Welcome Gaiman ..... it's for PTSD from any trauma..... There are people here that have gone through several different types of traumatic events and or complex trauma

We are here if you'd like to talk about it.... xo

I think I have PTSD from the 6 months i had to spend in jail... If i ever see or think of something even close to my time there, i start getting anxiety and panic attacks. I get trapped in these memories and nightmares, and its near impossible to get out of them.

Hi Gaiman. Welcome to the forum. Yup, it's for any flavor of PTSD and undiagnosed questioners as well. More than one of our members joined before they were professionally diagnosed.

You mentioned quite allot of the hot topics in this forum. Share freely. Share often.

Welcome aboard.

Seeing a professional will help you to better understand what illness you’re diagnosed with and set a coping plan into action etc.

Big hug for you Gaiman.... I do think medical help could help you with this ... .Medication can help for now for the anxiety and therapy can help you to work through the trauma and develop coping skills and tools for now and the future

I'm glad that you're here though.... This is a good group with some great people.....xo

Not to nit pick but I think PTSD is an injury, not an illness.

Welcome from me, too, GaimanFan. I've got PTSD from combat but not as a soldier. As a civilian raised in a war zone for 6 years instead. In the US most docs have experience with combat PTSD only with soldiers since the US has the good fortune of not having had a war fought on its own soil since the 1860s. That's why I went to lots of therapists for 12 years but only got partial help until in 2009 a VA doc took me on as an extra patient evenings. Then my PTSD recovery really got started.

Just a patient, not a doc, but speaking just for me I recommend seeing a professional because there's a lot to what donnawanda says here about PTSD being an injury. There's a lot about PTSD that is not only of the mind but of the brain itself. My psychiatrist has me on Prazosin, for example, because it counteracts excess adrenaline in my brain, a chemical hormonal imbalance, not something willpower or talking would counteract. So my best approach is to match the peer support I get here with my psychiatrist's support, too.

As for where my PTSD came from, I'm a triple case:
1. domestic violence, having had a mentally ill bipolar father who refused professional help and was violent in blackout rages and a mom who gave as good as she got;
2. combat,
3. sexual assaults from a military pedophile who took advantage of the fog of war to prey on us kids in elementary school

I like how on this site recovery from all three is supported just as much without differentiating between them. My PTSD is also called the "Complex" kind not because it's better than anybody else's but because that's the word they're using these days for PTSD that rewired the brain at the same time as someone was developing their young brain. It means it's more likely to stay chronic though be totally cured. A lot of my focus, then, is on learning how to be high functioning with the intrusiveness of symptoms kept to a minimum. That's not the case with everybody here, and yet again I find people's support regardless of whether their approach to symptoms is identical to mine or not..

Sorry for what brought you here but glad you've joined us.

Sounds a lot like PTSD to me. Welcome to the site, I hope it helps you as much as it's helped me. To be honest though, I highly suggest you seek professional help. PTSD is highly complicated. It physiologically scars your brain and affects you mentally, emotionally, and even physically. I know it's scary to reach out for help, but there are therapists that specialize in helping former inmates. Self help books can help as well. But just reaching out on this site takes strength, so that's something to be proud of.

Hello, and I'll echo the All Welcome Here! and the Please try to find a specialist. They are waaaay better than "average" therapists, and are trained for all kinds of trauma events. And the thing is, I have no PRE-trauma life. My abuse began before I was old enough to walk or talk (I'm told) and then I only started having a life without abuse when I weent ot college. I somehow managed to be a functional low-symptom PTSDer, till a medical trauam 6 years ago. Since? PTSD is definitely active and big time problematic. Fear is my default setting, basically. I'm slowly learning to not be afraid, but .... Yeah, not so easy as it sounds.

Welcome, and share what you can and as you can. We don't push, and if all you can say is, "I hate people being around me", believe me, we'll understand that without needing to know *why*.