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Military Combat ptsd site merger (check in)

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CyclePath

MyPTSD Pro
Anyone else out there lurking? Seems to be a lot going on at this site. Kinda intimidating.... Lots of new folks and a few that we've known for a while.

Drop a note here so we can at least know that everyone is doing alright until we become known here.
 
Anyone else out there lurking? Seems to be a lot going on at this site. Kinda intimidating.... Lot...

Cycle, I'm stil around (I don't know for how much longer...;)) I hope Dr. Knowbuddy, Viking and the rest show up. I'm going to listen alot more and talk a little less. I learn alot about life from you bros. I have to be a bit more careful though, I don't want to attract too much attention from international operators on the dark side. I'm not ready to be pushing up daisys just yet. A word to wise, we are being tracked. If you don't hear me for quite a while, you'll know they got to me. :hungover:
 
Hi. I'm glad you're here. I was a lurker at the other site for a while, learned alot from you guys!

My guy is a combat vet from Mogadishu to Afghanistan. We were highschool sweethearts separated by warS and 27 years later we are in the fight of our lives. With therapy, communication, and pig headedness we're doing pretty damn good.

It's a bummer the other site had to shut down. I wish more veterans would reach out to others. But I understand why they don't.

Again, glad you're here and WELCOME HOME!
 
@leehalf - thanks. Honestly I wish I wasn't here, but it's kinda cool to see what spouses have to say. On the other hand I'm concerned about what they see of/in us wrt our experiences. I enjoy my anonymity here, but I will be much more cautious as to what I share.
The thought of my wife or others knowing details of my combat/deployed experiences makes me sick to my stomache.
 
The thought of my wife or others knowing details of my combat/deployed experiences makes me sick to my stomache.
I have always understood why we had a combat sister forum: the specific nature of military trauma and its shockwaves paired with the apparent camaraderie of its sufferers--far beyond what other trauma categories seem to have between themselves--seemed to justify its own space. However, I'm very happy to see the combat site members here, and I think there may be some unexpected benefits to interacting with a wider spectrum of trauma survivors/PTSD sufferers (not to mention this forum has some pretty cool features).

My T works full time with vets and always reminds me that many are actually complex trauma survivors as well as combat PTSD sufferers. I honestly don't think I could work with her were she not so super experienced with veterans, who can... be a tough crowd to treat. My work here (among vets), with her (with vets as her primary context for treatment), and my personal interactions with vets who have PTSD have shown me that we are more alike than different in the realm of recovery.

What I'm saying is that I hope you come to feel at home here. We're not a judgmental bunch. And many a vet has already shared things here that may surprise you in its raw nature.

Okay, sorry to hijack your check in thread. I just wanted to add my two cents and say welcome to the forum.
 
The thought of my wife or others knowing details of my combat/deployed experiences makes me sick to my stomache.
I don't want to hijack the thread either, but I wanted to mention that there are a lot of people who got here by other routes and feel the same way. Somehow that "stuff that happened" seems to have too much power and is seems like you have to protect other people from it. Sometimes that's true. Sometimes maybe it's not.

I can appreciate that the combat forum was a safer, familiar place and that this must be a really hard change. But you're welcome here and I'm sure we can all learn from each other and help each other along the way. So, I'm sorry for the changes, but glad to have you all here.
 
I'm here, lurking, but I'm in a conundrum.
When it was only military that could see what i/we discussed, i felt free to talk military to like minded souls.

I still "hide" my issues from most people non family and non military, and as a result, at the current time, mentally I don't really want to bring up any military related issues available to be lurked at by non military.

it would be nice if there were "secure groups" within this site, and that way at 1 forum could be dedicated to members of that secure group only. non only military, but some of the other trauma related groups.
 
it would be nice if there were "secure groups" within this site, and that way at 1 forum could be dedicated to members of that secure group only. non only military, but some of the other trauma related groups.
Just dropping another couple cents in the jar here, but I was thinking that maybe there could be a private military forum the way there was once a private supporter forum. However, the idea of private forums for other trauma groups (CSA, rape, natural disasters etc.) seems totally silly to me, because we all cope with the same basic symptom sets, and our membership is just too invaluable a whole to start stratifying into trauma types (especially since many of us have a mosaic of traumatic experiences). Looked at through that lens, I wonder if it wouldn't be somewhat counter productive to create a C-PTSD-only forum. Do I love talking in public forum space about the darkest facets of my trauma as a CSA incest survivor? Not really. Is it intensely uncomfortable sometimes? Totally. Is it good for me to air out my shit, sit with that uncomfortability, and realize that it's okay--that people here are compassionate and smart and helpful in response to my darkest thoughts? I think it is.

Maybe it would be helpful for some of you to look at some vet trauma diaries and combat posts people have posted here over the decade+ MyPTSD has been operating. I hope I don't come off as being contrary or condescending; I'm working from the assumption that vets from the C-PTSD site might be worried about posting about violence they've acted on others, killing people, the dehumanizing sentiments they may have held (or do hold) against the enemy while deployed, the (perhaps really explosive) problems with reintegration into family/civilian life... maybe I'm missing something. I'm just trying to say, all those things have been written about here before. We might be a more understanding/safe/whatever crowd than you think.

Just a civvy thinking out loud here, trying to understand the main anxieties y'all might be facing... ignore me if I'm missing the point. Or, like Anthony says, take what's helpful and leave the rest. ;)
 
Problem is that, and I've just realized, any angst that we may feel while adjusting to the change is false to begin with. We were never alone at that site. Ever. For months, really since the day I joined it, I've noticed that there has been significantly more guests/visitors than members online at any time. Our posts were always being seen by others. Hell, from a broad security sense, we should probably feel safer here mixed in with everyone else. I suspect that many have realized the same, but will likely not return. Why? Not sure really yet.
Even though the syptoms/challenges/problems are the same for all PTSD types the causation is not. Those of us that were not conscripted or drafted actually embraced our "causation" by volunteering for exposure to it. It's not as if something terrible happened to me one day completely out of the blue. I knew I would someday face a complete shitstorm and I did it over and over and over. The military is hard, combat is terrible, and everyone knows that. I did it anyway, I actually liked it, and I ended up incapable of properly processing those experiences. Maybe that's why I am not really comfortable here. I did this to me. I suspect a couple of the others feel the same. Many that did not make a career of it probably don't.
 
@CyclePath , one of my best friends, my 'unofficial adopted brother', did 2 tours in Iraq and 1 in Afghanistan. Came home & shot himself. Something you just said there gave me a new insight into what might have been going on in his head. Never occurred to me that he'd be thinking it was what he signed up for. Never. (One more angle I missed!)

It wasn't exactly what he signed up for, you know? I mean, if you sign up & lose a leg as a result, you've still got to make your way through life without the leg. Even though you knew bad shit could happen, that doesn't change what it is to deal with it when it does.

The funny thing is, when I think about it, many of the rest of us here fret that 'what happened' was some how our fault. And it actually doesn't matter what that thing was. Like, you could get PTSD because you were raped as an infant, and it's pretty likely you'll blame yourself. So, maybe, that way of thinking is more a PTSD symptom than I realized out was?

Another option, though, would be the 'conversation' thing. Those can only be read by the people involved and you can include a number of people.
 
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