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I used to say surrounded by people who would be my friends if only I could let them. Then beginning with one very safe relationship (an infant granddaughter)and a lot of therapeutic support I began learning to let them. Sixteen years later I have a reasonable and satisfying set of friends and...

My pillow, the texture of the sheets, scents and sounds and sensations that remind me I am safe in my bed and its ok to let the old thoughts pass without acting on them lets me drift back to sleep. Sleep is good :) Ted

An important step in learning to live better with ptsd is addressing the issue of sleep deprivation. Sleep deprivation greatly aggravates the cognitive distortions (changes in perception and cognitive processing) that are part of ptsd. The basics are sleep hygiene (early to rise, no naps, no...

For me, once I reached that point, doing well, succeeding at stuff, people and relationships would begin to go beyond very simple task oriented relationships. The thought of developing personal relationships triggered all kinds of stuff and lots of anger. I would have to do what I had to do to...

CBT is excellent therapy for ptsd. Most likely, you are every bit as smart as you were prior to the accident, but now you have to learn about your ptsd symptoms and how to manage them before returning to your career path. Memory challenges, social challenges and sleep issues are ptsd symptoms...

No assumption about age, unfortunately. And the fear of being alone is a major factor in many unhealthy relationships. Ted

Well, he was certainly a somebody with a story. A twisted story. A somebody who needs professional help. That's true. And in his twisted story circumstances happened that resulted in you being involved in his twisted story for a period of time. So you are a somebody who became involved in...

Nobody likes to be reliant on medication, but trauma can generate changes in brain chemistry that results in interesting and challenging changes in perception which can be helped by medication for some trauma survivors. A mix of therapy and medication is generally recognized as a good approach...

I think it's only an ethical decision in retrospect. Under intense stress people will fight, flight, or freeze. It's not a choice at that point. The lady was a fighter who did what she had to do to survive. Another mother might have froze with the baby crying, leaving it to someone else to...

I think peace and joy in living develop from participation in a mix of activities and relationships appropriate to a person's situation. People with ptsd tend to be involved in activities that do not involve healthy relationships with others, avoiding active participation in appropriate...

A really good book exploring military dissociation is "Going After Cacciato" by Tim O'Brien. A traumatized mind is very capable of rescripting our perception of reality then revealing the truth bit by bit years later when we are safely removed from the situation. Ted

The Palo Alto VA, Menlo Park Campus (National Center For PTSD) used (5-6 years ago) to have a section for female veterans who were victums of sexual trauma in the military. I haven't been in contact with them the last few years so I don't know if it's still there. If it is, you need to be...

Yes and no. The hostile environment (trauma) made the senses I needed to survive more acute. I am very sensitive to sensory input that used to signal danger. The PTSD symptom that developed from that is hyper vigilance, and when that symptom is triggered I am very sensitive to many things in...

It would probably not be a productive topic for discussion anyway. Her perception would be quite different than yours. My therapist suggested part of the problem is a personality mismatch between the child and parent. We worked through understanding her as a person, her challenges in life...

You would need to contact a service organization and appeal the bad conduct discharge to be elgible for va benefits. It's not an easy process, but I was in group with a veteran who was successful in getting his discharge upgraded to general, under honorable conditions. I think the basic...

Y'know, okradlak, more or less normal people engage in meaningless chatter all the time. It's how they pass the time and acknowledge each other. When a piece of their meaningless chatter catches our attention, we run it through our set of cognitive distortions and build the feeling of...

Partially trained therapists can be helpful for some people, but people with ptsd should seek out a clinical psychologist specialized in trauma for individual therapy. Ted (echoing okradlak)

Depends ;) Some symptoms may "go away" as therapy progresses. So if your case of ptsd involves only those symptoms which may "go away" your case of ptsd may go away as therapy progresses. On the other hand, if your case of ptst involves damage and changes in physical systems in your brain...

People have symptoms. Most symptoms are characteristic of more than one diagnostic catagory. A formal diagnosis is a professional opinion of the diagnosis your full set of symptoms most characterises. The formal diagnosis is important in the process of receiving benefits, such as VA or SSD...

Internal stress from ptsd and chemical exposure impacts on us in many ways. I had a tendency toward 'receeding gums" before vietnam, had my first tooth pulled just before I came home. The "receeding gums" accelerated and in my 40s I got hit by a basketball in the mouth and most of my remaining...

It seems to me intense trauma over time generates changes in physical systems in the brain that generates cognitive changes that result in ptsd symptoms. Currently, the changes in the physical systems in the brain do not seem to be reversible, so the physical changes are likely to continue to...

Tremors are a symptom of ptsd for some people, including me. When I came home from Vietnam and went back to college, I had to learn to print in big block letters because if I tried to write it was not legible, even to me. Nowdays, they still come and go. I have a hard time hitting out of sand...

Link Removed Ted (P.S. Thanks for the site Nicolette)

Temperatures above 95 take me back into the Mekong Delta, or to the oil covered Persian Gulf looking at oil saturated ducks along a strip of sand as the oil fields burned in the background. The good thing is when it's that hot these days at my age it's appropriate to stay inside in the air...

That is certainly the feeling. While we are surviving the hostile environment we are the person we have to be to survive. For some of us the hostile environment began at conception. For some at a very young age. For some later. None of us can go back to before the trauma and pick up from...