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With respect to personal development and trauma, some suggest that the normal person that was at the onset of the trauma is kind of put on hold while the person that has to be to survive the trauma does what they have to do. The idea is the normal person (inner child in the case of childhood...

I like to think of it as a ball of twine that has knots in it. Unravel/get comfortable/hit a knot ... work through the knot ... unravel/get comfortable/hit a knot ... work throught the knot ... ;) Ted

I kind of agree with Debbie, but I also know that I have trashed perfectly good jobs and relationships and situations because of my ptsd symptoms. Along the way I made the personal observation that when normal people leave one job it is usually because they already have a better job, unlike me...

It means you are doing good. Trauma has layers, and you have removed one layer and now thoughts and images and feelings from layers below are bubbling up. Of course they're uncomfortable and disorganized at first. It's stuff you've had buried a long time. Take notes. Discuss what you...

Hey Joe, anger is part of ptsd. Getting angry is normal for us. We can get angry at almost anything! Acting out our anger is a choice we make, and if we choose to act our anger out it generally leads to people "sodding" us off. Our challenge is behaving in a way that gets our needs met with...

Pets are wonderful. And staying busy can work sometimes, for a little while. But sooner or later we have to process the thoughts and feelings whirring around in our minds. A good clinical psychologist can help. But the ongoing challenge is how to get the things done each day that we need to...

Evenings are a challenge for some of us. Our ability to generate a chemical "flight, fight or freeze" response to daily stressors has beend enhanced by our traumatic experience, and our ability to generate the chemical response to counter the "flight, fight or freeze" response has been damaged...

I was just starting a doctoral program in psychology with a full scholarship plus a teaching assistantship when an episode occurred and I trashed that opportunity. One of many over the years. There is a country song "Born to Lose" I used to listen to in the depressed moods inbetween lost...

Anxiety involves the fear of losing control (again) and bad things happening (again). It involves our flight, fight or freeze response being triggered and our reduced ability (due to the severity ot past trauma) to generate the internal chemical response that calms non-traumatized people back...

It sounds to me like you're doing good, like you left the session feeling like you did good :) Of course, we've let ourselves be fooled before, so it doesn't take too long of realizing we felt good about something for us to start thinking we're letting ourselves be fooled again and begin...

Welcome! Anhedonia is a not uncommon ptsd symptom. Ted

I like the term self-nominating target. Once some people realize we will react emotionally instead of logically to stuff it's kind of like a kitten with a ball of yarn. They just play with us until they're tired and move on. The challenge is to not be a self-nominating target. To do that we...

Sometimes people who have experienced trauma are able to block out the thoughts and feelings (temporarily) focusing totally on their current situation. A classic example would be the WWII vets coming home to become workaholics. The problem is that as you age the brain processes that block...

Awww Lizio ... emotional reasoning makes perfect emotional sense. And it feels so right. You need to explore this a lot with your therapist. No, you do not need to feel guilty about things other people did, or about the things that seemed to happen around you. Ted

If you work in the US, have a diagnosis of ptsd, and have informed your employer about your diagnosis you are protected under the disabilities act. Your employer is required to make reasonable acccomodation for your symptoms and theraputic needs. If reasonable accomodation is not possible...

I was taught the one thing we can always take control of is our breathing. When intense events (such as hallucunations) intrude on our current situation, retreat to a safe place, sit in a comfortable but dignified position, rest your hands and forearms on your legs, close your eyes, take deep...

I used to use Day-Timers little wire bound monthly planners. They came with a wallet that fit nicely in the side pocket of BDU trousers. Worked well for years. Now I use a combination of my google calendar and a notepad app on my smartphone (Motorola Atrix). Of course now there's not so much...

I think the desire to confront those who did this to us is a very intense feeling that gradually becomes a non-issue as we learn to live with ptsd. It is one of those intense feelings that if we act on it will seldome come out well, and if we dwell on it will generate ptsd symptoms at a level...

Sometimes the intrusive thoughts and/or feelings come even though we are doing everything we are supposted to be doing. Be gentle with yourself. Let yourself recognize the thoughts and/or feelings without dwelling on them. Say yep, I know that feeling or yes, that thought is related to a real...

I used to chat with my therapist about a Catch-22 thing where if I was a safe distance emotionally from people it was so lonely life wasn't worth living but if I was involved emotionally in activities with people the anxiety and panic became so intense I had to do whatever I had to do to push...

I think of my morning workout as my transition from the old stuff to my current situation. When I wake up I am usually preoccupied with intrusive thoughts and feelings related to old stuff. While I am getting my stuff together and going to the gym and starting my routine (I start with a slow...

Internal stress can generate muscle knots and spasms that can twist and pull things in unusual and painfull ways. I was in a therapudic massage program for people with ptsd for years and it helped a lot. I still get a therapudic massage every 2 weeks, plus I have learned a number of stretches...

Not weird at all. PTSD involves stuffing thoughts and feelings you can't process at the time, then letting them surface years later when it is safe. The process leaves gaps. When you feel safe the thoughts and feelings you have stuffed will come up, probably with all the intensity you felt at...

Thanks for sharing Papa369! I'm also a Vietnam combat vet who had childhood and adolescent trauma. I sometimes joke the earlier trauma prepared me well for combat :). It sounds like you have done an excellent job of learning to live with PTSD. I really enjoy this forum because it gives me a...

I saw my clinical psychologist weekly, more often whe I was in crisis, from 1995 through 2005, then scaled back to twice a month for a year or two, then monthly for a year or two, then quarterly for a while. Now I have no regular appointments. I just see her when I do a PTSD presentation with...