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Sufferer PTSD From Hospital (After injury accident)

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Freddyt

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I am a 56 year old male living in Canada. Thanks to macho manly conditioning and a lack of people in my life who said "you need help with that", I have had PTSD problems for 45 years. It started playing shinny hockey in the schoolyard at 11 years old. A stick came up and my best friend accidentally hit me in my right eye. The school got me to the hospital because I was bleeding but the real problem was hemorrhaging inside the eye. Both eyes were covered, as is typical in any eye injury and I only have a few lucid memories from the next couple of weeks.
Somewhere in there was the real painful hidden memory that is a huge part of my problems. My psychologist and I found it while I was doing EMDR therapy a couple months ago and when we did the wake up in the night soaked in sweat heart going a hundred miles an hour nightmare that I have been waking up from for the last 45 years made sense at last.
At about 32 years old I was diagnosed with Addison's Disease, what we know now is a stress induced autoimmune condition. Having the wrong doctor meant it went undiagnosed until I had lost 70 pounds and walked into my wife's doctors office with blood pressure at 60 over 40.
The trail of opioid addiction (3 times), pain, and frustration at failing memory, headaches, back and neck pain, and lack of sleep and so much more drove me to look for help about a year ago. It was difficult getting appointments and I was helping mom out doctors appointments, cancer surgery, recovery, chemo, and everything else did not help my anxiety either.

So here I am, at home, doing my best to fight down anxiety, social phobias, and more. Thank god I live in Canada as I now use cannabis in several forms and they help keep me on a more even keel and keep me away from opioids.
 
Welcome @Freddyt! Glad to see you here reaching out. Sorry for the reasons. None of us want to belong to this club but here we are.

Hope you find support and kindness here. I have. And wonder at times had I not had this forum to come to if I would have survived last year. Plus all the other years I've been here.

Take your time and look around. Lots of information and many people here that will relate. If not to your specific issues, we will relate to the feelings.

Hope you find this a home away from home.
 
Know this is off topic but you've already gotten good advice. I'm in US in a State that's just legalized marijuana. Never done drugs but was hopeful to get some or prescription as my panic attacks have gotten worse lately. Know Canada has made it available for awhile. When I asked a couple of docs, they acted like I'd asked for, I don't know..meth. My physician friend said most docs legally have to if I ask. BUT I'll be written off as a druggie. A lot of medical care will be out of the question as they just don't know interactions and they don't want to be sued. So my question, does cannabis really help you more than other meds? Thanks for sharing your experience.
 
Yeah, the stigma is still there in the medical profession. It is funny in that cannabis was in the worlds pharmacopia for thousands of years until some butthead named Ainslinger started a campaign to protect Hursts forestry interests (hemp for paper) and to help sell Standard Oil's new nylon for rope. It was also deplorably used against as he said "degenerate races" and in his personal and racist war on Jazz, the devils music. Its a good story to know because most people don't know the hateful racist story of how it was made illegal. Nor do they know the AMA continued to fight on for years to have it restored as a medicine.

I got the same from my GP but got referred because I asked, and because I was drying out from a yet another round of opioid addiction. That was a place it really really helped. I have dried out from opioids more than once and it was WAY, WAY, cazy way easier while using cannabis. My T and the Psychiatrist that diagnosed me had no problem with my using it. I am not on any other meds other than maintenance meds for Addison's which are Cortisone Acetate, Synthroid and Flourocortisone. I tried an anti-psychotic for a few days but I didn't like how it made me feel, at all.

I was using cannabis before I started therapy. It did help me cope somewhat until I ended up in an incredibly stressful situation at work and COVID happened at the same time. It still really, really, helps. It took going a day without CBD recently to remind me of that. It seems to act like a shock absorber for your nerves and it damps down the thought tornado. If you want to go anywhere start with CBD. It is not psychoactive, so no high. I would absolutely get with a cannabis doctor first and make sure you are all clear for meds and work out a strategy. There should be no interactions as cannabinol, is non reactive, it is basically the same as an endocannabinoid (something your body already makes but its highly likely either you or your doctors know what it is or even that it exists.)

What they may not give you to start is a journal of some sort. Keep track of what, how much, when, how you feel after, etc. They don't tell you but some CBD has some mood effects too....good mood effects nothing crazy just a feeling of well being.

Any chance your T can refer you to cannabis therapy and leave your GP out of the loop?
 
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