Fighting The Stigma At Ground Level

[EveHarrington]

Oh, structured trauma recreation. I get it.

 

[DucatiGirl]

Oh, structured trauma recreation. I get it.

No, actually, simply learning BJJ. It's grounding, and builds confidence and self esteem. In addtion to the camaraderie and you learn trust and how to be present in the moment, and it's actually very zen -- it's a physical chess match. I think it'll be as good as yoga for me. The problem is what I fear most is being choked and bound and held from behind, which pretty much describes the sport. I'm not doing this for therapy -- I'm doing this for fun, with recovery team support (they're tired of me jumping out of airplanes and racing motorcycles and asked me to slow down ;) )

 

[scout86]

Great story, and very well done on your part. (Not so much the instructor at the first gym.) It DOES sound like it will be hard to choose between the new options, but it also sounds like you can hardly go wrong. :tup:

 

[DucatiGirl]

Thanks, @scout86 !

 

[EveHarrington]

To me it sounds like you're contradicting yourself as you state that it's going to recreate what you went through. I'm assuming you're referring to trauma but I guess my assumption was wrong. I guess I don't understand PTSD disclosure if it's not a recreation of the trauma you went through as it seems to me that trauma is irrelevant if it's a recreation of anything else.

 

[Changing4Best]

I'm glad you "did your homework" so to speak, and did it deeply. Good for you.

You have reminded me that the other day at our Senior Center, which I attend regularly, a nurse lecturer came to us and gave a lecture on PTSD! I felt it was time to disclose to everyone there that I have it, so I did, at the start of his lecture on the subject. There were about 20 people in the room when I did this.

During his lecture, the nurse asked me a few questions about my PTSD, like "At what age did your trauma occur?" and I answered "At ages 3-6." I forget what else he asked me, but they were really general questions and nothing personal or anything like that.

I've been attending that Center for about a year and a half and have many friends there. I felt it was a great opportunity to come out with my condition, also asking folks that if I ever displayed any of the symptoms this nurse were describing, to please call the number he gave us or to tell our Director (who was also listening to the lecture) what was happening to me, so that she could. I too am in remmission too, so the chances of it happening there are very slim, but you never know. Better to be safe than sorry.

The lecture was great and he went into combat PTSD as well as sexual assault and natural disasters and so on. He also gave us a flier.

I hope I did not derail your thread, but I just was reminded of this, so I thought I would share it. I hope you do really well in your classes. Let us know how it goes! @DucatiGirl.

 

[DucatiGirl]

Not at all, @SheilaKathy ! I think you showed great courage, and I love hearing stories like this! Your story didn't derail the thread but enhanced it. Thank you so much for sharing this. It definitely gives us the opportunity to start a discussion that is long overdue for some.

 

[DucatiGirl]

Update:

I decided to go with the first gym I visited, because every time I step in there I feel welcomed. I took my first Muay Thai class last night -- which is a very technical style of kickboxing -- and I learned more in that 90 minutes than I had in the six months I spent at the other gym. I met the other owner, who also couldn't have been nicer. I felt very much in over my head (the Muay Thai instructor is representing the USA national team in an upcoming tournament, and the other owner helped train several Olympians in judo and coached a local university to national championships), and a bit lost during the Muay Thai class but the students were SO nice to me. One of the competition level guys just jumped right in and started practicing with me -- he's there with an upcoming fight, and he stopped his training to help me.

Sometimes those challenges are simply to teach you strength, and courage. I will swallow my fears -- social anxiety, plain ol' anxiety, PTSD, embarrassment from being the new kid in a competition-level class -- and know this is going to work out for the best. Even if right now it's a bit overwhelming and scary! Back to class on Wednesday!

Thank you, everyone, for the encouragement!

 

[Deleted member 34328]

I cannot possibly like this enough, @DucatiGirl.

Thank you for sharing this.
Your t...

HUGE Pat on the back!!! I'm in recovery mode since my last exposure as well. Your courage and determination not to be run over is such a victory! Can't thank you enough for sharing. All the best!

 

[Ellabella44]

hopefully the third gym, the purple belt helps the instructor learn about ptsd and is able to help someone else because you started conversation on it.

good looking out for yourself and finding a better place for you when things seemed fishy.