physical death (Gen. 3:6). Adam didn't physically die immediately. However, Moses wrote, So all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty years, and he died (Gen. 5:5). 

Not only did Adam die when he ate the fruit, but the entire human race died the instant Adam sinned. Our natural reaction to this is, "That's not fair! Adam blew it. I didn't! How can God pronounce on me a guilty sentence when I'm not responsible for someone else's evil?" 

The issue in Genesis 3 and Romans 5:12 is headship & divine justice, not fairness.

If God were fair, we would all die the moment we sin against His law. 

The apostle Paul's point is that Adam is the federal head/representative of the whole human race of sinners in Eden (Rom. 5:12ff). Adam represented all men when he stood at the tree, considering his options: to eat or not to eat. But in God's purposes in Christ, we, too, stood with Adam as he decided his & our fate. Consequently, all men are born and remain under the Covenant of Works/law, "Do this, and live."

In Romans 5, Paul tells us that Jesus is the federal head/representative of all who trust Him. Jesus, as our representative, when tempted by Satan as Adam was, did not yield to the devil's temptations but kept the law perfectly for everyone the Father gave Him (Jn. 17:2, 6). Faith in Jesus lifts us from the unbearable weight of the law's requirements, which demand that Jesus fully fulfill them for us. God, out of pure grace, freely offers sinners freedom from the law's requirements in the Person of Christ.

We can choose to remain under Adam's representation & suffer the consequences of eternal Hell. Or we can choose to leave Adam's bondage in sin - covenant of works, & trust in Jesus.

D.  How do these truths apply to my stress, Shelby's condition, and the covenants of Works and Grace?

Rom. 8:1-4 Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2 For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death. 3 For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh, 4 so that the requirement of the Law might be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (emphasis added)

The main issue was not Shelby and her medical condition. God refocused my life on Christ by using Shelby's dire situation. The Lord separated the physical realities from the spiritual by bringing me under intense stress, giving each its actual setting.

The critical phrase Paul used in Romand 8:1-4 is in Christ Jesus.

Christ IS the Gospel. His benefits - justification, reconciliation, redemption, and adoption do not exist apart from Him. They are ours in union with Him.

In union with Christ, the Covenant of Works no longer applies. Even though I struggled and failed to repress/control the stress and the resultant anger, I still broke God's law. Yet, God no longer condemns me because I am no longer under the law's unbearable weight (vs. 1). The law now guides me daily. It is not my taskmaster (Gal. 3:24).

The Spirit's law (Covenant of Grace) has forever set me free from the Covenant of Works, never to return to its burden when stress overcomes me. Christ has born the burden of the law for me vs. 2. The Covenant of Works/law can never produce perfect obedience through my sinful flesh vs. 3a.

God produced perfect law keeping in me through Christ, that is, through His active and passive obedience alone (via Covenant of Grace) vs. 3a.

How did I become a law-keeper before God even though I fail daily? God sent His Son in human form, minus sin. As a sin offering, Jesus satisfied and still satisfies divine justice on my behalf. God declared me a righteous law-keeper. Jesus' perfect obedience to God's law condemned sin in His flesh when He, bearing my sin on the cross--became sin and died in my place. The Spirit now directs my life (cf. Rom. 7:14ff).

How did I experience these truths when I noticed Shelby's swollen face?

•Objectively: the negatives

Stress increased internally

my sinful anger increased 

I became guilty in God's sight

I struggled emotionally

My anger didn't dissipate immediately

•Objectively: the positives

The Holy Spirit kept interjecting Christ Himself (with His benefits) into my chaos. I sensed spiritually Jesus' union with me. The Spirit lifted my eyes to God from my suffering and situation. In the Lord's High Priestly ministry for me, Jesus rebuked Satan for his accusations against me (Zech. 3:1-7). I fought the urge to break the speed limit to save my dog. Gradually, I recognized Jesus as the Lord of Shelby's life and perhaps her death

God's peace didn't overwhelm me, but it hovered in the background, and I knew it was there. This circumstance reminded me of Jesus's words, "In this world, you will have troubles" (Jn. 16:33). Overcoming the world is found in the person of Jesus, His benefits, and His obedience to God

God removed the experience of my guilt reasonably quickly. Jesus had dealt with my sin/guilt 2,000 years ago when God forgave me in Christ. Divine grace produced repentance in me, not merely turning from sin but to Jesus

Residual traumatic stress lasted into the next day. These revealed doctrinal truths confirmed the effects of the new covenant in me (Jer. 31:31-34) in me. I repented more fully during my trip home from the vet, not to live (Lev. 18:5), but because of Christ's new life (2 Cor. 5:17).

In this way, God gradually and temporarily overcame my anger through the Spirit, applying the benefits Christ won for me. I still wrestle in the Spirit with triggers since my trips to the vet. This struggle will remain in me until my death (Rom. 7:14ff)

Living with PTSD, a theology of glory, creates innumerable and unnecessary pain and suffering. The Spirit will answer a spouse's questions in His perfect timing. The Spirit's work is to bring the Son to bear in the context of traumatic stress on finding and empowering a spouse to see her satisfaction & sufficiency in Jesus alone. By understanding the lifelong changes to her husband's brain, she can better see that her husband's anger is a vehicle the Spirit uses to bring about change in her life.

A husband can find rest in Christ despite his spouse's confusion about combat and triggers. By the Spirit and union with Jesus, He gives mercy to a spouse who does not understand the two.