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A new-to-me PTSD symptom is that I'm suddenly experiencing deep waves of nausea at the same time as stomach cramps come on. Sometimes I get bad chills at the same time. I do experience IBS-D, so am prone to stomach problems, but these symptoms are new. I'm drinking strong peppermint tea and...

Today is the one year anniversary of a fire in my apartment that did a lot of material, psychic, financial, and social damage. I am really really anxious today and of course thinking about that. I'm trying to focus on the good things, but it's not really registering yet. Does anyone have tips...

It's more so he is aware in the future how sensitive I am to the subject he brought up.

My friend Jake is a good source of support, and we talk a lot about our struggles in mental health. He does not have PTSD or anxiety, though, and I have both in spades. A couple days ago, he said something in an email that triggered me hard. He really was trying to be helpful, and what he said...

I've been seeing doctors for a bit in an attempt to diagnose a really awful new set of symptoms. I am going through a time of tremendous stress and am frequently triggered, and I wonder if my body is reacting more physically than usual. Nothing has shown up in bloodwork, etc. Here are my...

I've been fighting off some kind of illness, lots of fatigue and pain, and I'm noticing that I get triggered much more easily right now. Does this happen to anyone else?

My mom's been visiting and staying in my apartment for a few days now. Also, I've been very sick and super fatigued/in pain from a respiratory virus, so my tolerance is low. My mom keeps bringing up subjects that are really hard for me and often lead to being triggered. And she is really...

^^ You're so right. My therapist and I talk a lot about top-down vs bottom-up thinking, how some thoughts and feelings will never respond to rational arguments. And I don't think there is a way to express that.

My mother is coming to visit. She arrives tomorrow, and the next day she is going to come to therapy with me (unless I change my mind). One of the things that I want to try to communicate to her is that trauma is a very profound disruption of life. I really think she's mostly thought I just...

I'm having a rough go it right now because the only way I'm holding it together is to be totally avoidant. I have to clean my apartment in a big way (because of showings and also my mom visiting) and also talk to my landlord about stuff surrounding vacating this apartment. However, this is...

I'm not trying to dodge your question here, so apologies if it sounds that way. But I think that when we acquire habits that are coping mechanisms, we can't easily get rid of those habits until we adopt new habits and/or lower our level of stress. I don't know how feasible either is for you...

I think those jokes would make a lot of people uncomfortable regardless of trauma history. I'm not going to say your trauma is irrelevant, but those jokes are really juvenile (imo) and not the way anybody wants to think about their dads. You know your dad and know how he communicates, but I...

I am not sure how common this is with PTSD, but I'd imagine it's pretty common. And it's driving me nuts, and I would love to know if there's anything (aside from time, therapy, meditation, maybe meds) that will help to diminish it. Because I'm hypervigilant and always looking for threats, I...

My trauma means that not only have I dealt with a lot of really, really hard stuff, but also that things continue to be hard in lots of ways that affect my basic needs and quality of life. At any given moment, I'm dealing with not only symptoms but also things like how I'm going to afford food...

Thank you. It helps to remember that other people are out there, especially ones that know how it feels to be scared and alone.

It's 3 AM here now, and I'm still up, feeling sensitive and scared. A lot of things are coming at me at once. The biggest thing is that I found out today that my landlord won't let me renew my lease when it ends in August. i've had a lot of traumatic housing situations, and looking for an...

A few years ago, meditation brought on a Kundalini awakening for me. I wasn't even doing the yoga, and I didn't know there was a term for what I was experiencing until I'd been living with it for a couple weeks. I don't remember everything about it, but I know that I felt very sensitive, very...

From reading threads here, I'm now sure I'm not the only one whose memory loss extends past the actual trauma. In the past year, I've "met" a few guys who've reminded me that we had sex at some point. They remembered my apartment, etc accurately so I am sure it's true. Especially since I did...

Thanks! Not me in the pic. :) I'm trying to work on things that are not so stimulating when I can't sleep. One thing I like to do is just sit in my living room and make collages from magazines like National Geographic. That's soothing, the pictures and articles and cutting out things. But...

Hypervigilance is a big problem of mine. I also cope with hard times by getting into a sort of workaholic phase (as a writer). My sleep has been poor lately because of stress, sleep apnea (I have a sleep study next week), and allergies. But last night I couldn't sleep at all, so now I've been...

Suddenly, the thought of doing laundry sends me into a full-blown panic. My adrenaline is so high that I just want to run away to safety. I feel sick to my stomach. I feel like I'd readily resort to violence if somebody tried to make me do laundry. This is new for me. I had a freakout over...

I've been doing well lately, but last week I started having terrible anxiety without any obvious trigger. It shifted into full-blown panic yesterday, and I would stay in the panic for much longer than most panic attacks last. I spent over three hours freaking out because I had to do laundry...

Thank you! Those things have helped, but they are just brief distractions. Then the siege begins again.

For the better part of a week now, my head has been a terrible place to live because my thoughts are racing and relentless. Every thought leads to a spiral of insecurity where I second and third (and fourth and fifth) guess even my simplest thoughts. Sleep isn't any escape either. I don't...

I appreciate the replies this has generated and everything that's informed them. I understand why this is a sensitive subject all around, and I don't want to make light of that. I do, however, want to attempt to bring this back to the crux of my initial question, which was what the best course...