To be honest, a lot of these replies anger me. Why? Because we all have PTSD, we're fighting it, and we're still here.
Like I said above, you're the one doing the labeling of yourself. And failing to see that some days just being a survivor and still living is a success. Once you start realizing that getting diagnosed is a key for you to unlock and create the rest of your life and stop kicking yourself, the days do (and will) get better.
I should probably back out of this thread because it is addressed to abuse survivors, and I'm a random attack rape/abduction survivor. I do think they are different. But I also love good passionate discourse, so here I go.
Being a survivor and still living is not a success to me, specifically because I spent too much of my trauma time literally craving death. Now, that's a very pinpoint thing about my psychology. But figuring that out did not unlock some magical door to the stairway to recovery. It's just another piece of information. Useful information.
But as kicking yourself may have been all you've ever known, it's safe and easy. Kicking yourself keeps you safe and cozy and down. Braving the face of change is another success and daring to believe you can change is more successful than almost anything.
Generalizations are non-applicable to PTSD. You are talking about a very specific and common psychology - the pull of habitual thought. But by saying that believing in change is the most successful alternative - well, I'd argue that's as foolish as telling a depressed person to cheer up.
PTSD recovery is work, pure and simple. I think the binary ideas of up/down, success/failure - these are
stories we tell ourselves when we need hope, or strength. There's nothing inherently wrong with stories - people desire stories. But they aren't objective fact. Reality is that you don't need hope or strength or the title of survivor. You just need to do the work. You can and should use whatever tricks of the mind you need to
keep doing the work.
My personal angle: I have enormous difficulty keying in to hope; I'm not religious, though I've tried; and I don't want to dramatize my story as they were bad and I was innocent. To me, that's a bandaid. I'm never going to triumph over adversity. I'd like to be able to manage myself when alone and with others. That's all.
Just my thoughts; I don't expect them to be everyone's. And, like I said, the thread was targeted at abuse victims. Perhaps there are specific aspects of PTSD for abused-by-known-people folks that are nearly universal, the way I think there are issues for abused-by-complete-stranger folks.
