Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Support Group
Find support with others who have gone through a traumatic experience. Whether you have chronic or acute PTSD, we are here for you.
As many of you know, I got PTSD as a missionary kid growing up in Mexico and Uruguay. When I was in Mexico it was the 1960s and there were student riots going on, as in Tlatelolco massacre.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tlatelolco_massacre
Then when we moved to another mission field in Uruguay, things got worse. Argentina and Uruguay spiraled down into the Dirty War. There I didn't just get caught up in student riots where police shot young people around me. I also got tortured by a military patrol until they realized I was a US citizen and released me. But by then it was too late, the damage was done.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dirty_War
I was treated for depression as an adult starting in 1985, and then misdiagnosed as bipolar for 10 years until I got my formal diagnosis of PTSD as an adult in 1995. Because I wouldn't talk about those events, though, I did 12 years of weekly therapy from then on without much in the way of results.
Then in 2007 I moved halfway across country to a new job. By chance at my new church I happened upon a VA doc who specialized in PTSD. Until I met him, I wouldn't talk about combat experiences because I had been a civilian, I hadn't been a soldier, but he opened me up and gave me permission to talk about combat as a civilian anyway.
After 2 years of working with this VA doc, in 2009 I came back down here to Latin America where it all happened to do exposure therapy. I really started getting better by reconnecting with my old childhood friends and going back to the corner where I survived a car bombing. It helped me talk about it for the very first time. By 2012 I had gotten well enough to join this group here at DS PTSD.
Tonight I'm back again in Latin America where I grew up as a missionary kid and got PTSD, this time in Mexico. I'm not only able to visit Latin America now, something I had avoided before 2009. With the DS PTSD support I've gotten here, things have turned around for me so well that I'm thinking of retiring down here when my time comes to retire in a year and a half.
I am amazed I've been able to come back and come back alone. I'm even more amazed I can contemplate moving back down here to retire and see myself being happy coming full circle in life.
Support works, it really does.
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Hey All...I hope that you have a lovely, peaceful beginning of your weekI have a bunch of chores that need doing but may put them off til tomorrow and just hang out with my landlord/roomie todayWhat about you?...Anything special going on?Have a great day and take good care of you!!..Xo
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Once again I've had a fever today. I'm not going to the hospital because that's a huge waste of time but I did schedule a dr appointment for Wednesday afternoon.
I hope the sun is shining there for you.
You have faced so many demons.
Then wiped them out with courage.
Peace
Good job on facing your demons head on and in the light of day.
Should I mention that I am a bit frightened for you on the Mexican retirement? Culture shock and PTSD are a wicked cocktail. I know you were raised in Uruguay, but there are quite allot of countries that are still fighting bitterly among themselves in between Mexico's south border and Uruguay. I am continually stunned by the vast diffs in hispanic cultures, and even the Spanish dialects are inflexibly different from one another. How did an allegedly "phonetically perfect" language manage to spawn hundreds of radically different dialects? My profies at La UDA hated the myth of the phonetic perfection of Spanish. They felt that was the main reason why so few of their grads can spell.
But one thing all those diverse cultures seem to have in common is that there is a huge diff between gringo tourists and gringo immigrants. There's no losing the racism. A gringo is a gringo, even if they don't speak English or wear green shirts.
But it remains yours to sort. . . Continued support while you sort.
NO, arfie, it's no problem for you to mention you're frightened for me about my idea of retiring to Mexico. It makes it easier for me to talk about my own fears about it. I first learned Spanish in Mexico, so I've got that covered, but you're right about what a big difference there is between Mexico and Uruguay. When my family first made the move from Mexico to Uruguay is was culture shock city indeed!
A factor in it, though, is that my physical health with chronic kidney disease is deteriorating such that I may have to retire with disability even to make it to the date I'm vested in my state pension, July 2021. I'm limping toward the finish line. I can't afford to retire in the USA living on my own as I do, so Mexico is my affordable alternative.
Sorting with your support, for sure, and thanks for being open to how frightening this all is. I appreciate it.
Have you made any headway in the local support network in Mexico? Their AA/Alanon network is nothing shy of awesome. Pues. . . en espanol. I don't know if they even have English Alanon meetings in Mexico. Never looked.
Extrano mucho mi madrina de alanon del Ecuador.
Yeah, soulsearcher, that's a great idea. I have an old friend in San Antonio who might let me stay with him on doctor visits back to the States, if needed. Hmmm...