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Poll Was Your Ptsd Diagnoses Helpful Or Not?

Was your PTSD diagnoses helpful for you and your recovery or not?

  • It was not helpful & distracted me from my recovery path - I would have been better off without it

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • I haven't been diagnosed but focusing on PTSD has distracted from my needed recovery path.

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    81
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Hmmmm... there were words in my post when I hit "Post Reply" 5 hours ago. Now it is just blank....

Anyways, I voted that it was helpful, it began to make my life make sense. So many things that I did and thought and everything I felt that contradicted what a "normal" person did began to fall into place. In my case the trauma was there but buried so deep I did not have a clue how traumatic it was and there are still blanks. When the memory came back some of my phobias began to be understandable, when I began to research about PTSD more began to make sense. I wasn't surprised when I finally had the diagnosis earlier this year.

Instead of fighting against the PTSD I am learning how to do things in a way that still allows me to do it, maybe just not the way others do. Little things like taking different routes to work to avoid the traffic, or like today, taking the bus instead of driving to an area of town I am not familiar with. I am learning how to live with it until I develop more skills and heal more.


Now my previous post is back....very strange....
 
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It's helped me feel better about all the super self-destructive ways I used to have, in that I was really battling something, it was just covered in the wrong diagnosis (and therefore treated by the wrong meds) for almost 20 years. I never could understand why I wasn't "like" other people, and now I get it. Although part of me feels like there's a stigma to having something beyond just depression and anxiety, the other part feels good about it- because now that I'm getting better and ready to try dating again, I now know what I have, which will help significant others in my life help me and help themselves.
 
It's great to see that for most people when it helped with shame and understanding it also helped progress. I wasn't sure if that would be the case with such a high percentage. I am still battling trying to decide for myself between two options. :)
 
I would have to say that it was helpful. I was not given the diagnosis for at least a year after my last trauma. Right after the trauma I was a mess (physically and emotionally). I was seen at the ER a couple of times and the Dr looked at me like I was crazy. Even though I told them what happened, one dr. seemed puzzled at my reaction. About a week later I ended up hospitalized from drug overdose. Non intentional but I didnt care. I would awake during the night in terror and take more pain meds, xanax, IB Profin, muscle relaxers, or whatever I thought I needed. Some looked the same. My daughter was failing at trying to get me to stay out of bed. Of course this was the crisis period. After release from hospital, every appointment the hospital set up for me-fell through and I was left to fend for myself. Six months later I attempted suicide. About another yr went by before the final diagnosis. Basically there had been no support for me, which I think many experience-and may actually lead to the ptsd.

By the time I was diagnosed, I knew I suffered depression and anxiety, but it was the everyday tasks and personal care that were suffering, even with medication. I just couldnt get a grip and even with knowledge of psychology, could not think straight enough to even consider having ptsd. I think I looked like a deer in head lights when T told me this. Once it sunk it, it made sense. I also felt angry at the disorder and did not want to accept it easily. Once I did, it gives a framework of understanding, and I am not alone.
 
For me, it was life-saving. I started reading about PTSD, joined this forum, and found both a great therapist and a psichiatrist. I finally realized that I do belong in this world even though I'm different. My symptoms started to make sense and I could explain to my kids and family what was wrong with me, and why.
 
I haven't responded to date, out of a bit of cowardice really, given that I seem to be something of an outlier. For me, the diagnosis really didn't mean much to me at all, beyond a label that, in some instances, allowed me to have to use less words to explain what was wrong with me, on the rare occasions when I did.

For me, it hasn't helped or altered my sense of self, or the shame I feel for myself and my past, or any of the other things that I know, for many people, are so significant about having a clear diagnosis. At the time the label was first applied, I remember feeling briefly astonished at what sounded like such a serious medical term, but then... nothing really. I was already seeing a psychologist (who diagnosed me) and so the diagnosis didn't lead to any changed oradditional therapy or support for quite some time.

I wish it felt better to know that what I have has a name and a reason. But currently it doesn't. I guess that's just where I'm at.

Maddog
 
It helped me to understand what was happening in my mind and it still helps me in this way. I used to believe much more often that I was in a dangerous situation again. Also when I had intrusive images or thoughts, I used to think that there was something wrong with me and that I must want to go back to those memories - my logic being that maybe I liked it somehow. That of course made me want to push out the memories even more because I thought I was bad.

So the explanation of how my mind was working and reacting has taken away the feelings that I'm going crazy. But it is also something I use if I can catch myself, to bring myself down, telling myself it's PTSD its not real, and getting myself to look at the facts. Ok, there's a lot of work to change the big things in life, like social interaction. But I'm better with bumps in the night and stuff like that.
 
It was defintly good to finally know what was "wrong" with me, or perhaps "happening" to me.
By knowing what I have, I also know what to work on, where I stand, and what to concentrate on, in order for me to get better and cope with the situation I have at my best.
 
It very much helped me to be diagnosed. Now I know it's an illness caused by something that happened to me, I know I'm not going crazy. That was the most important thing to me. Knowing it's not my fault and that I can be cured.
 
I seem to be something of an outlier.
MD, you have every right to your own unique experience. I have to say I thought there would be more or at least some that say they stopped trying to get better because they saw it as unfixable.

It seems entirely logical reaction considering your experiences. You were not being treated for the wrong thing, obviously were discussing trauma and realising it was trauma related and had a good therapist who was treating you properly and with whom you had a good relationship.
 
In the beginning, the diagnosis was a mixed as what I was experiencing had a name, but I had no clue what it meant. It was only after discovering this site, and there was a huge relief in realizing that other people were also experiencing the same thing that I was, did I really begin to comprehend what PTSD was all about.

For me the diagnosis was the first step in finding a way to get better.
 
I don't think I would have been able to deal with what's been uncovered if it were not for the meds that have been prescribed to me. At least some of them are for this diagnosis, so I would say all in all that it has helped and that is how I answered the poll.
 
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