I carried my PTSD into the Army with me in 1973. Sexual abuse. Much of my most effective therapy was in the Army, then through the VA. The PTSD diagnosis did not hit my radar until the 90s, but the correlations were already being drawn when I .started therapy in the 70s As one of my combat injured fellow vets put it, "Bedroom or battlefield, a gunshot is a gunshot."

I advise small bites and long chews. It is high fiber stuff. Give it time to settle.

I think people get too hung up on a label.

PTSD is not exclusive to war. Like arfie said, If you had a bomb drop on you and you are still reeling, it may be PTSD or anxiety or depression or adjustment disorder. Who cares what it's called.

List the symptoms/complaints to your therapist and state your goals. They should take it from there. And keep researching- don't depend upon one outside "professional" to be responsible for your recovery.

Good luck.

To 51percent. I think that is why my doctor thinks the death of my brother is a contributing factor. My brother had a heart attack. He had high blood pressure and had a stroke first and than a heart attack. I have high blood pressure and every time I go to the doctor they tell me my blood pressure is too high and if I'm not careful I will also have a heart attack. I think that along with the trauma of my husband's affair is what caused a lot of my issues. Even my doctor who is by the way in intern told me that a affair would not fall under PTSD. He is consulting with his Boss from what he told me and will do follow up with me next week. I am just really confused. I used to be such a strong person, able to handle anything, now I am not coping with anything. I don't know if it's like arfie said or DeliAnnem and just anxiety and depression. I just know I was never like this before. Before I was put on Xanax I was having a lot of shaking and could not breath and lets just say personality changed as in kinda getting violent, which is not me. Thanks to every one for you comments.

Those of us here with PTSD diagnoses have it from a variety of traumas we've survived, and then need to learn how to live with surviving. That's it in a nutshell.

That means finding out more about our trauma with a good therapist over time, as best we can--and there we have to pace ourselves, often, because of course that is upsetting. But it's helpful. Meds help a lot, but they don't bring the understanding investigating the trauma and its effect on us with a therapist can. We learn our "triggers" and how to manage life avoiding them or not avoiding them as need be.

We talk to each other here for support. That is no joke. I went to a face to face support group every week without fail for the first five years after I was diagnosed. It made all the difference, like being here does every day now.

Welcome, and I hope you can settle in and feel at home. If you can't and wonder about it and want a second diagnostic opinion from another doctor, don't feel like the first person to do so. Many of us had second opinions, too. Since it's often a chronic disorder without a simple cure, it helps for a lot of us to be told twice by different docs whether we have it or not so we can commit to dealing with it. You're not alone.

The diagnosis of PTSD used to be that the trauma had to be truly catastrophic, but they've changed that now to be that it has to be perceived by the person to be catastrophic, even if objectively we could see that it actualy was not. example: someone reported that s/he was in the hospital, and sedated, and one of the staff members was doing something to his/her upper thigh that this person thought was sexual abuse and got very upset, and yes, traumatized, though later on it was discovered that the staff person was doing a legitimate procedure.

If you consider the sudden news that your husband was having an affair to be catastrophic then that qualifies as trauma,, though if that is still happening then it's not "post' yet. You could be experiencing traumatic stress, grief, depression, and all kinds of normal reactions to these terrible occurrences, and need counseling to help you get through them.

Labels are only tools to help us understand. They are not boxes that we have to fit tightly exactly into that confine us. Each of us is kind of unique.

If your care provider is an intern, then remind him of that, an intern is just out of med school, and still wet behind the ears, and is not really capable of making such authoritative decisions, as is reflected by his consulting with his 'boss', who would be probably the attending physician. You can also request to see the attending physician yourself.

i know for me I do have the hbp and it is treatable and many studies and research conclude that ptsd harms cardio system i go to VA for my treatment for ptsd ,, vietnam era vet and it developed as a direct result of my own trauma ,,,, many disorders come from trauma but I get it checked and take meds ,,,, and exercise , so sorry for your loss I have had many myself parents etc but nobody could tell you for sure but a qualified therapist who knows about trauma ,,, that is alot on your plate so sorry again bmw hugs