Poll Do You See An End To The Symptoms In Your Life?

[OhSoLittleMouse]

I believe it something I will carry for the rest of my days, but what I do look forward to is learning how to master the emotional symptoms, so that my response me doesn't hit a 10, but hits a 3.

 

[Leda]

I felt that I had to answer YES to this poll. Mostly because theese last months my nigthmares has dissapeared. I do have a lot of other problems - but the "loss" of my nigthmares give me hope.

But - I believe that PTSD is going to be a part of me for the rest of my life. Still I sinerely hope that it will become more and more easy to cope with.

 

[Mercy]

No. I do not see an end to my symptoms. The trauma is permanently hard-wired in my brain. I do see, through trigger management and learning to separate the past as in flashbacks from the present, as a strategy to try to limit the symptoms.

Honesty compels me to remind folks of this little illustration. Imagine you were small 6 or 7 and every Saturday you made cookies with your (good) mother. You got to put the chocolate chips in and clean out the bowl with your fingers. When they were done and cooled, you both took them over to the oldfolks home to visit you grandmother. Ever after that as a grown up, whenever you smell chocolate cookies baking, you can close your eyes and remember everything about those days, what apron your mother wore, what the kitchen curtains looked like, what the bowl was like. Those images come unbidden from your memory.

Traumatic memory is much the same only carved much deeper into our beings.

Symptom free-no-not possible. A better life with management, yes, some times, sometimes not..

 

[Dylan]

For me, this thing is almost like a disease. With a great deal of work, I can create a remission. I even have periods of time, when I'm doing really well, where I have almost NO symptoms.

Unfortunately, I'm not wholly in charge of this thing, it being so much about the limbic system and survival. So, there are times when they, the symptoms, come surging back.

I don't think it's possible for 100% removal of symptoms, for good and all.

 

[SammyKline]

my answer is yes, even though i do not really feel it. i do believe in the power of the mind and positive declarations. i believe in hope and visualization and talking yourself into new realities.

i also have periods of near total relief of my symptoms, and so for me the idea is now to get this phase of myself to "stick" and not slip backwards.

i do also believe on a purely practical level that the condition can be cured, and as a society we are held back (meaning- insufficient clinical attention and funding) all in a kind of collective, cyclical abuse pattern (think: war machine, poverty, poor education, systemic neglect, self-hate, guilt, poor parenting, addicted to addictions, destroyers of the environment, collective narcissism.. cruel and unusual criminal justice system etc) and so it makes it that much harder for individuals to see outside of the meta pattern to their own healing.

i wonder too about the patterns of PTSD and recovery in different countries and historically...

also i have been referred to a doctor who apparently has an 87% cure rate with ptsd, (psychotherapy, hypnotherapy) and while i have not seen him (yet?), i am thinking about it. he is half way around the world though

when all is said and done i am positive in my conscious waking and intellectual mind but still sloshing around in the bad patterns and memories and messages that operate in my subconscious.

 

[cragger65]

I like your take Sammy. I'm also fascinated about the "meta patterns" of healing. My pattern seems to be circles within larger circles. Does this make sense?

 

[SammyKline]

i think so!

i actually reread this post and was considering how my lack of sleep last night was effecting what i was writing. a couple of those paragraphs are pretty much scrabbled.

anyway i think trying to draw out one's symptoms or patterns of thinking would be very instructive. especially as they happen in crisis mode (er, somehow) perhaps..

for example in a panic attack there are well defined circuits or initial nervous reactions to something (physical or emotional stimuli) -i think??- and then a secondary wave of reactions to the reactions and yeah the whole thing seems to loop and loop and then burn itself out.

i could see this as an animation of sorts. or represented with concentric waves or oscillations of sound.

i think biofeedback works this way.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Biofeedback_EN.gif

 

[whitewillow312]

No, I know I will be dealilng with this for the rest of my life. Things may get better but it will always be there.

 

[LovinHim]

No... I'm happy and my episodes are few and far between... but they'll always be there.

 

[satara]

I sadly and honestly had to say 'no'
I wanted to say 'yes' for I had a few years of totally symptoms free but recently it showed me how quickly it returned with the right conditions.
All the old triggers were waiting for me to muck up my life.

Soo life can't guarantee me a perfect life and hence I can't guarantee me a triggerless life.
BUT I can work on watching myself and the triggers and accept and put myself back on track as soon as possible and know it is possible to return there.

Its like tasting ice cream when you have been in the desert for months.
you want to taste it again.

smile

 

[Mahtalat]

Yes I do see an end to it. Now as for...do I see an end to the symptoms of 'life'...Not in 'Life' not with the plague of 'the cycle of abuse' running around affecting people with wars domestic and worldwide. But in my life, with my 'pain', I see an end, in the sense of healing and growing until I've finished living. That's not in a morbid way though. At least...I need to believe/hope that, otherwise what would I have to look forward to? Nothing much I'd think :).

 

[Anne9]

I think my symptoms will continue to subside, but I have a horrible feeling that certain situations will always be a trigger. My body betrays me. I unfortunately continue to work for the person that caused the disorder, and will for the forseeable future. Thanks for listening!