Delay-onset ptsd

[hodge]

Tex Cat, I think you are right on that kids should be given something to read about the importance of dealing with a rape or assault right after it happens. I wonder if I would have PTSD now if I had had something like that then.

 

[WishfulThinking123]

This is so true-I don't think I would have developed PTSD if I had dealt with it...but I didn't, I actually thought there was nothing to deal with though...I thought I was fine...then 4 years later everything came up due to events in my life and I developed PTSD.. My T stated that if we bury things when they come back up it is often much worse. I do think its great that if anybody experiences sexual assault or anything even if they say "they're fine" that they do receive counseling so they can work through it and not have to deal with PTSD...

 

[Stranded Sailor]

One of my support buddies had an 'incident' that he washed over. He's now in as bad a state as me.
It happens - the main thing is to recognise it and get help. Days get brighter, days get darker. But I have found talking to people that truly understand helps more than any medication could.

 

[Deleted member 37474]

My T has told me time and time again that I didn't cause or control the blocking of the memory. She says the brain did that, it wasn't my choice. But there were parts I remembered, and maybe I could have dealt with those?

 

[hodge]

My T has told me time and time again that I didn't cause or control the blocking of the memory. She say...

You probably could have if you knew to do it and knew how. Same with me. Unfortunately, I just think we grew up in a time before this was widely known or understood. We can't blame ourselves for that. We just do the best we can now with what we know now. :hug:

 

[Deanna]

I just have time to read the OP's post in this thread, but wanted to share that I was beat with a belt buckle on the side of my head for awhile ( and thats just one of a million trauma I've gone through) but I had fluid on that side of my head for quite awhile ( like 1 1/2 years) That's one of the outcomes of my battered marriage. My trauma started at three years old. I never knew what the word "trauma" meant..I knew how to exist though..So in other words.. I could have head trauma. He chipped all the vertebrae ends off my neck from C5 down maybe ( I don't know the exact one ( stop and start) but most of them are gone)

He is also dead, we forgave each other and he died from alcoholism/ We had been divorced for a long time.

Do I have reoccuinrg trauma? Not really. I'm sorry that he had to die but some do.

 

[hodge]

I'm now also wondering if traumatic brain injury can occur without a physical cause but with a traumatic cause. I'm not finding the right words, but what if a rape or some awful attack can cause a traumatic injury in your brain? Not by some physical strike but by the sheer emotional strike? Does anyone know what I mean? Am I making sense?

 

[sunkenharpy]

Delayed onset/complex here- I first started exhibiting symptoms around 10 years of age- and things kept mounting with each successional trauma. Eventually at age 22 or 23, it became full-blown PTSD. There was a period of time where I could not function at all as a person.

I’ve never had a TBI but I do have some cognitive issues- dyslexia and ADHD, and I was born 2 months premature... I have no idea if that has anything to do with it.

I'm now also wondering if traumatic brain injury can occur without a physical cause but with a traumatic cause. I'm not finding the right words, but what if a rape or some awful attack can cause a traumatic injury in your brain? Not by some physical strike but by the sheer emotional strike? Does anyone know what I mean? Am I making sense?

AFAIK this is true. From what I have read, extreme trauma does cause significant changes in brain chemistry as well as irreversible affects on the prefrontal cortex, among other things. It’s like, not only are you emotional scarred... but your brain is ‘scarred’ as well, in a very tangible and physical way.

 

[hodge]

All I know is that my brain feels physically different than it used to before PTSD came on. I can't really explain it well. It's a loss of being capable of sustained attention, concentration. It's feeling challenged by every little thing I have to do in normal life. Life paying bills. Anything. And I never used to be like this. I earned a masters' degree, for God's sake, I got admitted into the Ph.D. program (which I bowed out of to pursue a commercial career), I've done tons of research and written books, and now all that ability is just f*cking gone. Sorry for the outburst. But I think you all understand.

 

[adirondacker]

Supposedly, I have delayed-onset ptsd. I have been researching it recently. And not everyone in the psy...

I am not sure about delayed onset, but in my case I underwent a series of traumatic death scenes over the course of a decade and the accumulation of hundreds of cases of carnage, at the time, did not seem to affect me. When I got away from it then symptoms set in about 6 months later and then worsened fairly rapidly to the point of near meltdown, until those around me convinced me something was wrong and that I needed help. I did seek the help and 7 years later things are much better. I would love to tell you that all of the symptoms have subsided, but that's just not the case. I have good days and bad ones. Sometimes my startle reflex, especially to loud noises, is horrible and I still have flashes of anger or aggression when certain "buttons," are pushed by people that don't realize they are doing it. Honestly, I don't even see the escalation coming at times so I don't back off, but become increasingly aggressive until the person pushing the button stops or I catch myself and just walk away.

I do believe, though, that the symptoms and effects of PTSD can have a delayed onset, especially if you're actively involved in the circumstances that are causing the PTSD on a regular basis. It didn't really hit me until I put distance between my life and the death and carnage.

 

[Kbely]

Supposedly, I have delayed-onset ptsd. I have been researching it recently. And not everyone in the psy...

I had to look up the definition of “delay-onset ptsd” because I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant. I believe my husband has that. He was sexually abused by an older male cousin when he was 9 and then within 6 months he had open heart surgery. Both those events were extremely difficult for him and he didn’t talk to anyone about them. He showed no sysmptoms until we had our first child when he was 35. We dated in college and he seemed very well adjusted, responsible, hard working and successful. After the birth of our first daughter he became very hyper vigilant, depressed and distant. After some years of therapy and research we both figured out that those two events in his life caused him to have PTSD. He didn’t tell anyone about the sexual abuse until he was 40. I have asked him if in the interim, middle school, high school, college...if he thought about the incident and the cousin. He can’t remember. He just thought that if he pushed it down further and further it would go away. I don’t know if this helps you or not but I’ve never thought of my husbands PTSD as “delayed-onset”. I think having his own child triggered those feelings of helplessness and vulnerability he felt at the hands of his cousin.

 

[hodge]

I had to look up the definition of “delay-onset ptsd” because I wasn’t exactly sure what that meant...

That all makes a lot of sense. After some time in therapy I realized that I, too, pushed everything down, as if it happened to someone else. I had been in therapy a lot during my life but it was always about my abusive mother, and none of the other stuff ever got dealt with.

But anyway, during those years I just focused on pushing on, working on my career and self-actualizing with activities that were meaningful to me. It was only once I moved to another state, got married and felt safe that the PTSD came on. Although I think 9/11 and the priest abuse scandal in the news in the early 2000s also played a role in my onset.

I hope your husband is doing better now. He is lucky to have you by his side.