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

[Deleted member 29899]

If I KNEW that if never 'recover', I can guarantee that I would not be here. But even if I could manage the symptoms that would make life worth it. If I answered no to this.... Well, let's not go there.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

I answered "no" awhile ago. And while I'm a million times better than I ever thought I'd be, I know that I will likely have one symptom or another for life, and while I may go through periods of remission, I can't ever be off my guard in watching out for a spike in symptoms. I don't think I'd ever be fully recovered or "cured" because then I'd be fine with not watching my stress level, I'd be fine with not worrying about things which will stress me and I would do whatever I want without a care as to how it would stress my system. The truth is that I will have to monitor symptoms for life. I will always require a higher level of self care than if I was never traumatized. In this sense, I will never be restored to a non-trauma state. This is with me for life, but that doesn't mean I won't have long periods of remission (I hope). It would sort of be the same as someone who's diabetes has gone into remission but then thinks they can eat anything they want and the diabetes won't come back. Well, it doesn't exactly work this way. Our systems are already messed up in that we have something that made us susceptible to PTSD. This factor will never disappear, and it will forever make us susceptible to a relapse.

 

[hodge]

I think your comment makes a lot of sense, itsKismet. Also your analogy. My mother and other family members have juvenile diabetes and have to manage it all their lives. I think PTSD is like that. I believe in my gut that it has become a physical problem, even though there may not be research to show it yet. I know my brain has changed from what it used to be like. Anyway, yes, I have to always plan my activities so I don't overload myself . . . even going to lunch with a friend can overload me. So my ideal week has like one external social activity. This week, unfortunately, has been too much, three social activities plus therapy -- way too much.

 

[Mercy]

I am reminded of an incident that happened 5 or 6 years ago. I was in the hospital just after I had been returned to my room after surgery to place metal bars and screws to put my ankle together. Scraping nerve tissue off the bone in prep for the metal bars is evidently very painful so I was sleeping deeply from morphine, that is my forebrain was sleeping. I heard the command, 'Hit the Dirt'. I reacted immediately and dove off the bed, cast, Ivs and all. I slid as far as I could with the forward momentum of the dive. Purely Amygdala memory and instructions for action in a split second. There was no emergency. Someone was watching a war movie on the TV. My forebrain would have known that and stopped any reaction in action.

This has proved to me that even after 20yrs. of therapy I am still subject to what my Amygdala does. Sorry age doesn't make any difference....unless Alzheimers can deteriorate the Amygdala first. I wonder if that would be good or more chaotic.