Are You Deteriorating; Stable, Or Improving

[ghost]

After reading a fair few posts on here, I have observed that there are those members on here (apparently in the minority) who believe that they can fully recover from their condition; and then there are those who consider their condition permanent.

I do not want to reignite the debate over whether PTSD is cureable or not. However, I am interested to hear, from those who consider their condition permanent, whether they consider their overall health and wellbeing to be generally

-deteriorating;
-stable, or
-improving.

Would appreciate your comments.

 

[pandora]

Hi Ghost..I do not beleive that this disease can be cured but I do beleive that it can be managed. I am one that I beleive that is stable and improving. I know that if something bad happens..like I move, go to a new job, lose a loved one etc that my symptoms will increase and I will have periods when my brain will go haywire. I know that those things are just part of life. I beleive that finally in my recovery period through a lot of hard work and personal reflection along with cbt and emdr have done everything that I can do to manage this disorder and I am proving that if you do the work you will reap the rewards. Changing my negative thinking was a long hard process..the negative thinking was ingrained in me..it is hard to live life or even consider enjoing things or people around you if all your thoughts are negative. It is like a bad seed..my negative thinking brought bad, negative people into my world, I think because I attracted them and did not think I deserved any better. I now know that I deserve alot more than I have ever given myself credit for..again through a lot of hard work.

Knowing that I have the tools now to deal with this and living in today...trying my best not to overreact and worry like crazy helps too! It has taken about 5 years for me and this process but I am glad that I did not give up...the work has finally paid off. But..it does take work and patience.

 

[anni]

Hi Ghost,

I'd have to say stable, for the most part, with some wild swings of both improving and deteriorating. I'm so baffled by this condition that I couldnt even say why exactly these swings occur!

I can say that the improvements seem to show up through much greater ability to handle my emotions. The down-swings seem to be mostly about isolation and avoidance behaviors. Even with tools and some amazingly good past therapy I feel I am losing my battle with these.

Take care,

Anni

 

[SunnyBrookFarm]

Hi Ghost -

I'd say for the MOST part I'm improving - but there are always the little dips of deteriorating that come along. Fortunately, I've been able to not have those set me back too much.

 

[TLight]

I'd say stable. Things that I might consider as improving are my ability to moderate the downward swings, although they still exist, just not at the intensity of before.

Again, no curable....but managable.

I hope everyone stays in their happy place!

 

[Grainne]

For me, I'll say that I'm working on becoming stable...so improving towards stable. I'm still fairly new to my diagnosis and am still sorting out all of my symptoms.

I believe that PTSD can be managed, not sure about cured.

 

[Manic11]

Had you asked me about a week ago, I could say I am stable and getting towards improving a little bit.
However, now I believe I am, unfortunately because of certain recent situations, deteriorating a little bit. Hope to be back to stable soon!

This is a good thread and important. Sometimes we don't look at how exactly we're doing/how we've been doing.

Manic

 

[Dylan]

Let's see....I'd say that, at present, I'm stable and improving. I'm currently doing CBT (mental), Somatic Experiencing (physical), and counseling with a more intuitive/emotions based counselor (emotional). This wasn't consciously done, just ended up that way, but I'm glad it did. Hitting all three areas at once is making a very big overall difference for me.

Good thread!

-Dylan

 

[NarcSis]

Here I am stuck on semantics again (sorry). Every injury leaves a scar of some sort - muscle tears form scar tissue at the site, they may not be visible but they're there. So in this way, each injury is "permanent", but recoverable.

I like to view this 'injury' to my psychological make up the same way. It is recoverable. Like muscle damage there are accomodations that must be made in order to restore function and that takes learning, why should psychological injury not be viewed the same?

If I am to view myself as having been permanently 'damaged' from this psychological injury, I would say that I am improving and it has taken alot of complete honesty with myself, recognition of denial symptoms, accepting my 'faults' and learning to funtion at a level that is different from what I functioned at before my trauma. I am not fully recovered, but I am working toward function and I am confident that I will get there. Two steps forward, one step back.

That being said, each trauma event is different, some circumstances complicate the recovery process thus, the extent and severity of symptoms is person dependent.

 

[macpayne]

If I was to say I was improving..... I would then have a turn of events that would send me right back where I started. I feel good, I love life right now but can't speak for the future. I think we can overcome this battle but it takes alot of hard work and support to get there.

 

[Deleted member 541]

I am stable, have been for awhile, but at times (like recently) the rug gets pulled out from underneath me and things go downhill for awhile...... All in all, I feel pretty good.....

 

[Paloma]

At the moment...deteriorating. Don't have a handle on it yet...meds aren't continuing to be effective. Sucks.

Have been better. Hope to be better again. But right now I am trying to climb a greased pole.