"most people recover from ptsd"...

[Suzetig]

Research shows that the majority of people do heal from PTSD, mostly without therapy. If you consider the diagnostic criteria says that symptoms last more than a month, that’s actually pretty quick in terms of response post trauma and most people 3-6 months down the line do recover well. I don’t have time just now but I’ll try to find more recent research.

It’s worth remembering that the people here aren’t typical of PTSD sufferers in that we usually look for support because of being very debilitated, which means there’s a concentration here of people at the extreme end of PTSD who may always struggle with symptoms. There are many, many people who don’t and who do by all clinical accounts recover. It doesn’t mean their trauma was less, or I’m not doing healing “properly”, just that different people experience things differently and recover differently.

I think that’s different from being the same post-trauma as I was pre-trauma. I’m a different person now, I can’t not have those experiences - they’ve made me the person I am now.

 

[Friday]

I recovered once. For over 10 years, I was as normal as normal gets. Sure I had a few bad nightmares a year, and a panic attack once every few years. Whatever. Symptoms so low as to be undiagnoseable. That’s following 5 years of being practically feral, and symptomatic off the fawking charts. Things were hard, for a long time. Things got better. For an even longer time.

THIS TIME? Things are hard, again, but I know why. And I know that I did it once, I can do it again. Get squared away. Get symtoms sorted and manageable as f*ck.

I liken PTSD a lot to diabetes an awful lot. Always have it, but once it’s managed? It’s cake. Okay... maybe a bad choice of words, there, but the idea stands. Managed, but sometimes things flare up again. Hell, maybe because cake. Maybe just because it’s tuesday. Maybe because of new trauma & loss of coping mechanisms. But face what’s going on, & get shit sorted again. Its just what we do. Whether it’s diabetes or PTSD.

 

[Emotional girl]

In therapy I am learning to live with and understanding PTSD and CPTSD rather than recovering from them.I think it would be very difficult to change my mindset completely as this is something I suffered from for a very long time.

 

[Gs172003]

Research shows that the majority of people do heal from PTSD, mostly without therapy. If you consider t...

Some of us are here because we are trying to understand what is going on with us. I've tried looking for other groups to supplement. I can't find anything else that is anything like this one.

 

[Nessa7]

It is really great that your therapist is helping you navigate things with Workers Comp. Sometimes when dealing with them it seems that anything short of death is temporary and can be recovered from.

EDIT to add: If I'm honest with you all (and it makes sense as to why), but I can literally feel that my brain has changed. I DO NOT think the same as before.

Personally, I agree with this. From my understanding of the effects of PTSD on the brain, I believe that it changes you in physical ways that cannot be fully recovered from, especially since so many with PTSD have factors that made them more susceptible to developing it. I do believe that most people have the capabilities of learning to manage symptoms if the needed resources are available to them but that isn't the same thing as complete recovery.

 

[EveHarrington]

Ahhhh. You’re TBI/PTSD. That definitely changes things! (Recovery is a bit more complicated.)

 

[recoveringfromptsd]

I think the reality is some or most (the latter I question) get some improvement, I don't think anyone gets cured or over PTSD, we just learn skills to help us manage it better. So measuring whether your ready against having the care provided is kind of impossible, as I suspect most of us don't ever reach the point of being ready. So the practical way to look at this, is whether you reached a point where you can function on your own. You can set such a goal with your therapist, workmans comp will likely use that as a measure, and it would require your therapist determining when you reach that goal. And you have a say in that process. At least this way the measure being used by workman's comp to continue paying is not arbitrary.

It is impossible to undo the past, the best we can do is work around the barriers that the past has created. Skills is part of do this.

 

[katz]

PTSD isn’t curable and you don’t recover from it. You treat the symptoms, you deal with the trauma,...

This is a wonderful way to answer this comment. I really liked it when you said that it is a "gift that keeps on giving" . I have many people who are just waiting for me to "heal". No matter what I tell them, they are sure that "it will go away". Even my own husband and family feel this way. How sad. :(

 

[recoveringfromptsd]

I have many people who are just waiting for me to "heal". No matter what I tell them, they are sure that "it will go away".

It amazes me at times how clueless and ignorant some people can be when it comes to suffering. It actually makes it hurt more when people expect you to just behave as if things never happened. I guess until they are in our shoes they will never understand and will remain ignorant. PTSD for me never goes away, never gets better, all that has happened is I have learned of way to cope with it better at times. It hurts nevertheless anyways.