General Giving Family Members A Book About PTSD

[Tinyflame]

Dear Mercy,

This might sound a bit off the wall, but if you are doing the best you can (and we all fail sometimes), and you are being responsible (which you most definitely are), I would just try to put it to the back of your mind, and carry on with your own healing.

None of us can change the past, and we all have regrets: with ptsd or not.

Being that 'yourself' is all that you can control, and being that your family members are, as has been said, adults, in their own time I believe they will attempt to understand better. For yourself, you have been faced with surviving and carrying on from experiences no human being on earth should have to endure. You have a maturity, an awareness, an understanding and a compassion that even the sweetest of anyone's children, cannot begin to grasp. I believe it will take many years before they can really absorb what you've been through and survived, and that understanding will likely accompany their own maturing.

I would even suspect that they will try to learn more, much before they admit it to you. Even a chance comment by a third, unrelated party, might get them thinking in a different direction.

Unfortunately, if it were all about just 'trying harder', we would all be 'cured', a million times over. That is why it is an illness, and not a willful choice. Our only choice is to keep trying, each day.

Please afford yourself the compassion that you give to others.

Hugs and love always to you, Mercy, :Hug_emoticon:
Meg

 

[Jimmy]

Hello Mercy

Mercy,

I am a sufferer myself. What I have done is write, a booklet about the symptoms that I have.

You see, a lot of people try to understand ME the person, rather than the disorder I have.

The other problem is that most books are full of technical terms that people don't understand, like hypervigelence, exaggerated startle response etc.

My book is called 'From the Inside Looking Out', 'Living with PTSD'. It is not published yet, as it is a work in progress. My counsellor and the co-ordinator of the Mater PTSD Unit love it.

 

[bonnecanyon]

I would even suspect that they will try to learn more, much before they admit it to you. Even a chance comment by a third, unrelated party, might get them thinking in a different direction.

This is absolutely the best comment. Sometimes a third/neutral party will have the biggest impact. There is no emotional connection to a third party and they will be more open to what is being said.
BC

 

[Pam]

This seems like a great New Years book to give. The day fits the reason to give the book to your daughters. Give with a nice card that might help explain your thoughts that you care about them. I am not a Christian in the conservative sense but you might find a New Years card that expresses your desire to begin anew.

 

[malibran]

Thank you for those 2 books you mentioned Nicolette. I will try to get them.
Malibran