[Snoopy]

I am glad to see we now have a PTSD forum.....thank you DocJohn.

Lets get this party (forum) started

Here is some information about PTSD from our very own PsychCentral (DocJohns other website).......
http://psychcentral.com/disorders/sx32.htm


Here is some information on PTSD from the Mayo Clinic......
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/pos...sorder/DS00246

[ConsiderThis]

Wow, this is good.

I'd love not to feel scared so much. Has anyone ever had a bit of relief from that?

[katty]

I have never had really severe PTSD, but it did take some time to get over what I experienced.(An ex-boyfriend with a gun, on a dark night out on a lonely river, followed by a narrow escape through heavily wooded country.)

Eventually, it faded for me, but it took five or six years for the flashbacks and fear to stop.

I had a dear friend who experienced very severe flashbacks from his time in Vietnam. We were walking together through a farmers market one day and a particular type of airplane flew over. My friend, dove under one of the produce tables. This was more than twenty years after the war.

I lost touch with him. I wonder how he's doing. I'm also curious about the condition in general. My friend was a very loving person. He tried to get over the war. He tried everything he knew. Has anyone else had, or is close to someone who has PTSD? What did you or the person you're close to, do as a coping mechanism? Did it help?

I'd also like to know how it changed your relationships with the people you care about.

Katty

[Snoopy]

ConsiderThis: I guess you could say I still have fear. Mine is more in the form of anxiety/panic attacks but it's not always their.

Katty: I'm sorry about your friend, it sounds like he had/has a very difficult time with PTSD. You have also not had it easy......regardless of the degree PTSD is really horrible.

I have PTSD, triggered in Dec 2003 by a doctor. Many things have changed for me. There are some who I had been very close to who I no longer have a relationship with....my decision.

I became someone I no longer recognized. I had a "small" nervous breakdown and went to a very dark place in my mind that to be honest I wasn't sure I wanted to leave. I am a "mild" agoraphobic and something I keep working with so I don't get any worse.

I had been in therapy for 3 years and it became my life saver. Coping? Sometimes I feel as if I am still trying to cope. I am not as bad as I was but I still deal with axiety/panic attack, flashbacks are not as often but they still happen. I have found I can not watch certain things on TV.

Klonopin has been a big help in allowing me to try and be who I used to be but I will never completely be the old me......I have been working on becoming a better and reinvented me.

[katty]

Thanks Snoopy,

I always divide my life by the life altering events. Some of those events are joyous and some...well, you know...

Change, I have decided, is inevitable--internal change; changes to who we are and how we think, are the most difficult to accept sometimes. Even the joyful change of moving from non-parent to parent, is a painful one. So when something huge and awful forces an internal change, such as finding out that you have an incurable disease, or learning that your child has an illness, or being physically or mentally attacked or having your life or the life of someone you love put in danger, I believe you have two options--fight the inevitable change with every resource you have, or accept that life and who you are will be different now.

If you choose option number two, then you have the option of waiting to see what comes out of it, or moving forward, arms wide to see and embrace what comes--and to try to move the change in a way that is positive.

Sorry, this is long winded. I know. I just see you moving forward to embrace and accept your new you. I admire that. There is this time frame of rediscovery that is inevitable and painful, but can lift you to a higher level--if you have courage enough to go with it.

But change is always painful. Isn't it?

Katty

[mollymcn]

Katty - WOW - I'm amazed that you consider 5 or 6 years of flashbacks as not severe PTSD. that's pretty harsh on yourself... I hope you are gentle with your expectations of recovery

[katty]

Thank you, Molly. Because I've seen how severe PTSD can damage a person's life, I have to say, that my experience with it was comparitively mild. I had moments of fear and infrequent flashbacks, but it never really interfered with my daily living--it more gave me a taste for what the 'real' thing could do to you.

Your face was sad on your message. I hope you're feeling better today.

Katty

[cajoy]

Hi everyone. I was abducted when I was 12 and molested for several hours. I never even confronted my feelings until I was clean and sober for 8 years. I am well into my 40's now and my life is more difficult than ever.
I have chronic depression, bouts of severe depression, and chronic fatigue. I had shingles 3 months ago and I have been a wreck ever since.

[phoenix7]

So welcome to everyone new here - I havnt been around much lately too triggery - I've been here for a while now and found it to be a great source of information and support - take care all P7

[reverett123]

Go to YouTube and search for Parkinson's Disease and PTSD. I have lost the link but there is a long clip comparing the changes wrought by WW 1 and the symptoms of PD. It was a real eye opener. But a warning is in order, it is not a pleasant thing to watch as it has archival footage from the trenches of Europe that is terrible to see. It does give you a clue as to how the horror can affect people.