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.
I'm spending my vacation visiting my best friend in Minnesota, college roommate class of 1979. This is a guy who has gone back with me to South America where I grew up in a terrorist war as a missionary kid. There he went with me to the site where my family and I survived a car bombing. We went out for ice cream but got caught in battle between urban terrorists and police, and one of the terrorists hit our car with a Molotov cocktail bomb. I was nine years old.
Here I arrived on vacation and a policeman shot and killed a man at a traffic stop who was in his car with his girlfriend and her 4 year old child. The child saw him die, like I saw people die when I was a kid. Ouch. Last night my friend and I went to a play, but when we came out protesters had closed the interstate, so it took time to get home. Some protesters clashed with police, and a molotov cocktail was thrown. That triggered me, too.
I'm not taking sides in the politics of the matter. Believe me, I feel the pain here. I'm just venting here because it also triggers me, and ironically on vacation. I'm going to church today at a church directly across the street form the police station, so I'm sure all will come up. Prayers for peace for all sides welcome.
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Here is my new brother, copper :) He's so tiny! Moo and Tuck were ok with him on first meeting. Rocket due to his severe aggression will never meet Cooper.
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https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTDeA9Wxg/
Vent on, good buddy. I am glad you are not trying to handle it alone. We are here for you.
no wonder PTSD comes with hypervigilance,when the world is so unpredictable,and can feel so unsafe,and cause us to be so triggered..
please take good care.prayers sent.
So I apologized for how it bothered her, but I also stood up for the fact that PTSD works how it works, and a triggered episode will pass when it will pass. I also acknowledged that it's probably why I prefer to live alone, and others prefer not to live with me. I said the good thing to remember is that whatever got rewired in my brain by trauma is what helped me survive in the first place. That our problem as survivors with PTSD is just that--that we can't unwire our brains back to normal after the need to survive is over. Especially those with CPTSD, or "complex" PTSD who had constant trauma over years in our childhood developmental, formative years.
It was really scary for me to stand up to her like that. Though I've known her for a long time, she is the "alpha" in the couple I'm staying with. Her husband is my best friend since being college roommates class of 1979, so I met him years before she did. I know his family of origin and how it was his role in it to take care of his mom no matter what, so he is not an "alpha" and never answers back. It works for him.
That's what was really scary--I didn't want to rock the boat for him. But what works for him doesn't work for me when I'm PTSD triggered. So far it looks like I took responsibility for being PTSD triggered even as also I stood up for myself. By offering to stay home from today's vigil about the shooting I also let her be away from triggered me and how I bum her out. I recognize that sometimes I should be taken in small doses. When I'm PTSD triggered, I'd like to get away from me, too. Medication is the only option, though, and for me it would take so much that I wouldn't be very functional.
Thanks for your support here. Here I can present myself in small doses, so I know I can count on not being as likely to drive anyone away if I'm PTSD triggered. Plus, we have things like "TW" (trigger warning) and anyway I inadvertently bother too much can use the DS ignore button. I'm really grateful I can count on you. Someday, in the afterlife, there will be no more triggering, no more PTSD, and no need for "TW" or for DS ignore buttons. That would be heaven to me.