Quotes Relevant To PTSD Symptoms

[BlankCanvas]

"If there is a solution to the problem, there is no need to worry. If there is no solution, there is no sense in worrying either".

- From The Art of Happiness (Howard Cutler and the Dalai Lama)

 

[adrian_newbridge]

Another Rather Simple But Effective Quote

I've got PTSD, PTSD hasn't got me.
I wrote that, but if I'm truthful, I pinched it from a cancer poster in my GP's waiting room.

 

[Freddy_hiding_less]

Tillicho Lake

In this high place
it is as simple as this,
leave everything you know behind.

Step toward the cold surface.
say the old prayer of rough love
and open both arms.

Those who come with empty hands
will stare into the lake astonished,
there in the cold light
reflecting pure snow
the true shape of your own face.

from "Close to home" by David Whyte

 

[ams]

Forgiveness is not about forgetting, it is about letting go of another person’s throat. Forgiveness doesn't establish relationship...Anger is the right response to something that is so wrong. But don’t let the anger and pain and loss you feel prevent you from forgiving him and removing your hands from around his neck. . .You may have to declare your forgiveness a hundred times the first day and the second day, but the third day will be less and each day after, until one day you will realize that you have forgiven completely - William Young from the book The Shack

 

[curiouser]

No life is so hard that you can't make it easier by the way you take it. ~Ellen Glasgow

It's so hard when I have to, and so easy when I want to. ~Annie Gottlier

When you feel dog tired at night, it may be because you've growled all day long. ~Author Unknown

Consider how much more you often suffer from your anger and grief, than from those very things for which you are angry and grieved. ~Marcus Antonius

 

[zzzaaabbb]

Autobiography in 5 Short Chapters

Chapter 1
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in.
I am lost... I am helpless.
It isn't my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter 2
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend that I don't see it.
I fall in again.
I can't believe I am in this same place.
But, it isn't my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter 3
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in... it's a habit.. but, my eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

Chapter 4
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.

Chapter 5
I walk down another street.


I think this exemplifies the struggle we all face with the resurfacing of PTSD symptoms and struggling to understand and deal with the issues we all face. I myself am in "Chapter 2."

 

[anni]

The Fire

If All those Ghosts could be found-
Dam it all.
They were here a minute ago
Engaging in annoying Ghost-things-to-do.
You know.
Poking dead knobbly long fingers into the debris
Joy left behind.
Gonna get those suckers.
Every one, and when I do I'm
Going to stuff them all
In the room
With the 3-d picture of Jesus on the wall
In the house of the
Still born laughter.
And they'll try to ooze out the keyhole
before I get the match lit.

Just a free form poem that makes me address this stupid thing once in awhile.

 

[popeye]

Darkness imprisoning me, All that I see, Absolute horror, I cannot live, I cannot die, Trapped in myself, Body my holding cell~~~ Metallica


No one understands- I can't sleep at night
When I close my eyes, I see firefights
I can't drink enough- to kill these memories
I can't stop this brain- no matter what I do to me
This PTSD, spell it MIA
Well I Made it back, not back all the way
Living in this world, out of uniform
Someone changed the rules
Man my soul got torn
This PTSD, spell it MIA
Just a body bag, with no KIA
This PTSD, spell it MIA
Time to face the facts
There's a debt to pay
This PTSD, spell it MIA
Well we made it back,
Not back all the way~~Words by Wes Hamil

 

[Lionheart]

"...With time the child draws in, this whipping boy done wrong, deprived of all his thoughts, the young man struggles on and on, he's known, a vow unto his own, that never from this day, his will they'll take away, what I've felt, what I've known, never shined through in what I've shown, never be, never see, won't see what might have been, what I've felt, what Ive known, never shined through in what I've shown, never free, never me, so I dub thee unforgiven." Metallica (The Unforgiven) I can really relate to this song's lyrics which I present in part here.

 

[anni]

Wow. There's not a lot more to say. Thanks for these.

 

[AthenaErdmann]

Autobiography in 5 Short Chapters

...

Chapter 3
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in... it's a habit.. but, my eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.

...

Chapter 5
I walk down another street.

I was about to post that poem, when I remembered "search before you post" - and I was so glad to find it here already. Thanks!

I like the honesty and the hope in it. I'm pretty much in chapter 3 with the most difficult things, and with some that I've worked on for 20+ years, pretty stably in chapter 5. It is humbling to realize, though, how it still is possible to get thrown backwards in those chapters (so to speak) by triggers. But I guess that is life...

Athena

 

[AthenaErdmann]

About Fear - Challenging And Hopeful

"I believe that anyone can conquer fear by doing the things he fears to do, provided he keeps doing them until he gets a record of successful experience behind him" -- Eleanor Roosevelt