You Know You Have PTSD When...

[Changing4Best]

... when you wake every morning at 4AM and decide that 5.5 hours of sleep is going to have to be enough, because getting yourself back to sleep will take greater effort than can be tolerated by you.

 

[BlackbirdSinging]

When four letters become a badge of I survived.

That's the reason I for quite awhile have considered getting a tattoo of the PTSD awareness ribbon. To speak to the facts that yes I have it. Yes I work on it everyday. Yes I was traumatized. And yes I survived.

When one of the first things you do in the morning once you get your first cup of coffee is sit quietly and listen to the air conditioner blowing. That way you can try to drown out the distorted thoughts that start as soon as you open your eyes. And you have to do this everyday because it happens everyday.

 

[Let It Be]

I just walked away from an experience at the store and told myself I must have that PTSD look or my body language the last several weeks has given me away over what I have been going through.

A clerk at a store has become friendly with me, that grandmotherly type. Today, she asked how I was doing, we chatted, and then she told me that she loved me, wanted to give me a hug, and told me I was her Angel.

Sure caught me off guard at the time.

 

[Changing4Best]

That would catch me off guard too, but I sure would not mind someone saying something like that to me. I love hugs. I give them too!

 

[Britt.f7]

When the idea of taking a shower because riddled with anxiety.

 

[Changing4Best]

I dread taking a shower too. I have had some early childhood traumas in the bathtub, so I know that is part of it. None the less, there are other things too, like fear of slipping and falling or even just slipping and twisting an ankle or something. I have a shower chair, which I do use, but still the fears remain to some degree.

 

[DharmaGirl]

When you are all happy and ready to start your day and you are triggered so badly that you spend the next 3 hours shaking in your bed with you dog plastered up against you. And you've already taken your extra medication.

 

[DharmaGirl]

When someone on another forum (oh why do I bother going on other forums?) rants at you for something you didn't do, then continues to post many rants, making up more things you didn't do, or said you would do but didn't, and you let it go. Breathe in, and let it go. Until you are triggered by something else the next day, and that comes flying out of yesterday to knock you down some more.

 

[Changing4Best]

... when you wake every morning at 3-4 AM and can't go back to sleep and start to wonder if that time of night is the time some of your childhood traumas could have happened.

 

[DharmaGirl]

when you think Norman Reedus/Daryl Dixon is Mr. America

He is Mr. America.

 

[Emma13]

...you're scrolling through your Facebook news feed and a video that starts playing startles you.

 

[DharmaGirl]

-when common sense is so rare, it becomes a super power

You are so funny!!