ptsd
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; The storm after the storm.
PTSD The 10 Keys To My Success
I, like so many 1st responders have been burdened, or gifted depending on your perspective, with PTSD and depression from a career of firefighting. I have been challenged to navigate this whole PTSD recovery process and have had some success. There are still many areas and aspects that I need to work on and address but I am moving forward which is always a good thing. While I’m not where I want to be, nor where I need to be I’m sure glad I’m not where I was. Everybody's mental health journey is unique to them as is their traumas, their therapy and recovery process, a fact I need to continually remind myself of. I've thought a lot about why I’m where I am in my mental health journey and believe the following things have directly contributed to that.
By Rob Leathen6 years ago in Psyche
The sad truths
Along with love and learning how to live a good life I came to a few sad truths about my own thought process existence and way of life. Some that I know a lot of people could agree with. While others would more than disagree but persecute the people who do have to live like this. This story is more of my understanding not the worlds view. So once again I am not a professional, I'm just someone who has lived.
By Chyanne Myers6 years ago in Psyche
Out Of Focus Puzzle Approach To Dealing With My PTSD Symptoms
PTSD is a mental health challenge that plagues many 1st responders and I was no different. 27 years of firefighting had left me battling it and depression burdening me with many of the common problematic symptoms that tend to come along with PTSD. There were intrusive symptoms, avoidance symptoms, alterations in cognition and mood and arousal and reactivity type symptoms.
By Rob Leathen6 years ago in Psyche
The Safe Face of the Waves
The hot autumn days had relinquished their hold on the sun begrudgingly. At 5 pm the dried out, burnt orange of the pine trees were still visible in the glacially receding sunlight. The shimmering heat waves rising off the coils of black asphalt collided with the cool wind coming down the mountain, following the solid wall of rock carrying with it the scent of wild flowers growing on the other side in a distant valley. Only the elements were alive and moving in the early evening heat. All the living creatures were silent except for the steady clicking sound made by the grasshoppers as they rustled through the tall, dried grass on the side of the road and one other.
By Steve B Howard6 years ago in Psyche
What's An EMDR Session Like
What’s it like using EMDR in a therapy session to deal with a problematic incident? My therapy session starts like every other previous therapy session, with idle chat with my therapist about how my previous week was. The conversation has nothing to do at all with any of my previous incidents I have responded to and not even about the current things we’re working on. Regardless of the topic of conversation I immediately feel at ease and comfortable, a feeling that comes from being in this office with my therapist and at this welcoming judgement free clinic, my safe place. It’s a feeling I look forward to as I travel to my appointment even though I know how my session will end.
By Rob Leathen6 years ago in Psyche
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD is a mental illness that is different from CPTSD in that the C in CPTSD is about complex PTSD. PTSD comes up from trauma. People with CPTSD experience flashbacks quite often. A PTSD sufferer avoids places that remind them of the trauma or where they suffered the trauma itself. CPTSD merely means that average symptoms of PTSD are aggravated, and amplified. The person with PTSD suffers from intense mental stress that causes them physiological problems. They blame themselves for the traumatic events they've been put through. They need to detach from others because they feel the need to give themselves distance.
By Iria Vasquez-Paez6 years ago in Psyche
How I rewired my brain to overcome trauma & thrive.
Six years ago, I was in a domestic violence relationship. To say I felt trapped in an understatement. Every level of abuse was being invoked - mental, emotional, financial, physical, and sexual, in that order.
By Christina Yeoman6 years ago in Psyche
my story, my life
Hi...abuse. What can i say its shit! Its changed my world, upside down and inside out. No one can understand what you've been through, how it felt and how it still makes you feel. I hated talking about it when people found out, no one knows what to say and they just look at you with this pitiful look in their eyes. Its not their fault abuse isn't a nice subject and almost hidden from the world. we do everything not to talk about it yet people tell you its okay to talk about it... am i the only one confused by all this. So instead of talking i'm going to write.
By No-one-important6 years ago in Psyche
Postpartum w/ PTSD
When I realized that I was miscarrying at 6 weeks, I found myself lost in a type of despair I wasn't familiar with. Not having a partner to rely on, only a handful of commitment-phobe lovers, I was forced to actually reach out for help. I called several friends for the first time in a long time. They were all wonderful and horrible in their own ways, but I was so relieved that I had people to call who actually picked up the phone, that it didn't really matter in the end what they said or didn't say. I do remember someone warned me there would be months of hormonal and physical recovery to 'look forward to'. As someone with PTSD this felt like a death sentence, for the struggle to find balance with an imbalanced mind/body is already too real - so real that I got fired from my last job due to complications of my experience of PTSD, and have been out of work for 4 months since, feeling like a failure and completely dejected, unable to literally apply myself to any other jobs or track down the paperwork to get on disability. If it weren't for my parents and their privilege, I'd most likely be homeless on the streets and attempting suicide right about now. I'm not joking or going for dramatic effect here - someone's brokenness can lead to some really terrible realities, and there is a very fine line around quality of life that we walk when we stop being able to ask for help and/or run out of resources.
By Tara Bloom6 years ago in Psyche
