General Other Physical Symptoms

[Toria]

I'm not sure I'm going to explain this very well, but I was wondering if anyone's sufferer had "other" physical symptoms with their PTSD? I don't mean things like twitching and sweating, those are obviously all part and parcel of what is going on.

Husband is becoming increasingly clumsy and I don't know if it is the PTSD that is somehow affecting his coordination - or whether he is so bl**dy minded that he will act out on purpose. For example, if there is a ball on the floor he will trip over it, but he wont just trip and stop himself falling, his arms will windmill and he'll throw himself on to the sofa to break his fall. He isn't like that when he's out and about though, where he tends to be more cautious.

I've also noticed that he is starting to stutter - not often, just very occasionally and I really don't think that is intentional.

 

[Ladyhope Somerset]

Well Toria, just hang on a minute, sounds like my hubby's got a twin. He can have awkward movements and be clumsy, doesn't see things that are in front of him at home. But when we are out his hypervigilance kicks in, so aware of every possible danger.

I'd mention the stuttering to your psych doc next time because there was a time when hubby had probs with stuttering which was due to meds so got those changed (can't remember which ones, sorry).

He seems to have more than his fair share of other physical probs too and I have to admit I got to the point of thinking they were psychosomatic but getting them checked out one by one identified problems with his feet, a old leg injury and now his hearing. Like most blokes he wont go to the gp until things get bad but although it's frustrating, I realise he can only deal with stuff a bit at a time.

It seems that each week there's always something else to address. So not a very positive response but take it one thing at a time.

Take care. x

 

[Toria]

Thank you LHS - I'm sorry, I somehow missed your reply the first time round :oops: but have started to take your advice. Much to his great disgust I made him get a hearing test when he went to have his eyes tested in the new year - he said it was absolutely fine... I couldn't popssibly comment... but I presume that he is telling the truth ;) Thankfully it coincided with us watching a comedy (As Time Goes By) about a couple and she was trying to persuade him that he needed his hearing tested - he kept saying "I'm not getting and ear trumpet" so I managed to lighten things a bit by asking him when his ear trumpet was arriving!

I'm not sure if the new glasses will help - they're vari-focals so could actually make things ten times worse!!! Someone once drove in to the back of my Dad's car whilst looking through the wrong half of his bi-focals. Luckily my Dad had the same issues so was very sympathetic - after he'd stopped laughing!!!

Yesterday was just ridiculous though - he fell over a box on the stairs that has been sat there for over a week waiting to go to the Charity Shop - I know you're not supposed to put things on stairs so perhaps it was my fault - but he went with such a clatter he scared the life out of me. Then at dinner time he fell over a big mound of cardboard in the Kitchen that he had left there after unpacking some Ikea furniture. He'd stepped over and around it all day... but no - bang, over it he went!

 

[wife of]

Hmmm,just a wee thought,when the hubs dissociates he will sometimes dissociate and see the house as its current layout but in a previous timeframe and it is hard to tell he is actualy dissociated until he either bumps into things that have been moved or is coming out of the dissociation and virtualy sees the furniture change from past items to present ones.

 

[Temple Dog]

I second your observation, wife of. I've seen this in the form of looking for things were they used to be rather than where they are now, even though they've been relocated for some time. It's almost as though the memory of where things were was created in a time of less "mental static" and the mind simply reaches out for the most likely info when the "static" is louder and harder to hear through in the present.

My intuitive sense is that in the present, when it happens, there is a lot of internal stuff going on and the outside world just gets to take the backseat. I've certainly had minor moments of this myself when stress is high and I feel stuck in my head.

 

[wife of]

Sometimes when I'm stressed I can be hunting the house high and low and not find something I am looking for although it is in full sight in a not unusual place ie. car keys on the coffee table instead of in my handbag where I expect them to be. When someone points them out its embarassing. It is a pure trick of the mind....either that or Houdinis moved in with his mirrors and no one told me..

 

[Mellavogue]

Hi Tori, sounds very familiar to me, my partner also stutters, has co-ordination problems, dropping things and sometimes has trouble picking up things. I have put it down to anxiety combined with disocciation. It can be very embarrasing and demoralising for the sufferer, so I make a point of trying not to say anything about it (unless she brings up the topic) and if at all possible not "seeing it" at all...