Sufferer College Student Learning To Cope With Ptsd

[WSQ]

Hi I am 24 and I am currently a senior in college majoring in neurobiology, physiology, and behavior, and I have hopes to go to medical school in the future. It took me extra years to try and complete my degree due to trying to battle PTSD. I am here to learn from others on how they cope with their PTSD.

Here's a little bit about myself on why I have PTSD:

My parents and grandma are from Communism China so they were very verbally abusive and they tend to emotional black mail me and basically controlled me for the most part as they see it the reason I was born was to serve them. I was also been severely bullied and was sexually assaulted a lot during middle school. I was again bullied in college as well. I guess there is no escape in that. When I began college, I was sexually abused multiple time by my ex-boyfriend and his best friend. Every time I see or hear something that reminds me of my family, sexual abuse, or any other trauma, I break down and cry. Sometimes I wonder why I am still standing and why I keep pushing myself when it hurts to try and graduate college and go to medical school.

Right now I am trying to find my voice and power since I feel that it has been taken away from me so many time and my confidence. I am also looking for other ways to cope with my PTSD that does not result with me cutting myself which is my usual mechanism to get away from the pain.

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

Welcome to the forum. :)

I am also in college and I know there are some others on the forum too. You are not alone and there are some very supportive people here.

Best wishes.

 

[safenow]

Welcome to the forum. WSQ. You are in a good place here. Lots of good information to help, and wonderful, supportive people. Congratulations on the schooling. I wish you lots of luck on completing your career choice.

It's nice to meet you.

 

[intothelight]

Hi WSQ,

Welcome to the PTSD Forum! :)

This site is a great place for information and support. Also as a student, a lot of universities have resources available to students who need counseling or assistance. Take advantage of everything available to you as you work on healing.

Take care.

Debbie

 

[71nothing]

Welcome to the forum WSQ! I too dealt with PTSD while in college. I had to take time off but did return and finish. You'll find a lot of support on this forum and I also encourage you to seek the assistance of a campus counseling center if you have not already sought out therapy.

 

[MagiLisu]

Welcome to the forum. I have found this forum and everyone here to be a great source of support.

You don't mention if you are receiving any treatment or therapy, if not I believe that it would be a great help for you to consider this option.

 

[WSQ]

Welcome to the forum. I have found this forum and everyone here to be a great source of support.

You don't mention if you are receiving any treatment or therapy, if not I believe that it would be a great help for you to consider this option.

Yes I am. I receiving both psychiatric help as well as psychotherapy. My therapist and I are trying to find ways for me to cope with my PTSD right now such as knitting, painting, and etc. I am still trying to find that one thing that helps calm me down since I feel everytime I see something that reminds me of an incident I go to extreme panic mode and the first thing I could think of was cutting myself or drinking which are not the best way to cope with these kinds of thing. I would like to hear from others constructive ideas that works for them and what helps them bring them back to reality instead of going back to the time of the incident and reliving that awful moment. My therapist thought it would be a good idea for me to interact with others that have PTSD for support and find out what ideas others have when they cope with these situation.

 

[safenow]

I would like to hear from others constructive ideas that works for them and what helps them bring them back to reality instead of going back to the time of the incident and reliving that awful moment.

I have to ground and breathe before I can do anything. Like yesterday, I was having a really bad day. I wanted to go in public, but when I'm that way, it is not safe for me to be in public. So, I took my first-aid kit with me.

My first-aid kit consists of the 5-4-3-2-1 game. I had my teddy bear, with a spoon, Salt water nose spray. I had sprayed the teddy bear with my favorite perfume, and a small lap blanket. Many times during the meeting I had to squeeze the teddy bear. I looked at the spoon to remember to not do too much at one time. I kept looking at the colors. (grounding of sight.) I prayed my nose before I went into the meeting, during the meeting I kept smelling the perfume (grounding of smell), I ran my fingers over the teddy, his eyes, the spoon, my small blanket. (grounding of touch) listened to the speaker (grounding of sound), and had a peppermint in my purse in case I needed it (grounding of taste).

That kit was a life saver. I made it all the way through the meeting and had a lot of help being able to get home safely. Even though I had to tell one lady NO in a loud voice (she had told them to call an ambulance), the others spoke up for me because I'd told them what was going on. I finally had good support.

I want to say thank you to everyone who comes to this site. The support I've gained here has helped me to have faith in humans. I couldn't have done it without you all.

 

[MagiLisu]

A therapist once told me when I am feeling anxious to visualise something soothing - I picked the sea.

The same therapist also asked me to pick an object (she had various objects on her desk) which I am drawn to, I picked Sebastian the crab from the Little Mermaid (The Little Mermaid was my favourite film as a child - even then I loved the sea).

I was allowed to keep Sebastian and I carry him around with me. If I am feeling anxious and just visualising the sea doesn't work, I hold Sebastian and I sing (in my head) 'Under the Sea' to myself, sometimes I can do this without holding Sebastian.

I remember at the time thinking that my therapist was mad, but it does work.

 

[KP the nut]

Hi and welcome to the forum.