Poll Do You Have Difficulty Reading with PTSD?

[Grama-Herc]

Clair,

This is exactly the point I have been trying to get across to people here for some time.

I will not read a long rambling post. Especially if it has not paragraphs. People with PTSD have issues with this stuff.

 

[becvan]

You do realize that is YOUR choice about whether or not to read long or short posts. The tone being portrayed here is that long posts are not welcome and they are a hindrance. I say this is crap. It is up to each of us to decide what we will or will not read. If long posts bother you, then simply don't read them! If they piss you off, avoid them!

This isn't rocket science here!

bec

 

[Claire]

That's what I said. I'm not blaming anyone. I consider it my problem. I'm not asking anyone to do anything about it. I'm just stating what I feel and find difficult.

 

[Jestadud]

I voted always.
It's been one of the strangest side effects of ptsd for me because I have always been an avid reader of science fiction or fantasy. I would read a good book through in no time at all because I wanted to know what happened next, then I would read it through again to take more of the detail.
I would never read a book of a film or tv show I had seen, but I would watch a film of a book I had read and I would read the book again before going so I could judge how true to the story it was. I've read Lord Of The Rings four times!
During my therapy (emdr) it was like a curtain came down on my ability to sit and read a book (a mental block I supose). At the time I was halfway through Olympus the sequel to Illium, it was a story I was enjoying when this suddenly happened.
This happened just over a year ago.
The book sits in my wardrobe with a marker in the page I had got up to, picking it up or even just looking at it makes me feel sad for something I've lost.
Nowadays I read motorbike magazines I read a small article at a time every now and then.

Jesta

 

[cragger65]

I too have a lot of trouble retaining what I've just read only a moment ago. It makes reading a novel tedious, and reading posts difficult to absorb fully. Plus the fact that, depending on what I'm reading, it can really trigger some crap in me, and then I've got to walk away, but I'm sure that's true for most of us.

 

[Salu]

Funny you should say that. When I was a kid I could read and read and read, it was no problem to do that for five or ten hours straif´ght if it was a good book, now I have trouble reading short stories without intrusive thoughts or or re-reading paragraphs.

 

[Blues in NYC]

I've always had trouble on and off with reading. I miss-self-diagnosed that I must be mildly dyslexic decades ago. But my "symptoms" of dyslexia never really fit. Instead, Blackemerald1's account is a spot on description of my own struggles with reading as well.

Some years, I've been able to read a lot though I am always a slow reader and tend to read for memory. In one semester of grad school alone I read somewhere around 5000 pages of philosophy of science material. The past few years, been lucky to slug through two books a year.

 

[liv now]

I used to read continually as a child. it was my escape. but as an adult I started to find it difficult to take in the words I read. like they were words with no meaning attached. Incidentally i found it difficult getting the right words out when I was talking too. Ihave noticed I have most difficulty when I am triggered or stressed. If life Is going well and I am feeling calm I read and speak well.

 

[Jagged Angel]

Rise with symptoms

I am currently a uni student, and I find that the worse my PTSD gets, the harder it is to read, and to type on the computer. Words get all mixed up and out of order. Even here on this forum, when I post, I need a spell-check to sort things out!

 

[Lisa]

Doing my degree was a flipping nightmare in this respect. Absolutely hell. Nothing else... just the concentration to read!

 

[miahowl]

I used to read ALOT - LOVED books. Now it takes me 6 months - 1 year to read one novel. The only thing I can seem to read is magazines and even that seems like a chore or I read and then realize I didn't absorb anything that I just read. It has obviously been progressive. It's not from lack of wanting.

 

[cat]

I used to read continuously for my job (teaching) but when I developed ptsd it was the so difficult to concentrate that I didn't read a book for 3 yrs.

Now I'm back at work I have to read many documents so I either make notes or use the information immediately as nothing sticks for longer than about an hour.

Other than that I only read magazines with short articles. i really miss being able to relax with a book, especially when I can't sleep.