New here, and already posted a thread in the Discussions forum.
I'll introduce myself, I was diagnosed with PTSD right after my 30th birthday. I had been in a pretty violent marriage, and then witnessed my mother's death while I was getting out of the marriage. It was definitely not a great time in my life. I was actually diagnosed with PTSD after my domestic violence abuse victim counselor sent me to be tested for PTSD. I didn't have any symptoms when everything had first happened, the whole fight or flight thing, and I had been in charge of taking care of the family matters with my mother's death. Didn't have time to grieve at first because I didn't have much downtime and people were relying on me to be the strong one.
But like a couple years later, I was having sudden panic attacks and throwing up at work for no reason. I would get worried about silly things to the point where I felt frozen in place. The number of times I had to leave a place because I felt like my skin was crawling from anxiety was increasing too.
I've been in therapy for years, have a therapy dog now, and made a major overhaul of change in my life a few years ago. I moved cross country from the town I had lived my entire life but was full of terrible memories and wasn't helping me heal. I didn't have a happy family life, or supportive people, and that was causing a lot of issues. Now I only surround myself with caring & supportive friends, and was remarried to a really wonderful guy who is understanding and patient with me. My friends are really great, they know I've been through some stuff, and my closest friend of 20 years was there for me through everything and that was a huge help through the healing process. I don't really have contact with my immediate family anymore because they making the panic worse. My mother had taken her own life and I didn't get there in time to stop her, and my father really didn't make things easier. And with my ex husband, I am from a strictly Catholic family, and they were very angry when I got divorced because I was expected to "obey" my husband even though he was hurting me and they all knew. I've realized now "family" doesn't have to be blood related.
I still have issues with panic attacks, although they are mild now and few and far between, but what I mostly deal with is nausea from anxiety. I worry a lot now where as I didn't use to. But all in all, I'm tons better. There was a good year before I moved where I rarely left my house. I would get physically ill and lightheaded just going to the store because my anxiety would hit me all at once. Now I work on distractions from the anxiety and live a fairly normal life. It was just weird, because I've been active my entire life, and then all of a sudden I was living in fear constantly and my body wasn't letting me enjoy myself.
Anyway, glad to be here, and hope that maybe I can help someone like me by sharing my experiences.
I'll introduce myself, I was diagnosed with PTSD right after my 30th birthday. I had been in a pretty violent marriage, and then witnessed my mother's death while I was getting out of the marriage. It was definitely not a great time in my life. I was actually diagnosed with PTSD after my domestic violence abuse victim counselor sent me to be tested for PTSD. I didn't have any symptoms when everything had first happened, the whole fight or flight thing, and I had been in charge of taking care of the family matters with my mother's death. Didn't have time to grieve at first because I didn't have much downtime and people were relying on me to be the strong one.
But like a couple years later, I was having sudden panic attacks and throwing up at work for no reason. I would get worried about silly things to the point where I felt frozen in place. The number of times I had to leave a place because I felt like my skin was crawling from anxiety was increasing too.
I've been in therapy for years, have a therapy dog now, and made a major overhaul of change in my life a few years ago. I moved cross country from the town I had lived my entire life but was full of terrible memories and wasn't helping me heal. I didn't have a happy family life, or supportive people, and that was causing a lot of issues. Now I only surround myself with caring & supportive friends, and was remarried to a really wonderful guy who is understanding and patient with me. My friends are really great, they know I've been through some stuff, and my closest friend of 20 years was there for me through everything and that was a huge help through the healing process. I don't really have contact with my immediate family anymore because they making the panic worse. My mother had taken her own life and I didn't get there in time to stop her, and my father really didn't make things easier. And with my ex husband, I am from a strictly Catholic family, and they were very angry when I got divorced because I was expected to "obey" my husband even though he was hurting me and they all knew. I've realized now "family" doesn't have to be blood related.
I still have issues with panic attacks, although they are mild now and few and far between, but what I mostly deal with is nausea from anxiety. I worry a lot now where as I didn't use to. But all in all, I'm tons better. There was a good year before I moved where I rarely left my house. I would get physically ill and lightheaded just going to the store because my anxiety would hit me all at once. Now I work on distractions from the anxiety and live a fairly normal life. It was just weird, because I've been active my entire life, and then all of a sudden I was living in fear constantly and my body wasn't letting me enjoy myself.
Anyway, glad to be here, and hope that maybe I can help someone like me by sharing my experiences.
