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That's the feeling, and if we act on that and the other feelings that bubble up out of the calderon of old feelings stuffed while we did what we had to do to survive we will end up surviving alone because that is what we had to learn to do. If we want more than surviving alone, our challenge...

Over the years there have been so many times I have been in severe pain and been sure I would never walk again or something similar or had some crippling, chronic disease only to discover a few days/weeks later everything worked just fine I have come to understand that kind of stuff as internal...

Sounds like you expressed some feelings you needed to express. Anytime your therapist stumbles on a trigger and subsequent release of intense feelings it is a good day in therapy. It should lead to some good follow up sessions. Ted

Well LB, I think your friend and your Mom were very fortunate to have you as a friend and a daughter. I suspect you have some fond memories of both relationships. When the sorrow intrudes let yourself feel the loss for a few moments, then shift your focus to a fond memory. If possible, find a...

Everyone grieves at their own pace, in their own way. It is not uncommon to pretty much put off grieving for a while, only to have it come up years later in conjunction with a subsequent death. I facilitated grief and loss groups for a few years at a childrens center and it was not unusual for...

Awwww Nighteyes ... Sometimes life is not just not fair, but is terribly unfair. A trauma a victim becomes a trauma survivor when they escape the traumatic environment alive ... When we escape .... Once we escape the hostile environment, our challenge shifts from doing what we have to do to...

Way to go!!! A huge step in my therapy was learning it was up to me to manage my environment appropriately. I started referring it to my little corner of the world, and I am responsible for managing the relationships and activities in my little corner of the world. The negative relationships...

Nothing quite like anniversaries. Christmas Eve 1967 I was caught in a truce violation. At midnight the enemy opened fire on us, but we weren't allowed to fire back. A very helpless feeling; considerable anger at the institutions and people who initiated and enforced the one-sided truce on...

The media falls into the category of things we have no control over. Stuff that attracts our attention and triggers intense thoughts and feelings, like a combat vet living out PTSD symptoms, also attracts the media. It's not about the media response. It's about intense thoughts and feelings...

Tingling is a pretty common anxiety symptom. I get tingling in the extremities and scalp. It feels like a headband. When we perceive threat, our bodies redirect our blood flow to support intense reaction to the threat (generally to key organs and systems, away from extremities). It's part of...

The memories will come in time, when it is safe to remember. They will come in bits and pieces. They will initially come linked with other memories that may turn out to be partially or completely inaccurate. As you work through them with theraputic support they will gradually sort into a...

It's kind of a backward form of logic, but the trick is to accept the mood and go with it. If you are in a state of panic, get yourself someplace safe and comfortable and just let the thoughts and feelings do their thing until they pass. You will probably fall asleep at some point, and sleep's...

The full question would probably be what are your expectations for yourself as a result of your participation in therapy. It's an especially important question for people with PTSD because many people go to a doctor (or therapist) with the expectation of being cured, and that is an unrealistic...

So, could be you have a fear that you won't be able to protect your daughter from stuff. Night terrors wrap seemingly unrelated details around a central fear and twist and twist until you wake up about to scream or lash out. I helplessly watched a person being incinerated alive and equate the...

I think our challenge is to learn to manage our symptoms. Our diagnosis is just a professional opinion of what our set of symptoms represent according to current diagnostic criteria. Symptoms overlap considerably. To some extent, the diagnosis we receive depends on which symptoms the...

As an inpatient at the NCPTSD, every Friday afternoon was Affect Management. It was a great class, because that was where you put all the things you learned in the other classes together and used everything to learn to manage your behavior. The actual analytic tool we used came from Dr Beck...

I woke up during mine and looked back to see the Doc and the students he was showing the procedure too. They didn't pay any attention to me so I watched the monitor and the inside of my colon and apparently drifted off. Next I knew everybody was gone and a nurse was giving me instructions on...

Awwww Pi, a friend of mine used to ask me why I listen to those sad songs all the time. There is just something about the sound of a steel guitar that goes to the core of some of the passing moods for me. I just close my eyes and let the music and mood work it's way through. And when I start...

Depends on how your partner perceives it. It is inappropriate behavior generated by acting out the intense intrusive thoughts and feelings, inappropriate because it will result in your not getting your current needs met in your current situation even though the release of the old feelings might...

I would rephrase the topic as the inability to give ourselves permission to feel love. In the process of surviving the abnormal (traumatic) environment many of us had to learn to block out (stuff) our awareness of our normal feelings because they would have interfered with us doing what we...

Compliments are a trigger for me, a here we go again type of thing. A compliment means I'm being set up again. Someone's trying to distract me from what I should be paying attention to and any minute now my situation is going to explode in my face. I become very hypervigilant, looking for the...

Stuff triggers intense feelings. Sometimes the intense feelings are expressed outwardly, kill the trigger wand stuff like that. Sometimes the intense feelings are expressed inwardly, isolation and depression and avoidance and so on. Sometimes the intense feelings that turn inward find...

I don't dwell on it, but I mention it to those I am involved in relationships or activities with. It gives them an explanation for the occasional bit of ptsd behavior that occurs. That's important. Mostly I focus on behaving the way I need to behave to get my current needs met in my current...

Sea, you express what it feels like to come home with PTSD very well. Takes me back to 1969 and coming home with the Calley stuff going on. Anyway, what happens when we come home with PTSD is we live out our PTSD symptoms until it gets so bad we are willing to concede that other people aren't...

It was a very slow, baby step by baby step process. In the beginning, each step generated a flood of anxious apprehension which had to be processed. As time went on, the anxious apprehension decreased and my ability to allow myself to enjoy participating in appropriate relationships and...