• 💖 [Donate To Keep MyPTSD Online] 💖 Every contribution, no matter how small, fuels our mission and helps us continue to provide peer-to-peer services. Your generosity keeps us independent and available freely to the world. MyPTSD closes if we can't reach our annual goal.

Will I be normal again one day

Status
Not open for further replies.
L

Lost and concerned

After psychological trauma do you ever return back to the same person you use to be?

I really thought I was getting better but I've started getting anxious again...

I've kinda just gone with the flow for awhile letting whatever happen happen but I've found myself back in my head agaim and afraid.

I've been fairly sad lately missing how I use to be and having emotional connections with people.

I do hang out with friends and family but I can't help but still feel disconnected still.I don't seem to question things as often but the disconnected feeling is still there I know who everyone is but I still feel this empty feeling like noone is who they were before everything happened I look at things very different now.

I was getting excited because I was pulling myself out of this feeling but it's still there.
 
I'm different too. Much better on medications. My brain is not wired right after multiple traumas. I just have to except that. A lot of beatings as well, have changed the chemistry of my brain.
 
Last edited:
I'm different than I was before my trauma. I find my anxiety ebbs and flows, but honestly? I'm not sure I'm worse than I was before. Like others said, just different.

I've heard a lot about the "new normal" for everyone right now, and I personally think that's a great way of framing it. It's taken me 3 years to find my "new normal" after trauma, and you know what? I found out my new normal isn't all that bad. I'm just, different, and trying to navigate the new me, my new normal, is a work in progress.

I have a lot of friends who are in the same life circumstances as me without the trauma (we're all in the getting married/maybe-maybe-not having kids phase/new career phase), and when talking with them? They're not any worse off than I am. I just have different things that I worry about and have to deal with with myself.

Life is about figuring it out, I think, at this point in my life. Adjusting to a new normal with trauma is different than what others have to deal with, without trauma. I'm trying to embrace it.

I hope this helps. :)
 
Normal is very useful as a setting on a washing machine. It's less useful when applied to humans.

I really thought I was getting better but I've started getting anxious again...
This is a common part of recovery. It's not the end of recovery. Setbacks and symptom spikes are part of the process. Not cause to lose hope.

Are you working with a mental health care provider that's been helpful to you?
 
Every time I get to thinking I have reached some kind of acceptable state of mental health, then some time passes and I suddenly realize some new mental/spiritual crisis arrises. It comes in waves....
 
After psychological trauma do you ever return back to the same person you use to be?
It depends. It is said, that PTSD is not curable, not in a sense that you can fully go back, but you can get so much better and, maybe, stop feeling it.

Also some people have claimed that they managed to cure their PTSD in a sense that it seems they managed to go back or just get rid of all the symptoms for a very long time. It is possible that they never had PTSD, maybe they were misdiagnosed... But you know what, who cares? If they never had it, good for them. Maybe it's your case as well.

The point of all this is that as long as you're making progress, this is very good. It will take a long time and the progress is slow, setbacks are common and to be expected. It's a long journey. But it's definitely worth going through it. You feel better and better with time. At some point you can look back and be amazed how much better you feel.

I still feel this empty feeling like noone is who they were before everything happened I look at things very different now
I'm not sure, but maybe this is because we tend to frame things in before/after manner? I mean, life is something continuous... Things change all time, people change too, we also change... Very few things remain unchanging at all. Most people don't tend to notice this kind of change much, sometimes having the image of what was in the past instead of seeing things as they are now.

But for me, I easily notice changes and they naturally bother me. Maybe it's because I subconsciously expect something bad to happen if something have changed.
 
There is definitely a thing called "Post Traumatic Growth".
So I don't know about "normal" because "normal" probably looks different after trauma. You can't unknow things you now know. You can only grow in awareness and adapt to your "new normal". But even brains have a thing called "neural plasticity" and will develop new neural pathways if damage occurs, so too, do we develop new ways of coping and new lifestyle changes to accommodate our new "post trauma" reality.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top