Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Support Group

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Days that make you remember

veronameow
veronameow

Tomorrow is the birthday of my ex-partner. My trauma stems from caring for him for a prolongued period of time while his mental health deterioirated. I have been thinking about this date approaching for a while now and sitting here tonight it all just hit me again. I was getting flashbacks of the way he would look at me while trying to end his life and i can't get this out of my head. It is really difficult to speak to anyone I know about this because I don't want them to think my mental health is going backwards (I don't actually think it is but just sometimes it is harder than other days). 


I am not having a crisis right now but whenever I am in this state I have the underlying thought of "am I ever going to stop feeling like this?" and it makes it worse. It's likely never going to be the case that I do stop feeling like this and I am trying to accept that but yeah, it is not easy. 


I just needed to get this off my chest. Thanks for reading 

Community LeaderLeo
Leo
I entered a crisis, belatedly realizing it was due to my late dad's birthday....

*paw bump*
arfie
arfie
"anniversary syndrome" goes by allot of different names, but it is a booger bear, by whatever name. in my ptsd portfolio, birthdays fit neatly into the anniversary syndrome file. they are among the "days that make you remember." the birthdays of people who have been dead for 40 years still trigger me to ptsd psychosis.

the good news is that the anniversary syndrome can be managed. a post such as this one is one of the tools i use for that very job. and? ? ? did making this post help you any?

gentle support while you ride out the reminder.
veronameow
veronameow
Hi both, yes posting this has helped and both of you responding has really helped me not feel so alone. Thank you both
Community Leadermujicaptsd
mujicaptsd
Being mindful of anniversaries like this is something folks do here carefully and caringly, verona. You came to the right place for support for that in particular. With my anniversaries I found they never went away totally, but the first one was the hardest and then they got less hard every year after that. Support got me through.
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