How Long Have You Had Ptsd?

[chw52]

For me walls led to just what you are talking about. The walls i constructed at times caused me all kinds of trouble. My T told me when i first went that I had to stop that type of thinking. That was 3 years ago. I can be a slow learner sometimes.

My wife couldn't deal with my PTSD at all. The walls i constructed caused some of that. I couldn't begin to tell her how bad off i was until it was to late.

I hope you and he find some way to understand each other. Just do not give up on explaining your PTSD. I wanted to expain and couldn't. It haunts me to this day.

 

[Sandra]

I tend to keep things to myself too CHW52. Not often I open up to people. I do have one close net friend that is my rock and probably knows me better then anyone. I can talk to him about anything including sex. I still have some secrets I haven't told him but I wish to keep those to myself for good reasons.

 

[chw52]

Well that depends on the dream. I have a couple of dreams that will keep me in knots for days. My T and i have used EMDR with the really bad dreams. That has helped as well.

The dreams affect me in some bad ways sometimes. I dream of little kids dying, and i will shut down for days. This will be accompanied by the flashbacks, panic attacks, the smells even come back to me. That leads to not wanting to sleep, a vicious circle for me.

 

[Sandra]

It's strange I don't get dreams about my past. Sometimes I have scary dreams that will wake me up like when I was in a tiger's cage. Or stupid ones like I had last month about a baby elephant in my house that kept following me all over. :rolleyes:

 

[Harry6]

Sandra, I too have had thyroid issues. You did not mention what the thyroid issue might be.
I will guess it's something causing a hypothyroid situation - thyca, hashimoto.
I'll offer you a few thoughts on this:

1. Yahoo has a group for thyca where you can find a lot of very knowledgeable people. The information applies no matter how or why a person is hypo.

2. Thinking on what the targets should be for getting the "right" dose of thyroid medication has evolved quite a bit - many doctors have not caught up. You would do well to get ahead of that curve yourself.

3. If you are still having hypo symptoms even though your Lab reports are in a good range, consider cytomel.

4. See suggestion 1.

I have posted this off topic response here because I know that depression often comes with ptsd, and I also know that hypothyroid conditions are often not diagnosed and treated properly. A person with ptsd might falsely attribute all of there depression symptoms to the ptsd, when in fact some of it may be due to thyroid effects.

 

[Sandra]

I was hyper before my thyroidectomy and hypo afterwards. They removed 80% of the thyroid and 2 of the 4 parathyroids. And lets just say my Dr. isn't the greatest.

I have been on levothyroxine and rocaltrol for the parathyroids since the mid 80s when I had my surgery.

 

[Harry6]

Sorry to read of your 80% cut and lack of confidence in your doc. Even with Graves disease, 80% seems like a large cut to treat hyper, but of course I don't know what your situation was. You can find a lot of info about getting your synthroid, or whatever brand, dose right on the thyca forum. And as I said, you can find a lot about cytomel as well.

It can make a substantial change when these things are not right.

 

[Sandra]

Not all of my depression is caused by thyroid disease. I'm sure my very tragic past is no help either.

And changing Drs. isn't an option since there are already 50,000 in my city without a Dr.

Well lets just say when I was able to get into see the endocrinologist he said to me I'm surprised you lived to see this apt. As it was that progressed.

And we are getting off topic.

 

[Harry6]

Back on topic -
It is hard for me to say when ptsd kicked in. It wasn't all at once, and there was a long delay.
For a long time, I thought I was ok. Then it started to come on more and more. It kept getting worse and worse for some time.

 

[Sandra]

How many years have you been with the PTSD Harry6?

 

[Lionheart]

I was diagnosed with PTSD 22 years ago and I have probably had it a lot longer than that. I became disabled with it in late 1998. I have other illnesses besides PTSD and so I am still disabled, but my quality of life has improved with support, encouragement, therapy, medication etc. 14 years of therapy later, I am doing much better now than when I started. I am still disabled, but I have enjoyed a decrease in all of my symptoms, (both in the intensity and frequency).:)

 

[swreetpea86]

Lionheart its great to hear that through time you deal better I also am disabled Its been 7 years now and feel it can effect the depression associated with ptsd, ive also foundit has effected and started some other health issues. i empathise with you things are complex sometimes