PTSI Lies To You: A Responders Guide To Discernment

Have you ever known something?

I mean really known it — deep in your gut, in your spirit, in every fiber of your being — but still couldn’t trust it?

So you ask one person.

Then another.

Then another.

Not because you’re unsure… but because you don’t trust your own mind anymore.

That’s PTSI.

And PTSI lies to you.

Most people think PTSI looks like flashbacks. Or rage. Or punching holes in drywall. And sure — sometimes it does. But more often, PTSI lives quietly between your ears. It hijacks your thought patterns. That's where it rests. It rewires how you interpret reality.

PTSI isn’t always loud.

Sometimes it's quiet but sinister. Lurking the shadows... whispering, planting the seeds of doubt in your head.

• "Are you sure that’s what you saw?"

• "You’re probably overreacting."

• "It’s just you."

• "You’re probably the problem."

  
  

And over time, you stop trusting your own perception. Things can get foggy. Cognitive dissonance creeps in.

That’s the part no one talks about.

The Trauma Brain Doesn’t Play Fair

A trauma brain isn’t weak.

It’s overworked. Run through the ringer.

Years of high cortisol. Constant hypervigilance. An overactive amygdala. Constantly living in survival mode. Your brain gets really good at detecting danger — even when there isn’t any.

Psychology calls this cognitive distortion.

All-or-nothing thinking.

Mind-reading.

Catastrophizing.

Emotional reasoning.

Negative self-talk.

But let’s be honest — in the real world, it feels more like this:

You think you understand a situation. You saw it. You heard it. It happened right in front of your face.

Then your mind starts second-guessing itself.

You doubt your instincts.

You minimize your own experience.

You assume you’re wrong — even when the evidence says otherwise.

PTSI convinces you that your internal compass is broken.

And that’s a lie.

When PTSI Turns Inward

One of the most destructive lies PTSI tells is about you.

You start tearing yourself down.

Second-guessing every decision.

Beating yourself up over things that were never your fault.

Self-deprecating thoughts don’t come from humility — they come from trauma. Trauma comes from stress hormones. The life of a first responder is riddled with stress. Which means, you are at a greater risk for being your worst critic.

PTSI tells you:

• You’re too much.

• You’re not enough.

• You mess everything up.

• You should’ve known better.

• You should’ve stopped it.

• You should’ve seen it coming.

Sometimes PTSI makes us accuse innocent people.

Sometimes it makes us blame ourselves.

Sometimes it makes us miss real wrongdoing because we’ve lost confidence in our own judgment.

Different expressions.

Same root.

A trauma-altered mind trying to survive.

PTSI Isn’t Truth

Here’s the key thing I tell people in trainings:

If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck... it's most likely a duck. Don't let your traumatized brain try convincing you otherwise.

PTSI is not a character flaw.

It’s not a weakness.

It’s not a moral failure.

It’s a legit injury.

An injured brain will misinterpret signals.

An injured nervous system will overreact.

An injured mind will lie to protect itself.

But protection can turn into isolation.

Hypervigilance can turn into suspicion.

Survival mode can turn into self-destruction.

If we're not careful.

But awareness is 80% of the game. You have to be able to recognize these distortions when they try to creep in.

My Thoughts

I’ll end with something I often wonder about. I know this will irritate all the science minded people... but I could care less. Go play with your data and slide rules.

What if PTSI isn’t just psychological?

What if, on a spiritual level, it’s also an affliction? Like a dark attachment.

A darkness that attaches itself to trauma.

A voice that accuses.

A presence that distorts truth and feeds fear.

The word Satan (שָׂטָן) in Hebrew means 'the accuser'.

Scripture tells us the enemy is a liar.

Trauma tells us lies.

PTSI tells us lies.

I don’t think that overlap is accidental.

But here’s the hope:

Light exposes lies.

Truth breaks distortion.

Healing restores clarity.

God wins every time.

Whether you approach PTSI through counseling, neuroscience, faith, or all of the above (mind, body, and spirit) — the goal is the same:

To relearn how to trust yourself.

To separate injury from identity.

To recognize the lie when it speaks.

Because PTSI lies to you…

Be safe out there.

-Tom

“He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

-John 8:44

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