Discussing Ptsd With My Dad

[EvenStrongerNow]

I hope I posted this in the right section.

Sigh. I disclosed my having PTSD with my Dad. Sigh.

I knew it. I just knew it but I thought maybe he wouldn't spiritualize even this.

He said, "PTSD sucks right? I remember it like it was yesterday."

I thought, Oh, maybe he has it because he is a veteran. Maybe he knows then.

So I said, "Do you have PTSD too?"

He said, "No. Had it. God healed me. I don't have it anymore."

Sigh. :banghead::banghead::banghead:

 

[FindingMyself88]

People with this mindset make me sick, no offense to your dad. But I am a christian and struggle with this mindset all the time, "if i would just trust God a bit more…" But someone who has been through some of the same stuff I've been through told me that healing is a process, even with God. We are like a onion, you have to peel back the layers one at a time.

(((hugs))) I am sorry you got such a response…those responses almost leave you feeling condemned and thats not right. God loves us, understands our pain, and wants to help us through.

 

[EvenStrongerNow]

Thanks Findingmyself. I really don't think he meant to. It's like I knew and walked myself right into it. I should've trusted my gut and not mentioned it lol especially since it's such a pattern with him.


I am a christian too. I was totally like, "yes, you're so right Dad. I'm not gonna let the enemy get me down. Thanks." :tup:

 

[atthree]

I tried to talk to my mother once about my PTSD. I forgave her also, she doesn't want to see me suffer.

 

[Pencil]

I hope the emoticons show you banging your father's head (against a wall with rough plaster).

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Well, to be fair, he didn't say "abandon psychiatry because you need to put all your faith in god". He shared with you that his spirituality healed him. What's wrong with that? Yeah, I think you're reading too much into it.

 

[radicalgratitude]

I'm a Christian, too, and I don't like comments like this. If it were true, then does God love me? Why am I not healed? Am I not good enough? I have come to the conclusion that we are given the graces we need to survive (through the support of others, through therapy, etc.) but reading and memorizing a ton of Bible verses isn't going to "earn" our spot at healing.

For a while I considered receiving treatment at Mercy Ministries, but I am glad I didn't because I've heard they don't have real trauma therapists. They do the "I used to have it....God healed me" thing. My therapist, also a Christian, talked me out of it, thank goodness.

 

[Powder]

PTSD is conjoined with denial, memory deficits, and periods of remissions that are relatively symptom free. Therefore, whatever his definition of God or healing, he is not qualified to know if he is "cured" or not, of anything. Nor am I.

With my PTSD, I often miss the mark on noticing my own symptoms until a family member reflects them to me so that I can see what I'm doing, like not drinking water, twisting and squirming, talking rapidly, not breathing, etc. Then I realize I'm not seeing my PTSD again.

I hope he's right. I respect his wish for it to be true. But none with PTSD can be certain it's truly gone. Boy I sound so jolly!

What is difficult is why would God heal one person and not another? Why not say it is biological or something. Why God? Why give God the credit for all the good and the devil for all the bad. Sometimes things just happen.

 

[EvenStrongerNow]

Solara, honestly, it's a pattern with my father. He is very passive aggressive. I'm not reading too much into it. I know myself and I know my father.

I've never shared any part of my treatment choices with him. Also, I never told him I see a psychiatrist so...

This is the same man who said to me, "Nobody can ever do anything to you that God doesn't allow" after sharing some of my trauma with him.

I have posted about him before.

 

[Deleted member 19804]

That really sucks, StrongerNow. Still, congrats on finding the courage to tell him.

I'm sure he means well with his comments, it just is a very silly response to your child opening up to you. Maybe it is his desparate way to hold on to his faith, for how do you explain any evil in the world when you believe that God is good and looks out for all of us.

I hope this won't stand in the way on your path to healing.

 

[Barconian]

I was a father with PTSD and I don't have it now, because I believed hard work (emotionally) works! It doesn't matter what you believe in, the important thing is to have a belief or a faith!!

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Well to be honest it's posts (and replies) like this/these that make those of us who have found healing through our spirituality keep our mouths shut----you never referred to other issues with your father & I'm not a mind reader. I responded based on what I read, and I have a feeling that more than one of the responses was based on the responders own issues with spirituality rather than what you actually said in your first post.

In response to the replies~
I think it's very sad that the power of god & spirituality is discounted---the sentiment that it's crap that someone was healed or found healing through God simply because *I* haven't personally experienced the same----is flawed thinking. We all heal in different ways, and the instant that you close off yourself to any given modality of healing, you're doing yourself a disservice. (I could say this about any path to healing---actually, I know I have in the past.)