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How long have you been struggling / diagnosed with PTSD and what help have you gotten?

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rusty_maestro

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Curious to hear briefly how long people have been struggling with ptsd and what kind of help has worked for you?

I was diagnosed 2 yrs ago, work related, received 3 months treatment of an experimental treatment based on exposure therapy. Helped a bit decrease the intensity of symptoms but surely didn't get rid of it. Can you ever get rid of it? Sounds from what I have been reading that at best people cope/manage their symptoms or get a reprieve for a period of time but sooner or later it catches you when you least expect it. Please share your thoughts.
 

Hello @rusty_maestro

Helped a bit decrease the intensity of symptoms
Good to read that the intensity of your symptoms have lessened due to Therapy!!!!

Can you ever get rid of it?
Speaking on my own behalf: No or a wary not yet. Trigger side- effects have massively reduced, recovery phases are shorter, less self-alienation, shame, destructive Behavior. I’m working in the medical field since 2012 and I wouldn’t be able to without Therapy.

The work : Since 2002-2003 Due to developmental/chronic Trauma. 2010 psychiatric ward. Falsely diagnosed with personality Disorder. 2010 Therapy due to CPTSD.
what kind of help has worked for you?

Trauma/Ego-State-Therapy, Embodied Therapy and Yoga, weight-training, fitness... still going!
 
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Hello @rusty_maestro, I've been suffering from PTSD ever since I was a child. I have suffered multiple life threatening traumas. I take medication which helps with some of the symptoms. I was also having counselling (private) before covid happened.(stopped now). I've never been offered help from the nhs and my experience of the nhs has been terrible. Reading articles on this site has helped and talking to people on here.
 
Curious to hear briefly how long people have been struggling with ptsd and what kind of help has worked for you?

I was diagnosed 2 yrs ago, work related, received 3 months treatment of an experimental treatment based on exposure therapy. Helped a bit decrease the intensity of symptoms but surely didn't get rid of it. Can you ever get rid of it? Sounds from what I have been reading that at best people cope/manage their symptoms or get a reprieve for a period of time but sooner or later it catches you when you least expect it. Please share your thoughts.
I am far from an expert having been diagnosed 5 years ago. After taking 4 years off from Therapy I am back with a T as is my PTSD. I do not know if it can ever be "cured" but I can tell it is a long road.
 
I wasn't diagnosed until I was in my late forties, though I believe I have had it since childhood. I suffered a lot of CSA. What's helped have been a combination of therapy and medications. I've come a long way since diagnosis, but I still suffer bouts of regression and get various things like flashbacks and depression.
 
I've had PTSD about 17 years, and I've been getting help for about the last 3 years.

Talk therapy with trusted therapists has been crucial to my healing. For the past year or so I've been receiving EMDR therapy, which has helped me a great deal.
Can you ever get rid of it?
PTSD isn't curable since it permanently makes physical changes to your brain, but it can get to be very manageable with work, perseverance, and help.
 
I have probably had PTSD since age 11 (47 years) but the diagnosis is more like 12 years now. Lots of talk and a laundry list of ssri's for most of that time without a lot of change, but it set me up for being able to recognize my own symptoms and helped zero in on the effective treatments. I am not sure they would have worked while I was just bouncing from trauma to trauma, some new, some old. I needed to solidify a bit first, through twenty plus years of just paying attention and talking about it.
That said, EMDR has been the most helpful for me personally. That and learning the difference between a counselor, a trauma therapist, a psychologist, and a nurse practitioner, and what each of them can and cannot do, should and should not do.
Don't just take what has worked for others and think it will apply to you and your needs. It takes a while for the dust to settle enough to even see what happened for most of us I think. Get that solidification through educating yourself and you may be able to help a good therapist see where you need help
 
Curious to hear briefly how long people have been struggling with ptsd and what kind of help has worked for you?

I was diagnosed 2 yrs ago, work related, received 3 months treatment of an experimental treatment based on exposure therapy. Helped a bit decrease the intensity of symptoms but surely didn't get rid of it. Can you ever get rid of it? Sounds from what I have been reading that at best people cope/manage their symptoms or get a reprieve for a period of time but sooner or later it catches you when you least expect it. Please share your thoughts.
8 years since the first event, two or three since the second. No psychological help yet due to a lack of therapists. It's taken a while for a diagnosis. Since 9th class I'd say... I've been in mental hospital once, taken therapy but only for symptoms.... I hate it.
 
learning the difference between a counselor, a trauma therapist, a psychologist, and a nurse practitioner, and what each of them can and cannot do.
Totally agree knowing the difference between the professional is crucial. I'm working with a trauma therapist and its a world of a difference. She knows what is going on.
 
Dx’d in the late 90’s
No treatment / just winged it
Lasted 5-7 years or so

10 years later

Round 2 has been from 2012-present
Started marriage & family therapy in 2013
Started trauma therapy in 2014
Trauma therapy paused until my life is more stable

If I’d actually known anything , or even better, actually understood PTSD the first go-round? I very much doubt I’d be here, today. Meaning on this site. There was a 2 year period between 2011/2013 when things were staaaaaarting to go sideways, that if I’d known what to do (and more importantly, what NOT to do) I probably could have pulled out of what became an unrecoverable tailspin. But I didn’t know anything about PTSD back then, so I not only didn’t get on top of things quickly enough, but everything I DID do? Couldn’t have been better designed to make things worse.
 
Dx’d in the late 90’s
No treatment / just winged it
Lasted 5-7 years or so

10 years later

Round 2 has been from 2012-present
Started marriage & family therapy in 2013
Started trauma therapy in 2014
Trauma therapy paused until my life is more stable

If I’d actually known anything , or even better, actually understood PTSD the first go-round? I very much doubt I’d be here, today. Meaning on this site. There was a 2 year period between 2011/2013 when things were staaaaaarting to go sideways, that if I’d known what to do (and more importantly, what NOT to do) I probably could have pulled out of what became an unrecoverable tailspin. But I didn’t know anything about PTSD back then, so I not only didn’t get on top of things quickly enough, but everything I DID do? Couldn’t have been better designed to make things worse.
If it does physically change your brain though, it seems we are constantly fighting an uphill battle. So even if you had done everything the best you could from the get go, yes you might of lessen the after effects of ptsd but it would still be there that's what I get from reading everyone comments on this site. I sure wish no one would have to come to site like these but I am sure glad you here @Friday because you have lots of knowledge to share. Thank you.
 
The "changing the brain" concept is kind of lost on me- I accept that we are changed by trauma, for sure, but each of us in unique big ways, and as a group in measurable but not entirely reliable or repeatable ways.

I had hepatitis C until I did the regimen and cleared it in 2005. People I told about it thought hepatitis A, B, and C were similar. They told me all about someone they knew that had type A and how they got better, you will too. I explained that comparing hepatitis A to Hepatitis B or C was like comparing head injury rock to head injury baseball bat to head injury face plant. All head injuries, all unique and different for everyone with a head injury.

Same with PTSD. PTSD trauma. PTSD assault. PTSD bad childhood. PTSD combat. All causing measurably similar changes in the brain, but each unique, and each and every sufferer unique within the classifications.

We are all on the bus, just going to different places, sitting in different seats, and we all got on in different circumstances.

I put a lot of faith in neuro-plasticity, They used to think that we had a finite number of brain cells, once one was killed by a shot of tequila, it was gone forever. Now they say that challenging ourselves to think hard by doing things like learning new languages or skills can actually put new cells in play.

drinking while playing musical instruments is hopefully a break even
 
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