Moderator removed post
Even if you are doing better, when you sink down for a bit people all say “well he has a therapist, why isn’t that working?” Like it’s just a choice
hypervigilance
I can comfort myself if I have a trigger warning. I know that I can’t get through life with warnings all the time but I’d rather save myself the stress from just watching a movie. It’s why I don’t watch many movies anymore
have you tried using doesthedogdie? sometimes people get it wrong, and for example call things that are just lying gaslighting, or just click the wrong box, but it is largely quite good.
Yes, I love that app. It’s helped me so much with avoiding movies that will scare me
That not only military veterans get PTSD. I got it from having grown up in an abusive home.
How disabling lack of sleep can be
and how it influences even trying to keep a routine and it just becomes a vicious cycle...
How much illness is in mental illness like PTSD. It can make you feel physically sick, exhausted, nauseated. It’s awful.
The various physical symptoms. Trauma lives on in the body and the nervous system. You can think you’re having an ok day, then wake up having a panic attack that night because your body doesn’t forget.
It’s not necessarily a disability, but it can be at times.
mental illness can qualify as a disability if it significantly limits a persons ability to do everyday tasks. it's valid to feel disabled by PTSD. ♡
Right! But it’s not limiting for everyone. Like anxiety, depression. There are gradations of experience and severity, or it can be intermittent. So in theory you can be like me and I don’t consider myself disabled but I do have cptsd that wreaks havoc on my life without impeding my ability to work.
certainly and that definitely makes sense. my anxiety no longer feels like a disability because medicated now. but it was so debilitating before
I wish people knew what it is because people are saying they have it now that don't. I wouldn't assume that, but they share about not having the core symptoms of PTSD. Yet they believe they have it (CPTSD). It's really harmful to people who do have PTSD,who are being marginalized because of this pop trend.
That trauma isn't just about what happened to you. It's also about what didn't happen to you, and that trauma isn't always physical, but psychological abuse and emotional abuse is also trauma. A campaign about reproductive abuse had a slogan that always stuck with me; abuse does not always mean a bruise.
Also that what's traumatic for one person isn't necessarily going to be for another. I got my leg ran over by a car, and people are surprised when I call that one of the least traumatic bad things that's ever happened to me--because at least I had proper medical help, and a great support system! The mental trauma and damage I have from that is actually relatively minor compared to the other things that've happened to me.
I equate some of the treatments I have received by health care as being akin to going to a faith healer who lays their hands on your head and say you’re cured. When I say no I am not better… I get the medical equivalent of you lack faith. I am going through this with EMDR right now. It’s apparently my fault it’s not working as it should. The answers I give aren’t right. I lack the resources… which are in the book Tapped in… and whatever else is given as excuses. Now we are discussing another form of treatment. I am sorry and now I feel very guilty about it but the memories and the triggers are still at play and the nightmares are still there. The same went for Prozosin. Yes it should have worked but it only worked for a short time. So not only am I having issues like before, now I am being told I am not trying hard enough to get cured.
Apparently someone also failed to tell the mental health people that unless you’re in the military or law enforcement treatment doesn’t really exist so you get whatever flavour of the month is in vogue. Trauma is trauma and I would say mine was sufficiently life threatening to qualify as serious but I am a civilian.
I can't not be triggered. My coping methods are valid and please don't shame me for using them.
Also your apology doesn't un-trigger me.
I can only cope better.
it's not all rape and military trauma. i sometimes feel like my issues aren't valid because of that
Mine was extreme high school bullying and being raised in a cult. A prolonged period of abuse daily with no breaks, no reprieve.
I see you.
Don’t trivialize it. So many people say they have PTSD because they’re upset about something and it passes. They get into that mindset. When someone has legitimate PTSD others think he/she should get over it like the other guy did. The “other guy” didn’t have PTSD.
Or the worst “just move on” “it’s in the past”. My family said this to me. Or “don’t think about it”
Like you don’t think that’s the first thing I tried???? Why would I want to live like this????
That whatever you have heard or think about it, is nothing like what it actually is...
Educated medical professional & I thought I knew a lot about it - until I had first hand experience with a young loved one SA'd at college and diagnosed with PTSD a year later.
And you'd think there would be all sorts of resources for this specific population. We're in a metropolitan area and there is pretty much ZERO. Rape crisis center only refers to psych hospitals for evals. Seriously? She has a psychiatrist and therapist! Needs more intensive therapy. Specific rape recovery center or treatment or support groups would be nice. Definitely don't want to re-traumatize by going county psych hospital route & have her be grouped with crackheads.
So frustrating!!
yep. i have severe CPTSD in the icd-11 sense (https://icd.who.int/browse/2024-01/mms/en#585833559) and it is extremely difficult to find any therapy that isn't:
expensive outpatient oriented for more mild PTSD, a bad childhood, or developmental trauma symptoms.
going to inpatient for a three day hold while there aren't enough nurses to give you your meds on time, they do a cavity search to make sure you aren't smuggling in stuff even if you're in voluntarily, and they give you cbt worksheets and send you home.
inside of rehab for drug use. i'm not an addict, so that locks a LOT of resources away from me.
Exactly. Everyone is like "go to therapy" or "get help" but yet, help is nowhere to be found. Plenty of people in my circle just get drunk and stoned instead of getting told they have "too many problems" at therapy.
The worse part of PTSD for me, are the emotional flashbacks that cause the brain to search for any reason in the present to apply the anguish. It’s not just veterans who saw combat, avoiding fireworks at July 4th. The flashbacks are not consciously known in the executive functioning area of the brain.
This causes blame to be placed on the people nearby like family and coworkers, while your brain searches to make sense of the feeling in the moment. For a non injured person it is hard to comprehend. This strains relationships and causes more loneliness and anguish.
The years of horrific violence I endured were just the beginning. Surviving to stay alive was one part of it. Staying alive for every year after, is the hardest part. It is not something I can point to like a missing limb, but I use some of the same analogies like having to learn to walk again after a terrible car accident.
[Trigger Warning] Another thing I wish people knew, was that there are truly evil people in this world that prey on young kids to condition them for abuse with this knowledge of how to most deeply injure a brain and body to keep the victim compliant. With horrific violence coupled with social engineering, a gaslight of terror can result.
Derealization - with violent assaults your sense of reality is affected. Coupled with being drugged and gaslit “it was just a bad dream you had”
Disassociation - with ongoing violence your brain will do anything to survive, including shutting down. It is easier for an assailant to do worse then
Depersonalization - when the assailant has access to the caregiver adults around the victim, they can gaslight and manipulate to blame the victim themselves for symptoms of duress, as if it’s the victim’s fault. Your brain will associate with anyone when survival is at stake, the victim will be successfully convinced to blame themselves by all
Delayed expression of PTSD - coupled with being drugged (in my water cup, bottle of soda, i was heavily drugged, ongoing starting at age 13) combined with side effect of amnesia from the drug, brain damage from terror of violent assaults, while drifting in and out of consciousness, but unable to move or scream for help. Add the extreme gaslighting once conscious - everything is normal, what’s wrong with YOU?! This can compound into severe delayed expression of PTSD where the memories, never ending nightmares, and daytime flashbacks begin many years later, once your Amygdala can write the memories to your Hippocampus and Prefrontal Cortex okay
I wish this was more well known. There is some stigma around delayed expression and stories of people having incorrect memories. The life threatening terror and inability to protect oneself results in a shut down. Once safe, in my case many years later, the memories came flooding back after a triggering event. My older sister finally confessed her boyfriend and her friends had drugged and trafficked me for years. I was put into a mental institution misdiagnosed as bipolar when my body finally shut down at age 17 after 4 years of this torture. 30 years later I finally get the missing puzzle pieces and the facts of what was done to me. One year after that, I am finally my whole self and still gluing the shards back together.
I normally have a great memory and score very high on academics - honor roll, AP. I am one of those people you call, when you can’t remember a bit of info from a shared experience a decade or two ago. I believe my hyper vigilance became a super power at some point along the way, and it makes sense that my brain poured resources into this area of accurately recording my environment, based on the tragedy of my first 20 years of life
The worse part of PTSD for me, are the emotional flashbacks that cause the brain to search for any reason in the present to apply the anguish.
99% of the time i have regular flashbacks instead, but i caught one of these happening the other day for the first time in a while and this is the best way to describe it.
Thank you.
Thank you for the support. This reddit group is the closest thing I could find to group therapy, and it’s making a huge difference for me. I appreciate it
That it's always there just lurking and pretty much anything could set it off
PTSD is forever. It may subside but you’ll never be free from it
Yeah I wonder if this is true. It’s always there lingering but I try to keep it at arms length
I’m going on 43 years since my kidnapping. My symptoms are dormant atm but it’ll come back, it always has for me
That flashbacks aren’t always like you see them in the movies. Sometimes, especially with CPTSD, flashbacks are only emotional and they can make you think you’re reacting to something in the here and now when you’re actually reliving an emotional experience from the past.
That ptsd is not only people that are in military” get it”. I have cptsd and is because abuse. We do get flashbacks and some things will trigger and drag me to feel the situation all over again.
This. Any non-military situation seems to be treated differently. Don’t get me wrong, war is terrible and horrific. But it can happen to emergency room doctors and paramedics too.
That I am the same as you. We share the same DNA. Human DNA. I deserve to be treated with kindness and respect. I am a fighter. I fight everyday to manage my symptoms and this is a fight I hope that you never have to understand.
that its terminal.....well it feels that way for me 😔
You don't have to go to war to have it.
I wish people understood that some days one can be free and lively and others it is a struggle just to get your mind to play along. There's no cut and dry solution to this or one size fits all for everyone.
That you're not just gonna get over it after a couple months. That it sticks with you.
A few months after my third robbery i was told i should be over it by now. It's been 18 years now and I'm still not. I don't know if I'll ever be.
That it doesn’t go away, like when I’m not triggered then I am having a good time, but when I am triggered or when it’s my anniversary then don’t tell me to live in the moment and think positive thoughts or I shouldn’t take meds because of side effects. Idk the side effects but I need meds to make me cope especially when I need to go to school in September, I don’t want to skip a whole month of class in April if I get triggered out of nowhere
That you wish more than anything you could forget or "get over it" and when people get upset or offended by your ptsd making you think a certain way or feel like your trauma is going to happen again, you're just making it worse. It's like it's happening again. Please try to be compassionate and don't dismiss or be annoyed. If we come to you, we feel like we trust you and that is a very big deal. Sorry if we bring you down, we don't wanna be there either
That I'm not just being dramatic.
You being annoyed that something triggered me won't stop my reaction and will just make me angry with you.
And even if you went through the same thing as me and came out relatively unscathed, it doesn't mean that same thing didn't completely fuck me up and change my mind permanently. We could have different genetics that predispose us to certain things, we've had different lives and been through different things that could change how our brain perceived what we went through, whether we already had mental illnesses and been through other traumatic events can impact how another traumatic event impacts us etc.
that you can't just get over subconscious triggers easily and trying to refocus takes more than a few seconds
That "triggered" does not mean "offended". I wish people would move on to a new word already. It's been a decade or more at this point. I want to be able to discuss my symptoms seriously without the wrong idea coming across.
THANK YOU! It can make it so hard to communicate at times
That anyone can get it, not just veterans
Yes and that our PTSD is just as valid too. We are also deserving of the level of grace they receive.
That it impairs brain function/cognitive ability. It makes it hard to think, process, focus, remember. Every day life stuff. It’s not just about getting triggered by and reacting to situations related to your trauma specifically. It breaks your nervous system, which you have to use at all times.
I’m a regular, educated, working adult. Before I had PTSD I didn’t even know what the nervous system was. Like yeah, your body has nerves, it’s how you feel stuff like so you know not to touch a hot stove. But it’s like, your existence. Literally. It’s your POV. What people call “vibes” is nervous system energy. When someone has “bad vibes” your nervous system is sensing danger around them for some reason. The reason may be real or perceived. You may be able to consciously note that or not. Your brain consciously and subconsciously shows things to you and hides things from you. So it’s all very individual and confusing to begin with but you’re trying to live in the safest reality for you that’s as close as possible to other ppls safest reality for them. And then when you have PTSD this all shit is broke 🥲🤷🏼♀️
Exactly this.
PTSD is an acquired Neurodivergence. The brains structure is altered. I wish this was spoken about more. The condition is not "just" flashbacks, it impacts both the brain and the body.
100%! I feel like people look at it as a badge that says I've officially been through something traumatic, when it encompasses so much more
User deleted comment
14d
I think it’s an energy conservation thing.
When we happen to lose our shit, it's not on purpose. It's because we are triggered and our head becomes full of nightmares, scream and guilt. It's not controlable.
When you ask a person why they have PTSD, you are asking them to talk about the event(s) that nearly killed them or permanently changed them. Don't do it. You wouldn't ask a person with an amputation how they lost their limb. You wouldn't ask a person why they are in a wheelchair. Don't ask a person why their brain has disabled them.
It's a stress disorder. Stress makes it worse. It's like having gluten or dairy intolerance, but the thing you are intolerant to is stress. Stress makes you sick.
Unless you have a time machine that lets us go back to the before times, you can't fix it.
Pretty much anyone can get PTSD. No one is safe or immune from developing it.
Not only does it physically affect our brain, but our physical body as well. Trauma is literally stored in our nervous system, which is why mindfulness and grounding can be so, so impactful for healing for some people.
My ptsd is never not there. It’s a constant voice in the back of my head. Some days I can ignore it or redirect it and other days I’m not able to.
The paranoia is my most prominent symptom. I never walk past someone without my brain immediately thinking if they were to SA me, what I would do in that moment.
I’m so sorry. I also track people walking near me or watching me. Have a general awareness pretty much always.
It’s wild how many people still think PTSD only comes from things like combat. I really wish that myth would go away since I’ve never been in the military but have been diagnosed with it
That I'm not doomed to have a shitty life after trauma. I can heal and have a family. Have a normal life after therapy.
yep. and conversely, some people will always experience an extreme reduction in ability to do stuff like work, have a family, have friends, etc even if they do their best to recover. everyone has their own outcomes and you can't say "well my cousin has PTSD and he--" that's great, that's your cousin. don't tell me what i can or can't achieve!
- That it’s an injury not an illness.
- That symptoms/behavior are involuntary because it’s a reaction disorder.
- That symptoms/behavior may not make sense, but that’s because our logical thinking brain is impaired.
- That it’s much easier to live with if you educate yourself.
- That it requires safety to heal. Hard stop.
Doubling down that it CHANGES YOUR BRAIN. Forever.
Neurologists (like Dr Steven Novella) describes the human brain in evolutionary terms you have a lizard brain, monkey brain and the human brain. PTSD damages the lizard brain permanently.which is why non-humans mammals and humans get PTSD but non humans can't suffer from other mental disorders (like bipolar) where effects a different part of the brain.
Yes, this. But what you’re describing is often used as a metaphor for the amygdala.
Double-doubling down on this.
That it is hell on earth
r/ptsd has generated this automated response that is appended to every post
Welcome to r/ptsd! We are a supportive & respectful community. If you realise that your post is in conflict with our rules (and is in risk of being removed), you are welcome to edit your post. You do not have to delete it.
As a reminder: never post or share personal contact information. Traumatized people are often distracted, desperate for a personal connection, so may be more vulnerable to lurking or past abusers, trolls, phishing, or other scams. Your safety always comes first! If you are offering help, you may also end up doing more damage by offering to support somebody privately. Reddit explains why: Do NOT exchange DMs or personal info with anyone you don't know!
If you or someone you know is in immediate danger, please contact your GP/doctor, go to A&E/hospital, or call your emergency services number. Reddit list: US and global, multilingual suicide and support hotlines. Suicide is not a forbidden word, but please do not include depictions or methods of suicide in your post.
And as a friendly reminder, PTSD is an equal opportunity disorder. PTSD does not discriminate. And neither do we. Gatekeeping is not allowed here.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.