Time and Time Again - Living With PTSD

[upstream]

Sometimes I wonder if I'm really nuts. Just knowing others experience the same lunacy gives me some comfort of being "normal" in this messed up mind disease.

Whoa, be careful not to stigmatize yourself too harshly there, you could hurt yourself :wink: A few points that might help:
1) PTSD is classified as a disorder, not a disease
2) Rather than think of it as messed up, I find it helps to remember that it is a normal human reaction to an abnormal human situation
3) Lunacy is a stigmatizing label for symptoms which is a label for a normal human reaction... well you get my drift.
4) Statistics from the PTSD Alliance:

-An estimated 70 percent of adults will have experienced at least one traumatic event in their lives.
-Up to 20 percent of them go on to develop PTSD.
-An estimated 5 percent of Americans have PTSD at any given time.

If you do some research and look at the population, you'll probably find we're about as normal as the next person (regardless of what TV tells us).

And yes, I have felt that way too... for many, many years. Not as much these days though.
Welcome to the forum... :occasion:

 

[Cindy]

Thanks, I got the gist. Sorry if I offended anyone.

I do beat myself up. But I try to catch it, obviously I still am working on that as well as taking care of myself.

 

[upstream]

I wasn't offended, just wanted to help. I used to beat the ever living daylights out of myself... I've been there too.

 

[pandora]

I feel the exact way.....I always feel like an outsider in the world....unable to have healthy family relationships, normal intimate relationships. I have always longed to be someone else and I look at others and I really feel jealous....I have never felt like I belong anywhere. Wow....what a terrible way to live really!!! I think now I try to enjoy my son and just make it to the end of the day...if I accomplish something that day than I try to feel good about that. I am also learning how to enjoy my alone time with me.

Anyway....welcome to the forum!!

 

[Cindy]

I once read in some self help book. I was frustrated that I couldn't function in daily living. (beating myself up as usual). But I got a good pointer -

Instead of focusing on what I wasn't getting done to make a detailed list of all that I did do in a day. There is so much we don't consider doing anything. Like getting the mail. Sorting the laundry. Taking a shower. All of these are tasks that we are doing. Maybe not significant BUT we are moving, breathing, out of bed, interacting with our environment. That sometimes takes a lot of energy at any level.

 

[Stephen]

I also feel like you Cindy.

Love & Light

Stephen
:smile: