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.
Trigger Warning - assault
I have PTSD from sexual assault and sexual abuse, but most of my triggers are associated from the physical assaults and hostile working environment I was in for two years. A number of the physical assaults had connections back to my sexual assaults and prior abuse, which is why the triggers are now related to my prior job as opposed to the initial abuse itself. I am now out of that environment and have been for ten months. I recently started getting my graduate degree to go back into that field, but in another area for another company in another geographical state, just a whole new fresh start. Studying my subject matter triggers me to no end. I fly into a rage, which leads to me eventually breaking down in tears and depression. I am unable to sleep for more than a half an hour at a time. I cried for two full days this week because I felt so stressed and depressed when I didn't have any real stressors around me. I have permission to increase my medications up if I feel the need, but increasing my medications doesn't seem to be helping.
That's frustrating to me because I had improved so much after I left my job. A few weeks after I had left my job, my PTSD medications needed to be reduced by 75% because I did not need them to be that high anymore. I went from being constantly stressed out and in fight or flight mode 24/7 to being able to actually relax for once. I had two episodes in a span of eight months, which was better than the once a month rate I had for the previous year on the job. I studied online last fall for my degree, and while my two episodes were related to that, it wasn't a constant thing for me.
Why is it now being such an issue? Is there any kind of like... Stockholm syndrome for PTSD? Is there a kind of... Grieving period, almost, that sort of thing, where, once you're not in the situation anymore, you just get all manner of triggers because you're not in the 24/7 fight or flight, but now your mind can kind of re-set itself and trigger the ever-living crap out of you just to get it all out? Has anyone else seemingly regressed?
Is there any resources I could look at about this?
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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.
PTSD triggers can come out of nowhere and do you have a trigger that you didn’t even know about until it happens.
Occasionally, I see someone walking through the grocery store that looks like my father. I always stop and look at them. Then I remind myself he’s on the other side of the country and that’s not him. So I go about my business. That’s happened to me a couple of times. I’m able to work through it because I know it’s just a similarity of features.
But it’s one that I didn’t see coming until it happened.
Can you change up where you study? If you go to the same place and study there every time you get triggered, your brain is going to react the same way as if you’re in danger when you sit there and try to study.
I know this is really hard to deal with. But kudos to you for coming as far as you have. You’ve had to overcome a lot of terrible things to get here. Even though this is an annoying and confusing speed bump in the road, you’ll get to where you want to go.
That's why therapist Pete Walker's 13 tips for flashback management helps me.
http://pete-walker.com/13StepsManageFlashbacks.htm
Gentle hug... Panic is horrible...… Grounding techniques help me a great deal.... Usually picturing a room I feel safe in and describing it in detail is what I use.... xo
pinkgnomie13.
https://www.healthline.com/health/emdr-therapy