Hi Dustin. I am unsure of the details of your attack but something similar happened to me in September 2007. I am from New Zealand and after finishing High School i spent a year in Vancouver coaching rugby at a High School there. My friends and I from New Zealand and Australia went to a house party and a gang turned up looking for a person who they were threatening to kill. One of them pulled out a large hunting knife and started threatening people on the street. Being drunk and young (and believing I was somewhat bulletproof) I confronted them and ended up in a fight by myself with the four of them. During the fight I was stabbed in the back which punctured my lung which then collapsed. I did not realise that i had been stabbed in the back as I only knew of him slicing my arm at the beginning of the fight. It was only when i was walking away down the street and started struggling to breathe that my friend looked at the back of my shirt and realised that i was bleeding heavily. I ended up sitting on the side of the road being helped by some freindly locals who tried to stop the bleeding. Due to the police needing to clear the area before the ambulance could help me, my breathing became shallower and shallower and i was holding my friends arm and saying that i didnt want to die. My vision then went black and i believed that i was about to pass away. Luckily the ambulance got to me just in time and got me to hospital for surgery and over a week they drained a couple of litres of blood from my lungs.
My physical recovery was very quick as i was fit and strong before the incident and i was back in the gym and playing rugby after a few weeks. However after the accident i didnt deal with what had happened to me at all and just believed that I would be fine carrying on life as usual. But over the last four years my mental state has deteriorated a lot. I wont go into too much detail but i will outline what my symptoms have been in order to try and encourage you to seek help immediately. I was an outgoing, intelligent and physically active person before the incident but as time went on (a couple of years) I began to stop playing sports and couldnt find the motivation to attend university and could not picture myself with a career or having any success in life. It felt like I didn't get enjoyment out of anything any more and that I couldnt relate to anyone. I couldnt sleep unless I had a weapon under my pillow and became aggressive and struggled to even get out of bed most days and started smoking extremely heavily. I ruined the relationship with the girl who was the love of my life due to not being able to control my temper when I became frustrated (i wasnt physically abusive ever but verbally abusive and did some things out of character to hurt her due to not being able to control my anger when i felt hurt or frustrated). I then turned to drugs and alcohol and developed a drug problem for about a year as the drugs were the only thing that made me feel any kind of happiness.
A couple of months ago when i had almost ruined my relationships with most of my friends and my family due to my self destructive ways, i realised that i needed to make a change. I had really hit rock bottom and finally reached out to my family and a councillor for support. After 2 months of support i am now smokefree and drugfree and am possibly the most physically fit i have ever been. I now have goals and wake up with a smile on my face every morning. So my advice to you if you are feeling depressed is to seek help immediately because there are people out there who can help you. I have a lot of regrets and i hope that you dont end up with any
My physical recovery was very quick as i was fit and strong before the incident and i was back in the gym and playing rugby after a few weeks. However after the accident i didnt deal with what had happened to me at all and just believed that I would be fine carrying on life as usual. But over the last four years my mental state has deteriorated a lot. I wont go into too much detail but i will outline what my symptoms have been in order to try and encourage you to seek help immediately. I was an outgoing, intelligent and physically active person before the incident but as time went on (a couple of years) I began to stop playing sports and couldnt find the motivation to attend university and could not picture myself with a career or having any success in life. It felt like I didn't get enjoyment out of anything any more and that I couldnt relate to anyone. I couldnt sleep unless I had a weapon under my pillow and became aggressive and struggled to even get out of bed most days and started smoking extremely heavily. I ruined the relationship with the girl who was the love of my life due to not being able to control my temper when I became frustrated (i wasnt physically abusive ever but verbally abusive and did some things out of character to hurt her due to not being able to control my anger when i felt hurt or frustrated). I then turned to drugs and alcohol and developed a drug problem for about a year as the drugs were the only thing that made me feel any kind of happiness.
A couple of months ago when i had almost ruined my relationships with most of my friends and my family due to my self destructive ways, i realised that i needed to make a change. I had really hit rock bottom and finally reached out to my family and a councillor for support. After 2 months of support i am now smokefree and drugfree and am possibly the most physically fit i have ever been. I now have goals and wake up with a smile on my face every morning. So my advice to you if you are feeling depressed is to seek help immediately because there are people out there who can help you. I have a lot of regrets and i hope that you dont end up with any