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Please share a positive improvement from reading post here or sharing on this board.

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Recovery4Me

MyPTSD Pro
I’ve learned so much from this board over the years. I have additional resources to move forward but none as special as this group of Warriors/Champions. Many members have echoed the same and it is common to see respect for this site on the Gratitude Thread as well as other areas.

So I was hopeful that maybe you could share something that this board, (members, staff and/or founder) helped you move forward with in your journey.

A small improvement, a large improvement, a general good feeling from the connection, the words of wisdom that steered you through -what ever you feel you want to share to offer hope for others and to remind yourself … we have moved forward as a community.
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My simple offer of moving forward because of this board:

* I found out that I was not alone.
*I learned from other members on how to have a voice as well as terminology to express it.
* I learned I was more than my PTSD.

Add yours if you are so inclined : triumphant is moving !💪🏼 Thanks to everyone for being part of my journey.
 
* I found out that I was not alone.
You are so right, that was a big deal for me too.

I came here maybe three years ago in distress. The staff and members told me what I needed to do really. Find a psychiatrist for an assessment. I did that and it cracked off from there. Information is great but I had to take action and understood that too. I got my assessment and found a trauma theripist, EMDR therapist and I've now been with her weekly for three years. I'm not the same person that joined this site ... I've done a lot for myself ... IOP ... The staff/membership held my hand through the whole thing and I deeply appreciate the. I've not been alone since joining.

The staff and members here are very important to me. Probably saved my life ...
 
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* It's a community. A group of people all here because of PTSD. Open, friendly, accepting, and social. (as you can be on a web forum) Communities answer peoples questions just not one person. That real life experience of those who have walked that road. Camaraderie. I see those that struggle with a lot of things that make me very sad. There are others that inspire like @Tornadic Thoughts for her diet, @Friday for just functioning and for so much good advice, and so many more.

*The very valued real life advice from experience. There are so many ways to do the wrong thing with PTSD and being able to learn from others experience makes life so much easier. Just simple things like why the pros go "then there was trauma" and stay away from those memories, and skip the two bad days afterwards. There is weird shit that goes with PTSD and finding out your not the only one its happening to? priceless. Learning how to deal with all that? It's really difficult but, someone else here probably has and sometimes, someting is hiding in plain sight and it takes a different viewpoint to see what you can't.
 
For me it’s done a tremendous help. I was on the path of going to the psychs and all and all, but still very disorganized and spinning around. Improvements?

  • Knowing you aren’t alone obviously. A support group that relates to what you’re going through. Camaraderie that comes to the point of friendships. A sense of love and caring, looking after and forwards. Even when you’re just being wtf. It’s so important.

  • Later on, finding that yourself can be supportive and helping and making some difference. It might not be everything, but it’s real and here. You get into that exchange of support vibe, it’s very rewarding I think for everyone.

  • Stop shaming yourself for the moments you lost it. Seeing that even the ways you lose it actually are very consistent with what you went through. Reading other’s difficulties and tactics to improve/manage/heal.

  • Writing for others helps to objectivate your experience. I did write many diaries for myself before but they’re so idiosyncratic and cryptic that they don’t help much. It’s nice but it actually did fixate the problems more than it solved them. If I write knowing it’s going to be read, then I have at least some external vision on what’s going on in mind, and it helps me to organize and describe and also reduce the amount of drama (not that drama is necessarily bad, but it isn’t very communicative) and go directly to the thing.

  • Having a log helps also to stop forgetting how it was. When I read my first posts, it’s so obvious I had the nose right on my shit. And it’s encouraging to see oneself change and evolve.

  • Being grateful for the time, advice and kindness you receive. Here, then increasing awareness of this in the rest of my life. And feeling it.

  • Feeling compassionate for others here too and saying it. The forum did a lot for improving my communication with others and finding words to express what I was feeling in sweet, simple ways. Doesn’t always need to be that complicated. Go right to what’s important. Find what is important. The real value in things.

  • It also helped with my communication with my pdoc/t as I had a better idea of what I wanted/needed to prioritize.

  • Seeing other’s realities and also challenging the way you think about things. Even if you have similar symptoms, reasons can be massively different, perceptions can be really different.
Overall I’m really grateful for this place. I really think I wouldn’t have made it if it didn’t exist. Or really much more slowly and with more potholes, bumps and crisis. So yeah it’s really a blessed spot of the Internet. ❤️
 
The first thing I noticed being here is that I was heard. I was heard AND validated. With others using their experiences to let me know I was not alone. That I wasn't just making things up, or attention seeking. My feelings were REAL and VALID.

And I could have meltdowns and be angry and just a mess and someone always understood. It was the lack of punitive judgement that was in some ways, hard for me to learn to trust. Are these people real??? Yes, thank goodness!

Last year was and continues to be the hardest time of my life. And I am still being supported tho they have no frame of reference to my last trauma, they are very present and supportive.

I am 'spoiled' to being here and being understood. People outside of this forum I find it hard to talk about anything personal. They just don't get it.

I felt accepted here. I felt heard. There is give and take with my friends here. An unspoken agreement to give space when needed. I truly appreciate that part.

I don't even remember signing up to join. So, I know this is where I need to be.
 
I really was very hesitant to start a journal. I didn’t want ‘validation’ and feared ‘security’ issues.

it now really helps to know while I write my journal for ME and monitoring my mental health changes or exploring my thoughts over issues that cause intrusive thoughts or day to day mind space it’s not something ‘invisible’. I might be asked to clarify something which makes me think about something more.

I cannot get into a self hate cycle without it impacting on anyone who pops into read .
So while it’s for me in the same way as a paper version by my bedside would be - I’ve found it easier to commit to and more therapeutic .
 
These shares are so inspiring to read : please know the fantastic difference you have made to myself and others. Feel free to continue if anything else pops up as I am one of those that close the post and then remember…just another thing that seems so important two or so days later.😂

For example many of the staff were/are members to begin with… so a lot of wonderful perspectives were offered to me from them as well along with the founder. Often their words assisted me in readdressing a cognitive distortion that impeded my moving forward or learning. On various occasions when discussing things internationally on this board - they would offered gentle correction on a newer politically correct usage within my post or a reframe of my toxic self-image through blanket statements. I began to see a bigger picture than my locale or depression. Very rarely does the staff take credit for all their effort and some contributed more than time…I remember several campaigns when funding was dicey that they contributed large amounts to save the board. These have been some of the moments that offered that everyone was onboard to make us visible, to offer hope and be near to help us connect the dots in PTSD as well as each other.

So many people have succeeded in making our ‘new normal’ acceptable here. That is why I will always remember this board as being the light through some of my darkest hours and respect each of your journeys…always.
 
These shares are so inspiring to read : please know the fantastic difference you have made to myself and others. Feel free to continue if anything else pops up as I am one of those that close the post and then remember…just another thing that seems so important two or so days later.😂
ok - here is another from me. In a newly increasingly conscious world many feel it’s rude to share their own stories when others are in pain as it steals the persons moment? That’s not how I am . Being somewhere I can ask others’ experience or read their journals ( dipping out when I do need to centre myself again) let’s me learn how I learn best - through others . A couple of times I have expressed frustration or fear or annoyance with something a person here has done and received the same - and it’s also a good starter way to learn/ relearn the first baby steps to set and hold our boundaries and deal with other people’s ( whether we share them or not).

A lot of us have rarely been somewhere where anger or disagreement was ‘safe’ . Where boundaries ( ours or others) were respected . On the internet least of all . Applying these skills and reinforcing them -with firm moderation- As our normal regardless of what the world or the wild web chooses around us is a skill we can take with us outside this forum.
 
My mind isn't able to absorb this thread in its entirety, nor in the manner it deserves tonight, but I wanted to express gratitude to @Freddyt for mentioning that some of my contributions here are inspiring in any way, shape, or form. That means a lot.

Whenever I hear something like that it never sticks with me very long as the negative self-talk and doubt all too often crowd out those opinions. Thank you for making me feel inspired to more fully believe in myself and the things I practice daily to nurture my well-being, and thanks to @Recovery4Me for making the thread.
 
I` m inspired by the courage, strength and persistency by members at this board. I can relate to experience and feel connected to others that are going to the same as I do.

I have less toxic shame, even there is room for improvement.

I learned strategies to reduce anxiety.

I`m making improvement in accepting my boundaries.

I feel more confident that healing is possible. So I try diffrent methods to release resentment feelings.

Thank you for sharing your experiences.
 
I too have found I'm not alone. Especially about odd specific things, like I suck at things most people breeze through. Going to the post office? Better stew for a bit and try to psych myself up for it. But if I have to run towards danger I don't even blink, I'm in it to win it. Triple digits on a bike through heavy traffic? Hells yeah! God forbid I have to go grocery shopping though.

It lightens the spirit some to know there are others dealing with this same issue. When you're looking into the abyss, sometimes it's the little things that pull you back.
 
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