PTSD

[Flamesoul the Diabolical]

I think I might have some form of PTSD that stems from (possible???) sexual contact with my older cousin when I was about 6 or 7. I blocked that memory out and I don't know if he did anything else or what in the years since... I only suspect this because he tried preying on me when I was 16. Thankfully I've had no contact with him since then.
The symptoms are somewhat mild, I feel extremely vulnerable about my body and afraid of being touched sexually. It only happens once every other week but it's a terrible experience every time.

 

[KatsuKitty]

This is a little-known katsufact but I've been diagnosed with C-PTSD over traumatic, severe daily bullying from middle and high school. I remember specifiacally telling my therapist how the hallway felt like a war zone and at one point, I didn't feel like I could walk down it without getting physically assaulted or having things thrown at me. Now, I dunno if I really buy it or not since it doesn't have much of an impact on my life, but that was a professional opinion from some time ago.

At worst, I can't stomach crowds, and have had a few anxiety incidents in public places that were extraordinarily busy. I also have absolutely no patience for bullshit people may give me and have been ahem "asked to leave" a restaurant along with a man I got into a fight with once. So that probably has something to do with it, too. Just can't stand or trust strangers, especially a lot of them.

 

[autisticdragonkin]

I think I might have (mild) C-PTSD from my experiences in the special education system

 

[Zoobles]

I got PTSD from a drug overdose 4 years ago. I stopped drinking and doing drugs the next day and have been clean ever since =]

 

[autisticdragonkin]

I got PTSD from a drug overdose 4 years ago. I stopped drinking and doing drugs the next day and have been clean ever since =]

I never realized that overdoses could give PTSD

 

[norrington]

I never realized that overdoses could give PTSD

I've always been of the impression that PTSD comes in some way from a subconsciously perceived threat of a total loss of control over your personal safety, situations where the human brain can't rationally conceive of the danger at hand, so I'd imagine an overdose can end with PTSD just like any other near-death experience can in the right context.

 

[Zoobles]

I never realized that overdoses could give PTSD

@norrington explained it very well. I get some moderate episodes of PTSD when unexpected representations of heavy drug use pop up in films and TV. I flash back to the night of my OD from mixing drugs and vividly recall the unexplainable horror from when I believed I was about to die and was too incapacitated to dial 911.

 

[Eldritch]

My mom and dad both have PTSD.
My dad's is a combination of abuse as a child and war. He doesn't like flying,having survived a helicopter crash in desert storm, or being harshly criticized, since he's already dealt with that enough through his childhood and career. I remember once when I was younger he really poured out some feelings about the war and how his father pushed him into being in the military with his heroic vietnam war stories. (we now know he never went to vietnam) He somewhat implied that he may have killed someone in a firefight, but he was overall vague about it.
He hasn't had many episodes that I know of. One when a plane he was on took off, one when a member of a veteran bikers club he's in hazed him as a new guy, and a minor freakout at a bucket on the side of the road. (he swerved away from it a little, instinctively thinking it was an IED) He's also a little irritable in general, but still great to spend time with.

I can't say I have as much to say about my mom's. Her mother was kind of a nutjob and married a string of sociopathic low-lifes who abused her and her siblings. I've never heard of her having flashbacks, but I think she might have some suppressed memories and deals with anxiety and depression. She's also become very critical of religion, since her parents used it to justify the abuse. She's been managing very well as of late.

 

[Martin Van Buren]

I feel like I have a mild case of PTSD due to medical trauma. I survived a sudden event that kills one in four and in those who died, it was only diagnosed in an autopsy. Lying in my hospital bed for three days with that statistic hanging over my head was pretty fucked up. I've turned my life around since that but I'll never be back to 100%.

Having it happen once can make you more prone for another occurrence so I get a minor panic attack every time I experience a symptom. It was pretty bad in the first few months after it happened and I went to the ER a couple of times to ensure that I was okay. The treatment was horrible and I have flashbacks every time I see the name of a particular drug that put me through hell for a few weeks.

I don't think it'll ever go away and I just discovered that something that I've been experiencing that I never connected to the event is residual damage. I never really got the term 'new normal' until just now and it has me wondering if there's anything else that I haven't noticed like how I'm currently having trouble sleeping.

PTSD was always something I used to associate with combat and abuse which is why I'm having a hard time accepting this because come on, medical trauma? I didn't die but could have easily died. It could reoccur anytime randomly and if I'm unlucky, I'll be dead before I can even get to a hospital.

Typing out all of this was hard but it feels a bit better with it off my shoulders, you know?

 

[DirkBloodStormKing]

I feel like I have a mild case of PTSD due to medical trauma. I survived a sudden event that kills one in four and in those who died, it was only diagnosed in an autopsy. Lying in my hospital bed for three days with that statistic hanging over my head was pretty fucked up. I've turned my life around since that but I'll never be back to 100%.

Having it happen once can make you more prone for another occurrence so I get a minor panic attack every time I experience a symptom. It was pretty bad in the first few months after it happened and I went to the ER a couple of times to ensure that I was okay. The treatment was horrible and I have flashbacks every time I see the name of a particular drug that put me through hell for a few weeks.

I don't think it'll ever go away and I just discovered that something that I've been experiencing that I never connected to the event is residual damage. I never really got the term 'new normal' until just now and it has me wondering if there's anything else that I haven't noticed like how I'm currently having trouble sleeping.

PTSD was always something I used to associate with combat and abuse which is why I'm having a hard time accepting this because come on, medical trauma? I didn't die but could have easily died. It could reoccur anytime randomly and if I'm unlucky, I'll be dead before I can even get to a hospital.

Typing out all of this was hard but it feels a bit better with it off my shoulders, you know?

What was that event? I hope this question doesn't trigger you or anything.

 

[Martin Van Buren]

What was that event? I hope this question doesn't trigger you or anything.

PMed. I kept it vague to avoid being doxxed but I don't mind talking about it in PMs if anybody else is interested.

 

[AnimuGinger]

Working in healthcare fucked me up. Some rooms just don't sit right with me anymore, and keep me on edge the entire time I'm in there.

 

[bearycool]

>sees golgo made the thread.
>must resist urge to troll
> ;_;

I say the three months I was in retail did it for me. I'm not saying I have mega PTSD and should be special, but it touched me and humble me to a point that I respect retail workers, but at the same time I become depressed and get anxious when I'm in a store too long. It's like I "feel" the energy of the place a bit too deeply, and it just feels like absolute shit. I tend to order stuff online and restrict myself to buying food at the super market because of how much it makes me feel so awful.

Tl;dr: the way people are treated in retail is shit.

 

[Scratch This Nut]

I don't have PTSD, but I have been dealing with anxiety disorder. I'm kind of a huge mess. I don't want to get into all of this disability shit, but high school was the fucking worst. I was incredibly shy and was sexually harassed during my sophomore year and teased the rest of it. My class was a pretty notorious one. I'm still not that comfortable with sex. My boyfriend is the best and is really understanding. Wouldn't trade him for anyone.

 

[Load Bearing Drywall]

I have Complex PTSD diagnosed by a professional (it's a legit diagnosis over here, ICD-10 has slightly different criteria than the DSM IV TR/V).

Not going to go too much into it, but I had a very rough childhood with an abusive alcoholic father, nasty bullying at school, and I was raped in college. It took over a decade and luck of the draw before I got a case worker and therapist who figured out what was really going on (both did a lot of work with refugees and picked up on my behavioral cues immediately). I'd been going on and off to therapy since I was in grade school and my mom suspected I was being molested, each time I got a different diagnosis but nothing really helped.

I'd been having flashback and dissociative episodes as far back as I could remember, but I had no idea that that's what they were since the pop culture representations of that stuff is so combat-veteran based (especially in American media, which we get a lot of) that I never put the pieces together.

Now I'm 3 years into regular therapy, including using ACT and EMDR and I'm getting better. I can recognise my triggers, and instead of almost daily flashbacks and dissociative episodes, I get one every few months. I'll be "graduating" regular therapy this fall. Not sure of when I'll stop taking SSRIs, but we've even been able to lower my dose.

I just want everyone reading this to know, if you or a loved one has PTSD or the symptoms, therapy works. You can get better. It's not easy (EMDR or any other exposure therapy will make things worse in the short run) but it's worth it.

 

[Tokitae]

I have Complex PTSD diagnosed by a professional (it's a legit diagnosis over here, ICD-10 has slightly different criteria than the DSM IV TR/V).

Not going to go too much into it, but I had a very rough childhood with an abusive alcoholic father, nasty bullying at school, and I was raped in college. It took over a decade and luck of the draw before I got a case worker and therapist who figured out what was really going on (both did a lot of work with refugees and picked up on my behavioral cues immediately). I'd been going on and off to therapy since I was in grade school and my mom suspected I was being molested, each time I got a different diagnosis but nothing really helped.

I'd been having flashback and dissociative episodes as far back as I could remember, but I had no idea that that's what they were since the pop culture representations of that stuff is so combat-veteran based (especially in American media, which we get a lot of) that I never put the pieces together.

Now I'm 3 years into regular therapy, including using ACT and EMDR and I'm getting better. I can recognise my triggers, and instead of almost daily flashbacks and dissociative episodes, I get one every few months. I'll be "graduating" regular therapy this fall. Not sure of when I'll stop taking SSRIs, but we've even been able to lower my dose.

I just want everyone reading this to know, if you or a loved one has PTSD or the symptoms, therapy works. You can get better. It's not easy (EMDR or any other exposure therapy will make things worse in the short run) but it's worth it.

It's true that a lot of PTSD stereotypes are centered around veteran things and while that is obviously awful and on a different level to a lot of things, a lot of people who have PTSD over more commonplace things don't always realise it for that reason. It took me a long time to accept I had the "right" to be traumatised by anything that had happened to me, even when it had been affecting my life for just as long.

It's so great when you find treatment that lets you get back some control of your life, and it sounds like you're on an amazing path... I'm really happy for you!

 

[Kelpy Goyim]

I havent been diagnosed but in 2011 I had just turned 20 and was a 5 year heroin addict with absolutely no sense of others safety or well being. Just a junkie shit from the suburbs. I had been clean for a month and employed for 1 week when so and so and such and such happened and i went right back to the kneedle. 2 days later, omw to an NA meeting I fell asleep behind the wheel and took the life of an innocent victim by way of head on collision. i woke up for a moment in the air, upside down i believe, then it was black. then i was being pulled up out through the drivers side window of my vehicle which had rolled probably 20 times and down the side of a hill near some woods, id estimate 50 yards away from the road, by a witness. as soon as i realized what id done i ran back up towards the victims vehicle and was willing to try to do anything i could to help. this was clearly misguided aswell as dangerous but in my state its all that made sense. i was quickly restrained and taken to a hospital, then released the next day with relatively minor injuries. the detectives called, i had my father take me to the local police station, and 6 years later i was released from prison and sent back home. didnt seem fair and still doesnt, how can i ask for help when im literally the cause of the OPs affliction? No pitty parties here, but its been almost 3 years since my release and things have only grown harder, yet do i even deserve to mention such a thing?

 

[yasscat]

I havent been diagnosed but in 2011 I had just turned 20 and was a 5 year heroin addict with absolutely no sense of others safety or well being. Just a junkie shit from the suburbs. I had been clean for a month and employed for 1 week when so and so and such and such happened and i went right back to the kneedle. 2 days later, omw to an NA meeting I fell asleep behind the wheel and took the life of an innocent victim by way of head on collision. i woke up for a moment in the air, upside down i believe, then it was black. then i was being pulled up out through the drivers side window of my vehicle which had rolled probably 20 times and down the side of a hill near some woods, id estimate 50 yards away from the road, by a witness. as soon as i realized what id done i ran back up towards the victims vehicle and was willing to try to do anything i could to help. this was clearly misguided aswell as dangerous but in my state its all that made sense. i was quickly restrained and taken to a hospital, then released the next day with relatively minor injuries. the detectives called, i had my father take me to the local police station, and 6 years later i was released from prison and sent back home. didnt seem fair and still doesnt, how can i ask for help when im literally the cause of the OPs affliction? No pitty parties here, but its been almost 3 years since my release and things have only grown harder, yet do i even deserve to mention such a thing?

...um

 

[Kelpy Goyim]

...um

Probably right. Not sure why I picked the forum to talk about it.

 

[queerape]

I've had PTSD since 2009; while my symptoms have been well managed since 2009, years 2009-2015ish were horrid. I had no regular sleeping pattern, was afraid to fall asleep from nightmares, would start panicking and running in certain situations, and all people did was belittle it.