• We are a multilingual website again. Read the notice about this.
  • Understand AI use at MyPTSD: all AI use is explained in our AI help page. AI use is by choice here. It exists if you want it, but does nothing unless you choose to use it.

Colorful and hopefully optimistic but maybe hateful occasionally

It totally is. I’m gonna say what it thinks here so that I can prove from my logical brain, in writing, that I am not responsible in any way, even by fearing I won’t sound sad enough if I do it.

So a bit ago I saw a deer hit by a truck. The truck driver actually fled the scene for some reason, and the deer was so mangled that I thought for a moment it was a dog. Some gore here, so skip to the next paragraph if you wanna avoid that, here’s an extra line for you to remember to skip this part: the back legs were flattened and ripped off, the chest opened a little from the crushing pressure (like when you pop open a chip bag), neck and jaw in weird positions, bones sticking out of the limbs. Guts remarkable intact despite not being within their cavities! Obviously a quick death,

so this sight by itself wasn’t troubling. More like, it was sad because other deer were still waiting around the area, had to call cops to get this deer, and — you know, a deer died. Sad.

But of course my brain suddenly remembered that 18 year old I saw get hit by a car while riding her bike, and my brain was very calming going, “Yep. Weird how deer and humans look the same with their bones out like that.” Not horrifying in the moment, just a fact. Although, like I said, it did unnerve me a bit and it took me five minutes to remember to actually call the cops.

My brain told me I could not share this information or else I would curse someone to this death.

Which, unfortunately, happened. The police officer is now dead. He was hit by a car at 70mph, though, so it was probably very quick.

Oof that guilt just typing that is crippling which is WILD because I did not even hit anyone myself, nor do I have any superpower that would cause this to happen! I hear the woman who did hit him is utterly distraught and I feel terrible for her too. And the 3-year-old and wife this officer left behind.

I need to figure out why my brain thinks it’s cursing people to death. I was around a LOT of death growing up but I don’t believe that’s the issue? My mom survived murder attempts and terminal cancer while I was growing up, but I also saw relatives starve to death or slowly have their bodies die in other horrible ways because it was illegal for the doctors to help them die any faster. I think, more related, that having my friends die while I grew up did more — Shay, for example (who died about ten years ago), I dreamed her death like a week before it happened and I’m still feeling like I could have stopped her mom from having to see her body. Her wailing haunts me. I should visit her but I don’t feel close enough to do so.

Anyway, yeah, I have no idea why my brain is this convinced. The non-logical part of my brain is very OCD-wired, which may be the problem. It’s difficult to communicate to the part of the brain that can language a little, but not logic.

I’m glad the officer isn’t suffering but I’m worried about what his wife may have seen or been told. I remember with the 18-year-old, she was so injured that there wasn’t even blood. I mean, there was, but that wasn’t the major thing. It was bones. And stuff. I’m AMAZED she lived!! She’s still alive, I hear!! I’m glad I was there.

Anyway. Back to final projects! I had a fever for a few days but I took a flu test and it came back negative. Unusually bad cold, probably because my bosses insisted I needed to come in. I hope I gave them this cold, lol. (They’re still cool people anyway. They have a bad habit of implying no one is doing enough but hey, at least they aren’t abusive. It’s legal in this state, so. They’re actually pretty fun tho!) Problem is, I think my mom got it and obviously that’s an issue. At least it’s not flu.

I did get vaccinated though, and I got her vaccinated. My nephews aren’t vaccinated yet though. My twin bro is an anti-vaxxer so I may convince them to not come meet me until after this deadly flu season wavers a bit!
 
Wait - what? What did I miss?
I was sort of opposed to saying the whole story, but sorry for the confusion! The SparkNotes version is that I saw an animal die in a gory way, which reminded me of a kid I saw hit by a car maybe five years ago (she was 18 and she actually survived and I saw still alive right now), which triggered OCD claiming I was going to bring out “negative energy” that would cause someone else to die there later. I’m working specifically on OCD lately so I tried challenging it and ignoring it. Unfortunately, a police officer was killed the same way shortly afterwards. It messed me up.

It feels like this keeps happening and it’s definitely not helping the OCD. My brain is now very sure that my mom wouldn’t have had her heart attack or stroke had I just done the obsessive rituals I was resisting so hard. :/ Coincidences in themselves trigger me at this point. So this has been very frustrating.

On top of that I’m heartbroken this officer (who was rather well known around here — a vet also so was always getting recognized for things) left behind a family, working family, and a wife and toddler. I feel like I won’t be sad enough if I acknowledge that there is literally no way I’m involved in this. AND I feel that if I feel I’m involved with this, I’m being somehow selfish for not thinking of them?

It’s been a weird week.
 
I’m definitely okay compared to his family though, don’t be too sympathetic in my direction — my main issue currently is actually that my mom has a fever now. Which was kinda my fault, but OCD rituals weren’t gonna prevent it.

Well, not my fault, more like a virus’s fault. Probably a million faulty ones. Viruses are usually haphazard lol
 
I feel like I won’t be sad enough if I acknowledge that there is literally no way I’m involved in this. AND I feel that if I feel I’m involved with this, I’m being somehow selfish for not thinking of them?

The worst thing that can happen to a dispatcher is to lose an officer or firefighter. We never stop blaming ourselves, even if the only role we played was to be in the room when it happened. If you were the one working the radio? You never get past the guilt. Because our job is to keep them safe. Failing is incredibly hard to get past it - and sometimes we can't. Even when it's not our fault and there was nothing we could have done from our little office miles away.

So we have our own OCD rituals we do over and over. Sometimes they make sense, sometimes not. But it makes us feel better - like we have some control. Why am I sharing this? Because I want your ocd to know that my ocd trumps it in this situation every.single.time.
Your ocd can let go of this one, because by the time you "failed" there were dozens and dozens of our ocd rituals that "failed" first.

You don't have to be sad enough or feel selfish that you didn't do enough . What the responder world needs to know is simply that you care. That is plenty sad enough for us, for his family, for his world.

Hope that helps a bit :hug:
 
Okay. Okay. Well, I THOUGHT I was passed everything with my dad. But then at work today —

mind you, stressful shift. (Triggering shift, though typically this is a minor stressor only; not today.) Worked a Sunday afternoon and evening. So, tired. Stressed. Triggered from nightmares of my dad, which (according to OCD) means “something bad” is more likely. Police officer’s funeral is tomorrow, so the city’s less cheery.

— at work today at the tail end of the shift. I was almost done. Minutes away. Then I heard a coworker discussing serial killers and how this one man, for attention, put up pics and videos of him killing cats.

I immediately felt the urge to run away and pretend I heard nothing. But I changed my mind and decided to join in. Thanks, therapy. I guess. Because I’m rather concerned my responses were strange. I got panicky and closed off as soon as I started talking. But got the most hilarious “WHAAAAAAT????” response I’ve ever gotten. And got a hug.

I think it’s always the affection that messes me up, in the end. My brain claims I’m making things up. That I’m standing out too much in the wrong way. That the hug was either pity or else I didn’t deserve it.

I am so stressed out I can’t get myself to type up the conversation here for feedback.

I have therapy tomorrow. I was going to discuss OCD seeming to now get worse because of Coincidence Surely but damn am I stressed about my dad. He’s got another child in his life right now. How is he not in prison, even with my grandparents’ funds?

Or whatever.

Doggo has been throwing up. She’s still helping me anyway but I’m worried about things.

I am coping by doing my hobby of interior design. I did it so aggressively that I got rewarded an award for best designed houses in a children’s video game. Eight of ten were among the devs’ top 100. So that was nice. I wonder if I could have entered my dorm room into contests. I liked to theme them. I used to theme my bedroom as a kid rather often. Usually snakes and bugs.

Thanks for listening, Internet.
 

Donation drives

2026 Donation Goal

Goal
$1,800.00
Earned
$910.00
This donation drive ends in
0 hours, 0 minutes, 0 seconds
  50.6%

Trending content

Featured content

Back
Top Bottom