You Know You Have PTSD When...

[Glo809]

When you rather search for half an hour instead of asking someone who might be able to help you.

...[/QUOTE]

That's called 'Man Eyes'

I have a well used pair myself....
G

 

[desiderata310]

But ZAM! Movement! There! SPIDER!!! :eek: FFS self. Tranquila. Tone. The. Hypervig. Down. But it's a spider! Good hyper vig! Good hypervig! :facepalm: Stop encouraging it.

All of this.

 

[Ronin]

When your calming thoughts are flipping the current anxiety situation (that's soo super normal to everyone else) into something that'd panic everybody else badly. Caaalm. Crisis :D More calm. I can act. I can sort this shit. And all the petty bullshit driving me nuts TOO.

 

[Anrish]

When you personalize your self confidence.

When you panic as soon as you might trouble other people.

 

[Ronin]

When you're dead serious about respect to others' personalizations. If something keeps someone from falling apart, it's better honored highly.

... And when you're thankful for a reminder of your strength & feeling alive, belatedly realizing it's again a memory of situations you shouldn't have been in in the first place. :cautious::facepalm:

 

[jaccat]

When walking under streetlights make you jump at your own shadow every single time you spot it, even when you know it's going to happen, because it happened in the same spot yesterday, and the day before that, and the day before that...

 

[Lola Nocheprieta]

When you're washing your face in the shower and you'd rather get soap in your eyes than close them ...

And when you do screw up your courage to close your eyes the change in ambient light caused by your arm movement makes you jump because it looks like a shadow of movement outside the shower ...

 

[Anrish]

When you are used to the feeling of having a steel plate in your back because you slept so tense.

 

[BlackbirdSinging]

When the cashier at the grocery store asks you what you have planned for the day and you immediately get embarrassed. You don't have any plans today. And you probably won't do much of anything. You're embarrassed because, going to the pharmacy and to the grocery store were the things you managed to do today. Part of it is PTSD. Part of it is GAD. And part of it is MDD. And part of it is chronic pain and you're hurting everywhere and you can't manage much more than that today. But, you don't say that to the cashier. You think of something you should be doing like reorganizing your summer clothes and your fall clothes in your closet and you say that instead.

When you're laying on your bed and you move your hand which throws a shadow and you jump thinking something is moving on you. That's right. You just got scared by your own shadow.

 

[Ronin]

You space out half of the week or whole of it after writing a tidbit about your trauma / why you think what you think about it.

Recheck multiple times. Do I delete this? Nope. It's obscure & non descript on a first, second and third read. Personal context still personal. Headdesk. Feels threat and isn't. More head desks & showers inserted.

 

[BlackbirdSinging]

When your therapist has to define and clarify choking versus strangulation.

 

[Anrish]

When your therapist tells you to be more open to your friends in your life next to work and you look at her like... "to whom?!" because there are sooo few real life people.