Search results

It reshuffles the trauma - if you're experiencing PTSD Symptoms the chances are your trauma is stuck, frozen. Not filed away like any other memory good or bad, but actively still in motion for you. You may have hundreds of bad memories and you might be upset by remembering them occasionally, but...

But what "they" are is not mentally ill - they are abusers, criminals, anything else they may or may not be is irrelevant. That is the term you are looking for - people don't like using that term because it's bad - but people who do bad things are "bad" and therefore the term must be applied...

Amongst all the horrors in my nightmares, weird and wonderful things sneak in. A year or so ago, I had a very odd dream in which Russell Brand was the Mad Hatter who lived in the Post Office down town, he tried tricking me with a two pence piece, but I saw through the deception and was...

Actually @Lucycat Emotional or covert incest is a separate recognized term, though there has in more recent years been some criticism about it making the term incest far more inaccurate. Nonetheless, I know you said you might be sensitive about this thread so you don't need to read the rest if...

My therapist explained that when I feel an emotion, that I don't just feel what the situation has caused but I feel all the uprocessed parts of that emotion too. So if the firework caused you to feel anxiety, shock, surprise and fear (or something like that) simultaneously, you could have been...

I don't know if this helps at all but the CDC have released this infographic, which may ease some of your concerns:

I have two methods of sleeping, one I wake up every 20-40 minutes or so, the other sleeping through the nightmares but being exhausted. If you're having nightmares then I think it's normal to wake up exhausted. Unfortunately I've found no quick fix with medication or therapy but I think that...

Something I wrote out for myself recently that I've found a little comforting was this: Even though I’m not be as good at 'life' than others it doesn’t mean I deserve it any less. This is my own life and I deserve to live it in any way I choose and I don’t have to meet anyone else’s...

Does anyone else feel that by trying to get away from the term mentally ill or by redefining it we ourselves are furthering the stigma of it - I certainly do. Injury or not, our mental health is not good if we have PTSD - no fault, just fact. Therefore we have mental ill health which is by all...

Wow, I guess it's an entirely different ballgame over here - I get 48 sessions (which is rare in the first place), I'm even more lucky that they've been extended to 58 in advance = which has actually made me feel so much better. Ever since the second session I've been aware that sooner or later...

I don't understand, nor can I apply any definition of forgiveness to many of my abusers, there are some who I am more forgiving of - like the guy who killed himself later and the two worst of my school bullies, my Nan is in both sides somehow but others I absolutely can't like my father and his...

Personally I wouldn't a flashback is actually re-experiencing a prior event - usually with more than one sense so feeling what you were experiencing physically and emotionally at the point of a trauma, or hearing and feeling the emotions, or smelling and feeling the physical elements of the...

I don't know why I'm struggling so much with coming back to this. I have a few things I want to add though and then I think I'll try to tackle each post one by one? Or can I just say I take a lot of what was said on board and thanks... I'll think about it. I feel that I haven't asked this...

Thanks everyone for your replies, I will try to respond better soon, I feel a bit overwhelmed, but I have read these and am grateful and will return as soon as I can. :)

Thanks Anthony, its not intentional narrow mindedness, it's literally my understanding of what exposure is and in this case lack of knowledge about alternatives. You've helpfully provided me with solutions to both so thanks. :)

My PTSD has become an all consuming part of my life - it's always there and even if it doesn't define who I am, it does make a large percentage of me. With most people I have absolutely nothing in common with them and struggle at more than anything than very brief and simple niceties - and even...

It's natural and healthy to want sex and depending on your drive you may want sex as often as daily or only once or twice a year, most often with the rise in hormones that is natural, 1-3 times a month I'd say is average. Not only for physical reasons is it natural, such as to have an orgasm and...

But being surrounded by illegal drugs and/or people under the influence of drugs seems like a pretty healthy thing to avoid. I can see why it would be helpful. [Deletes a lot of back and forth rambling] I am highly conflicted about this due to moral and legal issues as well as issues of my...

That's no problem @Sarah542 - just bear in mind these are my experiences and of course things vary. A NHS therapist will be entirely free of charge by the way, so they can be worth holding on for and even though waiting lists can be two years long, they can also be faster. Getting help from...

Maybe I'm completely wrong here, but he doesn't sound like the best person to be talking to you. My GP has some experience with mental health and related training, but he frequently triggers me - it's not his fault, but I wouldn't go to a brain surgeon for a heart transplant. Therapy is a very...

Thanks for the responses! It took me a couple of reads of your post Anthony (don't know why it didn't sink in immediately - it's not so hard of an idea!) but I think see where I'm getting confused in all of this. I just presumed that a trigger included the response but now I understand...

I spoke to my T about my reactions before I was going to go on to ask about conditioned response, but she literally said it before I did. That it was natural to feel such an intense reaction after some of what I've been through and that conditioned responses are difficult to break, especially...

You've got a lot of great advice about actually studying and taking a bit of care of yourself by sleeping and so on, so I won't repeat all that but I do have some basic broader sense words for you. Firstly know your limits and don't set yourself up to fail. If your subjects are going to be too...

Just want to start by saying - I have no idea about the encounters to which you refer. I don't know whether it's just been my mental state or because I'm picking up on some of the negativity (I'm hypersensitive to anything like this) documented in at least two threads now, but I've been on here...

Thanks Anthony, I've re-read that now but I have read that in the past. I think it's just an issue relating to me as I can recognise what distresses others immediately. I tend to minimize my responses a lot and the few times I have a nasty habit of chastising myself for trying to get attention -...