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Hi This Is A Bit About Me...

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Mythor20

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Hello everyone here on this site, obviously I am new here, I am here because I need a bit of help with some issues I have.

Otherwise I am employed and just want a better life for myself, I have issues which are holding me back. I need advice and guidance as the professional help is out of my financial grasp as I have no medical insurance and not a great paying job either , I have also had a few bad experiences with some psychologists in the past so...
 
I turned 40 a few months ago and am quite disapointed with my life to say the least. I have stopped smoking ciggies for about 3 months now. I had smoked ciggies since I was 18, 20 years or so.

Only once I stopped smoking did I go crazy, well, the Zyban helped the craziness come out of me and what I mean by craziness are issues that I have not dealt with. I had to quit the Zyban after a short 3 weeks because it also made me as angry as hell, I nearly lost my job, had to apologise to a client although he was in the wrong but.... I also kicked my car door panel in at the time, one day I also gave up in life and shouted "this is the end, I have had enough"!

Quitting smoking was extremely easy, going mad was the order of the day!

I grew up in a disfunctional jewish family, my father is a holocaust survivor, he was normally angry and moody and we (other older brother left remaining in the house, others had moved out ) used to scatter when he arrived home from work. I am the youngest with a 15 year gap between myself and my oldest darling brother who now lives far away on another continent.

My dad was in various camps between the ages of 9 and 13 or so, he did his best but unfortunately did not acknowledge that he was disturbed from it and never got treatment.

I am now in a worse position than him, I have no family of my own, I am living in the old family home thanks to drug abuse over the last 14 years or so. I have quit the dagga for three weeks now and had been smoking it regularly for about 19 years. I am now clean.

I have never been sexually abused as far as I can remember, I went to drug rehab in 2000 and was one of three voted most likely to get off the drugs.

I cannot deal with confrontations, I begin to shake, tremble at least. When I had physical altercations with my dad I used to see white.

I could not concentrate in school, did not do very well. I had 3 older brothers and I was kinda left to my own devices. My late mom was a real sweetheart, never harmed a fly and always gave to charity, she battled with cancer for the last 15 years of her life and passed about 8 years ago. I have not dealt with her passing either.

When I am terribly sad and start to cry I cannot, I get to the point where my skin flutters but then it all goes away, I mention this because I hear that crying is good for a person. This makes me angry and frustrated at the time.

I also have a memory of an elephant when it comes to all the bad things that happened in my life, I always refer/think back to all the bad times and bad decisions and occurances in my past, it seems I allow it to determine my future!

I have had a few bad experiences with some healthcare professionals in the past, I don't really know why...

I eventually found quite a good psychologist but she was to angry and was doing to me what others had done to me in my past so I ran away from her, what a pity, she might have been on the right track. She seemed to be more capable with the ladies than men, it came across that she had issues with men. I had a session with her when she started shouting at me when I said something that brought something up in her!

I don't know how much I must write here, let me stop for now and see what you guys have to say as I could write my whole life story which will be quite long...

I would really appreciate all the help I can get, I need to come right and feel if I don't come right in a year or so I must start heroin or something to end my life and give it up!
 
Welcome to the forum Mythor20. I can relate to part of your story, my parents and family also survived WWII, not as jewish people though. So the behavior you described rang a bell for me. It was through my GP who pushed in the health system for me to have a psychiatrist so that I could finally be well diagnosed. My psychologist was doing her best, but I couldn't get my diagnosis as she was not legally allowed to do so (Canada / Quebec). With the proper follow-up, therapy and well balanced meds, I can finally cope with the symptoms. Hope this will give you some help.
 
Welcome to the forum Mythor20!

Congrats on becoming clean! I would definitely suggest finding a mental health care provider with whom you click. That is probably the most important thing for success in therapy or medical treatment of any kind. It may well require some interviewing of different providers. I know it can be hard, but it is necessary to receive an appropriate diagnosis and treatment plan.

Your story definitely includes significant amounts of trauma which some intense therapy work could help you process.

Good luck on your journey!
 
Thanks Froggie and Deaf Global Nomad for the good kind words. I wish I didn't have to waste so much money going through these therapists, they charge an awful lot! I do realise that my life left is very precious...

I am looking for another job which has medical insurance available or at worst will see a therapist once or twice a month depending on affordability. Nobody (therapists) does charity work at all or gives discounts ( one only) who I have dealt with. Strange hey?

Unfortunately some of the therapists I have seen on one occasion or not at all have come across as money grabbing and don't care about their patients, this is my opinion and experience, I do not want to spend about $100 in US currency on these charlatans! This is about 10% of my monthly pay!

I need to find out another way to find a decent therapist/s before throwing my very hard earned money away again!
 
Nobody want to comment, I don't bite but I am being totally honest, I have had several bad experiences out there...

Why is it that non graduates and/or non healthcare practitioners are expected to do charity work but the psychologists flatly refuse, please can somebody explain?

Out of 5 therapists, one offered me a 15-20% discount, thank you very much to this therapist!
 
Hi Mythor,

I am so sorry that you cannot access the help you so clearly strive for. I am lucky to be in the UK where it is all free ( on the NHS) so I have no words of wisdom for you.

Congratulations on the positive changes that you have made in your life. That is no mean feat!

Regards
Lucy x
 
I'm sorry you can't get any therapy. I too, have at times wanted to get help, but couldn't afford it. Then, as in your case it's a matter of finding the right person that can help you.

It's great that you are clean. I'm sure it's been a rough road. You have a lot of issues to deal with from your past.

Since you have to do it the cheap route, there may be some things you can do besides this wonderful forum that will help you. Some have been helped by journaling, it has really helped me. Find some kind of outlet for your emotions.

I went through an anger phase in my 40's where I had to process some anger from my past. It's just the emotion I had to go through. I tended to listen to songs that expressed similar emotions that I felt. They were just rock type of songs. I think it helped me though. That took a few years, but it helped. I just had to let it out somehow.

Find something positive also like simply reading poetry or the Bible, enjoying nature, looking at art, whatever inspires you and makes you love life a bit more.

Finally, another really good thing is just simply leading a healthy lifestyle by eating right. Walking is very therapeutic for me and doing some stretching.

You may be already doing these things, I don't know. I hope though that you appreciate how great it is that you are clean. I don't know much about it, but just from what I've heard is that sometimes people use substances to numb their feelings.

If that is the case, it may be hard for you to bring up painful memories and be able to cope with them. So only do what you can in opening up yourself to those memories. You don't want to do too much that may cause you to become too weak emotionally.
 
Howzit.... Welcome to the forum. Your words ring true. Knowing you are in JHB there is alot of stigma against mental health. I ended up in Tara as a teenager and was not really treated for anything in paticular. Congrats on the dagga stopping and the big one quitting smoking. Being brought up in South Africa in the 70-s and 80's I am sure there are many stories one could tell. I know no longer living there that the tightness of the community can have both good and bad affects on a person. We were brought up in a very stern school enviroment. Anyway I guess I have gotton completly off track.
Welcome to the forum. Just know we are here to support each other and that you are no longer alone.

Cheers.
NH
 
Belated but welcome Mythor20. Funny thing you mentioned seeing white... It triggered off a memory for me... I would see black with multicolored spots. I really hadn't thought about it for many many years... til I was reading your intro. I don't think I do that anymore now though. Lots of support here... lots of great people here with a wide variety of experiences.
 
Thank you Albatross, my current problem folks is that I am to clever to be happy and to dumb to be successful, does this make sense?

How do I block out reality, this sounds srange but I am talking about reality that I cannot change, reality that is not dream't up but surrounding me in my life day to day? Perhaps I need to repeat the serenity prayer everytime I have thoughts based on reality?

I have long since forgotten this prayer, last drug rehab was in 2000. It went like "G-d, grant me the ......", I can check the Narcotics Anonymous pages for it and will post it unless someone beats me to it.

Have you folks any better advice? It is fact that I live in a sad extremely corrupt violent place here in South Africa where it is very slowly decaying into what has become of Zimbabwe, no, I cannot leave as I am not able to at this stage. Financially and foreign residency wise... unless I move to Israel but that I cannot even go into right now!
 
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