Hmmm, Where To Start.

[VentiLatte]

Hi guys,

I am new to this site....I'm not even sure this is where I should be... but hi anyway!

To cut a long story short, 18 months ago (28th Dec 2014 10.15am to be exact), everything was going great- life in general was smooth sailing. That was, until my dog turned into Cujo. Someone had shown up at our door to collect an ebay item we had just sold & somehow my dog got spooked. I was on the couch, then all of a sudden he bit my face- quick and swift, and it was BAD. I remember rushing to the bathroom and thinking "OH SH*T, this is NOT good"- but my brain has erased the image from my head. He took 1/3 of my top lip off, plus a chunk of area above my lip- I guess what you'd classify as my cheek. A big gaping hole, my husband said the image is burnt into his memory, you could see my teeth through the hole. Nightmare. It was one quick sudden bite that unfortunately had terrible consequences. I went to the ER and had a very ugly skin graft placed over the hole, from the back of my ear. Mismatched, sunken, raised around the edges, lumpy. My hospital stay was a very negative experience ( I guess it was never going to be a pleasant one when I went in for a dog bite on my face!). Since then, I have suffered terribly with being outside my home- in fact, I only go out for plastic surgeon's appointments (even then, I have my head down and a bandage on my face- no eye contact what-so-ever). I have very vivid dreams of my dog biting my face, I can't look in the mirror, I have distanced myself from family and friends, I do not work, socialize, I don't find pleasure in anything at all anymore. I basically am only just existing (and only *JUST* doing that). Being that I hate leaving the house and having contact with people, I have delayed counseling....and in my head I keep thinking I need to get my face improved for my mental well being to follow suit.

Has anyone had any good experiences with online counseling, or is it something you feel really should be "face to face?". I feel my life plummeting out of control, like a bad movie (maybe speed 2 would be a good comparison;)).

Thanks to those who have taken the time to read this, I'm kind of feeling like I'm a lost cause.

PS: That was NOT cutting a long story short....maybe making a short story long? :joyful:

 

[mrsps]

I am so sorry to hear what you have been through. Sounds like life is tough for you know and I totally understand not wanting to leave the house.
I think one on one therapy would be best and a therapist isn't going to judge you on your appearance. I am wondering if you can have contact with a therapist over the phone first to explain your situation and the fact you don't want to leave the house as you don't want people to look at you. If you explained what happened first before they saw you, do you think that would help?
You are not a lost cause! But you do need to talk to someone to work through what you have been through.
take care

 

[Seasounds]

Welcome! Sorry you had to go through so much. Hope you find much support here.

You might explore finding therapists who would work with you, however you are comfortable. Any therapeutic relationship is better than none, and working at your comfort level may be a nice place to start. Maybe the relationship would eventually lead to in person therapy.

 

[EveHarrington]

:hug:

I think that many of us find the need for more than one therapist on our healing journey as our needs changed.

Perhaps right now online therapy would be the best for you. And then when you need to do therapy such as EMDR (for example) to process your trauma, you move on and find an in person therapist.

It doesn't have to be a one or the other kind of thing. Figure out what suits your needs right now and start with that.

 

[joeylittle]

Agreed with all that it's going to be a process - but I might disagree in that with a single, isolated trauma, the sooner you get to processing it, the better your prognosis all around.

(Unless you have other trauma history, that you didn't mention here).

You would probably be an excellent candidate for EMDR, and could focus your search that way. It's not something to do on-line, but it will probably help you out. You could also research Prolonged Exposure (PE) therapy, which essentially involves telling and re-telling the trauma event until it no longer affects you. It's considered by some critics to cause re-traumatization, but it is something that works. (So is EMDR).

I'm sorry to hear what happened, and want to encourage you to start working on it (it being the memory of the trauma event) as soon as you can manage.

Your relationship to the injury, and the scarring, is likely to be a bit more slow-going; but I suspect that will be easier to tackle once you aren't having to manage intense memories of the event itself.

 

[VentiLatte]

Thank you so much for everyone's replies/advice. Much appreciated.