How Can Ptsd Effect Work/ School?

[brandnewquiet]

I just found out I was diagnosed with PTSD yesterday-- though apparently it has been my diagnosis for a while (wonder why I never knew?)

Upon hearing this, I totally panicked. I have no idea what PTSD really means in regards to how it effects your life, how to cope with it, how/if it can be overcome, what limitations I will have.

Even though logically I know I am still the same person I was before I found this out, with the goals and everything I had-- I totally freaked out. It has taken me a long time to get through college (almost 7 years) because I've had to take a lot of time off to deal with the abuse I've suffered as a child (had never dealt with it until I went to college). Now I'm wondering if I'm always going need to take "breaks" like that. My goal was to be a lobbyist and eventually a politician and I am terrified that this means I'm not capable of something like that.

Please help! I have no idea what this means/how to understand it... and it makes it so much worse to take it like a terminal sentence.

 

[Heather]

Listen, you were functioning with it all along. Why let a label stop you now. You are no different than you were yesterday just because you now have a diagnosis.

You still graduated from college. That is AWESOME. Be PROUD OF YOUR ACCOMPLISHMENTS. Your goals are still ATTAINABLE. Nothing stands in your way. Do NOT psych yourself out. You will be doing yourself a great disservice. It may take you a little bit longer but so what. Each person is unique. It took my therapist almost as long as you to get his degree. That's because the dink kept changing majors but he DID it. And you CAN too.

DON'T hold yourself back because of a diagnosis. Like I said, you are NO different today than you were yesterday. You are the EXACT SAME PERSON. Still as capable as ever.

Have faith in youself and your abilities. YOU CAN DO ANYTHING. YOU ALREADY HAVE. BELIEVE IN YOU.

HUGS. Heather

 

[The Albatross]

I developed ADD/ADHD type symptoms and test anxiety... I froze during midterms and finals even though I knew the material. It just wouldn't come and I couldn't put it on paper. One college instructor recognized it when I tried one time to go back. But he didn't have an answer, he gave me a private test, but 75% of the score was a drawing I froze on and he gave me a D. I blew my 4.0 average. I never went back.

At work it manifested in "low frustration tolerance" for me. But I'm learning how to deal with that now too.

Don't be like me. We can learn to cope, we can learn to maximize the odds, we can beat it... it is not necessarily a "life sentence". My experience is that limitations are transitory... sometimes I'm okay for a while then one word, and I'm back in it. But I'm generally better than I was when I started this unfortunate adventure.

 

[livergirl70]

I've been promoted since having PTSD so I don't think it holds you back, you just have to make the most of your abilities during your "up" days so that when you have a down day people know that it is just a "blip"

 

[Powder]

Hi, wow, when I read your post, it was like I wrote that 8-10 years ago. And largly I can still understand what you wrote. I took a little longer to do college and took "breaks." The way I see it now that I'm older is that I burned the candle at both ends until I faced "burnout" and then needed down time to recover and gear up for another big push. Having kids and a full time job (with PTSD) has taught me the necessity to pace myself. It just took longer for me to learn because the PTSD was a distraction from my emotions. I think that PTSD tends to "blind" me to my true feelings/emotions such that my objectivity can, at times, be somewhat compromised; however, I do still seem, like you, to have a strong hold on my ambitions and true needs.

Don't ever accept a label as something that defines you. One professor once said of nationality/ethnicity: "We are more than just that," and I have realized that this applies to EVERYTHING about us. No one thing defines us. Life is about learning that and in refining our own self-definition process which I believe is very special. PTSD is like adding a spice to a very complex and drawn out recipie on the stove; there is much more going into that pot, so don't freak out about one spice.

You will not always need breaks if you refine your ability to pace and love yourself more. Examine your priorities and expectations as you go, and don't be afraid to be imperfect. Mistakes are how we learn; think of the breaks as also a learning tool.[/quote]

 

[TonyG]

For me not much has changed I still do my job I just know why I feel like I do