Research How Is Your Story? Please Let Me Know.

[RosaHan]

Hello all,

My name is Rosa Han and I am a student of Parsons The school of Design in New York.
My senior project is about PTSD, I am doing research about PTSD after daily events such as car accident, divorce or domestic violence. However, there was a limit to gather informations from google. So, I am writing this post to listen to your story. Please help me!

Actually, I have struggled with PTSD after I got a car accident 4 years ago. I had flashback, bad dream, and agitation. (I did not visit a doctor's office to get diagnosed.) Most of them were gone naturally, I still feel anxiety when I get in a car.
After this, I have been interested with the psychological disorder so I decided to study the disease for my thesis project.
I will collect and use your opinions on my design project as references.

I really need your story.
It would be really helpful if your story is related to violence, vehicle accident or divorce.
If you are okay to share your story, please try to answer 6 questions in full sentences!



1. What event made you get PTSD? (Please explain it in detail)

2. Could you recognize the disorder yourself? And did you have any idea of the disorder
before you got?

3. Have you ever met psychology consultants / therapists to get diagnosed your symptoms?
(or to get treatments?)

4. If yes, how was your experience? (Before & After)

5. What kind of treatment did you get? and how long?

6. Was the treatment worked for you?



Thank you for reading this.
Please give me your opinion if you are okay.
I am waiting for your story.


Rosa

 

[RavenGirl]

I hate to sound paranoid, but how do any of us know who you really are, why you really want our info, and what you are really going to do with it? My story is very personal and I don't share it with just anyone for any reason.

 

[Chava]

First, there is such a thing as post traumatic stress and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They aren't the same either, and you very likely suffered post traumatic stress. The agitation does lessen over time. PTSD fundamentally rearranges the nervous system. For me:

1. Diagnosed after a rape. But later therapist treating for "complex" PTSD for earlier childhood trauma (medical, abuse)
2. No and no. I just thought I was crazy. I had symptoms that fell in line with some clear-cut disorders like anorexia and alcoholism, and more pressing issues of suicide attempts. It wasn't all put together until I started talking about some trauma. Before then, we were playing whack-a-mole for all these destructive symptoms and disorders. P.S. nobody should self-diagnose PTSD. Not helpful. If you would seriously have something like PTSD, you deserve a real consultation with a trauma-informed specialist (psychologist, psychiatrist).
3. Yes and yes.
4. First time...not helpful because the treatment option was just one creepy therapist and I didn't understand how a recent rape (at the time) explained all the previous years of trying to destroy myself.
5. On an off for a couple decades: hospitalizations for suicide attempts, alcoholism, anorexia. Recent years my weight has stabilized and I was mostly sober, so focusing on trauma-specific therapy.
6. Somatic Experiencing has been most helpful for me.

pps how does study of PTSD fit in with a senior project at Parsons?

 

[RosaHan]

I hate to sound paranoid, but how do any of us know who you really are, why you really want our info,...

Hi RavenGirl,
If you do not want to share your story, you do not need to do it.
I was very open to talk about myself before I started to talk about my project. As I said, I will make my design work. That's it.
(and I mentioned that opinions will be used as references only).
In addition, I began to research because I would like to know about how much people have PTSD after daily events and how much people ignore or do not recognize the disorder after the events.
The reason is that I used to ignore my symptoms and I had no ideas about PTSD.

 

[RosaHan]

First, there is such a thing as post traumatic stress and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. They aren't the...

Thank you for sharing your story , Shava! It is really helpful. :)
And thank you again for letting me know about my symptom.

 

[joeylittle]

Hello, @RosaHan - I've moved your thread into our studies and research category, since you are conducting a form of research.

We are naturally concerned about identity here, so you can expect members to ask questions about your project before they decide if they will help.

Am I correct in assuming that you hope to use this biographical information to inspire a design project?

Can you tell us whether anything you gather here would be reproduced for your project as text, for example: silk screening direct quotes, things of that nature?

Also, do you look to reproduce the text you gather here as part of the fulfillment of your project assignment?

All information on this site is the property of MyPTSD, and material may not be reproduced without permission, which you'd need to seek from @anthony (Anthony Parsons, site owner)

You can familiarize yourself with the rest of our legal policy here:
legal policy

 

[RosaHan]

Hello, @RosaHan - I've moved your thread into our studies and research category, s...

Hello @joeylittle,

I am gathering people's experiences but I will not use whole "biographical informations" into my design project.
(I did not collect other informations from MyPTSD. I just got one reply about my questions.)

If I use informations through my survey in this forum, I will use it as short sentences.
Also, I will probably reproduce informations in future but the informations are not going to be a big part of my project.
I will ask Anthony Parsons before I reproduce & use informations. Thank you for letting me know.

 

[anthony]

You do not have permission to use, replicate, or any other such use of content posted here, as per the legal policy of this website.

If you wish to gather study data, you need to gather such responses from participating persons away from this site. Anything you use from this site will put you in breach of copyright ownership.

 

[Tinyflame]

You will know from google @RosaHan that ptsd doesn't originate from divorce per se, & is different from post traumatic stress. It also does not resolve itself.

How does it fit in to a Design School program?

 

[Recovery4Me]

Wow... people's pain girted by the sash of design ...how vogue.

Welcome to the site.

 

[shimmerz]

Many of us have been repeatedly traumatized and cannot put into one post what happened to have us suffer from PTSD. Many of our diaries are thousands of posts long....

 

[xraydave]

1. What event made you get PTSD? (Please explain it in detail)

Sexual abuse as a child and something like a waterboarding incident, somewhere. Also, psychological manipulation/abuse/neglect and physical abuse by two of four family members (one of the two, or both have numerous personality disorder traits, such as narcissistic personality disorder). The latter events were after the initial, and possibly elevated the earlier forms of abuse.

2. Could you recognize the disorder yourself? And did you have any idea of the disorder
before you got?
Not at all. i thought i was mad, and that there was generally just 'something wrong with me'. but yes i had an idea of the disorder, PTSD people are generally very quite, like myself, and very withdrawn. They are avoidant and have anxiety/anger/irritation traits, which may or may not be relevant to a given situation. Also I noticed I would get really aggressive/violent at unnecessary times (sometimes even with strangers i have cursed and essentially broken down), or on the other end, dissociating completely, and that i tied in with being reminded of an abusive event in some way.

3. Have you ever met psychology consultants / therapists to get diagnosed your symptoms?
(or to get treatments?)

Multiple psychologists and psychiatrists. a clinical psych says i definitely have ptsd, and a psychitric doctor agrees, but is testing me tomorrow. i already have a diagnosed anxiety disorder, so it's not a great a leap to get diagnosed (treatment is similar). (i have already done many questionnaires, etc and they came back with high scores, I am certain they will give me the same stuff tomorrow anyway)

4. If yes, how was your experience? (Before & After)

before approaching a psychologist, the trauma i remember led to dissociative experiences, meaning i felt outside my body, and really detached from the social sphere of friends. i also had a lot of OCD which i felt was 'painful', and a lot of psychosomatic physical paining, which sorta added to a cluster of symptoms. as soon as i got more of these 'experiences' out there, it started to get better, the paining, and even, the ocd thoughts,etc

5. What kind of treatment did you get? and how long?

So far I am still in treatment for the same anxiety that i've always been suffering from. The treatment worked for a year, and then i relapsed, possibly because the underlying disorder was actually PTSD . I'm in treatment processes again, but it was generally CBT driven (challenge unhelpful thoughts), and Mindfulness based therapy.

So this is going to be more than 2+ years to be frank. I also used the CBT again for traumatic experiences, and it helped cleared a lot of things up, i stopped doing a lot of PTSD things, and i've become more social than i was before, and i feel like i am in less physical pain. however, I don't think I am going to be 'treated' after just being diagnosed.

6. Was the treatment worked for you?

working* (sorry lol)

so basically, CBT works like if i commit myself to it. the trouble is finding the time to do the challenging. however, so far it's worked. it's been very off and on, and sometimes i catch myself going into the same cycles, but the tip is to see it for what it is, and move on again.

opening up experiences, and talking about these things, has even helped making me understand the way it influences my behaviours, and therapy has made me to stop denying myself, and just live a little. so i guess therapy alongside, my own acquired therapy strategies, are helping.