Do You Have PTSD?

[a3a2]

a3a2

You nailed it for me, too, She-cat. I was relieved. I always knew something was wrong and poured all my energy into hiding the symptoms. Denial still pops up once in awhile, though.

 

[cat]

For me diagnosis came as a relief, I had reached the stage where I felt I was just losing it without knowing why. I am also 53 & divorced two years ago so other people assumed (and still do!) it's the menopause or I'm just not coming to terms with divorce. Like manic I tend to tell people I have a stress problem or anxiety.

The thing I do struggle with is explaining why I've got it. When I start saying words like domestic violence & abuse most people recoil & don't know what to say which leaves me feeling like I shouldn't talk about it. Maybe if society accepted these things do happen there wouldn't be so many of us who feel we have to hide it.

 

[milagra]

Me and PTSD

I am 21yr old with PTSD, coming to the realization and accepting it was a different story becuase there were so many misconspetions about it... However, I have learned to accept and am in the process of learning to cope with it. Accepting was hard because I felt people would judge me or think I was crazy, but now I'm just like this is me, take it or leave it.

I suffer from severe flashbacks and nightmares of my 15yrs of abuse almost all during the day. One moment I'm fine and the next moment I'm in a ball somewhere. I am also hypervigilant or for other words, I'm always on guard. People don't understand this and find it quite amusing, but I don't. It really frustrates me to no end.

Need advice, Milagra

 

[philostam]

I want to have PTSD!

She-Cat is right. If you hadn't known for long what the heck is wrong with you, and you had been misdiagnosed, treated as a "f-ed up kid", as a born to be borderline/ADHD/bipolar, then the diagnosis of PTSD is a relieve. Anthony often claims that PTSD is physically the worst anxiety disorder, it may be true (because its cause is the harsher kind of trauma with so heavy physical pain that it doesn't even shape to emotions); but psychologically, in the way you deal with yourself as a sufferer, it's much easier. I call it "brain sickness" rather than "mental illness", or to put it clearly: you are not crazy.

I don't know if I have PTSD, but I want to have PTSD, after the years of the terrible fear, that I'm simply insane, crazy. I may go crazy with PTSD either, but I know that it has a real cause: the trauma.

 

[anthony]

I completely understand the desire to want too know... actually quite normal. It is harder not knowing IMHO than it is knowing. When you have an accurate idea within your brain, atleast you know what you are working with vs. taking a guess and hoping for the best. I fully understand that.

 

[PTSD and Me]

I was initially dxed with Bipolar disorder when I had a stress breakdown. The minute the doctor said Bipolar, my response was, "I'm not Bipolar." For 8 months through toxic medications, short term disability, embarrassment and humilation, sometimes when I couldn't see from being overmedicated, all I could say before I passed out was, "I'm not Bipolar."

When I was finally hospitalized and the new doctor's started taking me off of the combination of drugs that had cost me all of my executive functioning, one of them said, "Has anyone ever talked to you about Post Traumatic Stress?" and everything clicked into place for me. The bloody nightmares from which I would wake up screaming, the certainty out of nowhere that someone I loved was dead, the anxiety and panic attacks... it all made sense. I was relieved beyond words.

When I got out I couldn't wait to face everyone who had insisted that I should just admit I was Bipolar and finally add on to mny earlier statement, "I'm not Bipolar; I have PTSD!" I guess it's all a matter of the framework it's presented to us in. For me, "I have PTSD," was a welcome change from where I had been.