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.
Hi there, and thanks for taking time to read this. I'll try to just get to the point in order to keep this as short as I can as I have a tendency to ramble. I have a history of abuse and stalking when I tried to leave that abuser. Obviously, these are the reasons for having PTSD. I'm naturally more on edge at night, even feeling my depression more at night. But today it's gotten much worse.
I moved states away for college because I felt safer leaving my hometown than staying there. I've been here for several years now and I have never had a problem. I still live on my college campus and I consider the area generally safe, which is why I wasn't at all worried when I got assigned a ground level room. I have a door connecting mine to a room of another girl, kinda like in a hotel, and she and I always talk before bed. She was standing near my window and when she glanced over, she saw someone starng into my window. He was literally on the grass by my window. Not a coincidence or an accident. He ran off after being caught. I don't know if it was a student or someone just wandering through our campus since it is open to the public.
I am scared witless. I don't want to live ground level anymore, but it's too late to change this. I feel exposed and campus security can do very little to help me. I'm scared of someone climbing into my window while I'm sleeping and it's making tonight especially hard. I was worried maybe I was over reacting because of my traumatic past but it scared even my male friend who kindly walked me back to my building after I bolted to the security office when this happened. I was too scared to leave the student building alone and I'm too afraid to be here by myself now.
Has anyone had similar experiences with night time? Or with feeling like maybe you're over reacting but you can't stop it?
I honestly have just been in my bed crying since I came home and I'm exhausted. I work in child care and I'm afraid my pre schoolers won't have all of my energy and attention in the early morning tomorrow. I'm too scared to sleep. My heart is still racing.
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I'm alive, I'm sleeping like a rock, and for some reason I wanted cherry juice so that seems to be helping. (??? Weirdo that I am.)***Infamous therapies over history:1. The Attic. The madwoman in the attic is a motif in literature going waaaaaay back: the nutty female relative is locked in the attic. (See: Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte for a grotesquely racist version of it, and Charlotte Perkins...
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Hey all, i know its been quite awhile since i posted on here. Its been a summer all right. Its been something else........... You know how they say not to open the can of worms? Well a few months ago i decided to find out what my due date would have been for my first baby, the one conceived by r***. My baby would have been due on March 4th of 2006. They would be 20 years old. I was R**** on June...
Yes, I have spent too many nights terrified out of my mind and senses. Enough that my shrinks have a bevy of names to cover all the variants of my night terrors, but. . . I am not sure the scenario you describe fits any of them. Not with the data presented here.
Sprinkled within my delusional threats are real world dangers, especially with the kinds of places I go. An unknown person outside my window, verified by the roommate, qualifies for an investigation in my book. It seems worth a call to campus security.
But. . . I am just conjecturing from incomplete data. . . My short answer is, "Yes, I have experienced similar, KNOWN I was over-reacting and been unable to stop it."
It sucks like an industrial hoover. My support dog (my avi), sharing and/or writing about it are my own most effective remedies, but we discuss a ton of other remedies here. There are no one-size-fits-all remedies I know of.
Rambling allowed here, Espre. It helps with the sorting. Welcome to the forum.
Obviously, make sure your door and windows are locked and try drinking some herbal tea at night to calm your nerves. I’m not sure if you are on medication, but you may need that to deal with your PTSD. I would continue to work with your campus police and ensure they are patrolling around your place regularly. Lean on your friend next door and if it will make you feel safer for a little while, see if she’ll stay with you. I’m not sure if you mentioned if you had been or are in counseling, but I think that would help as well.
Suzy
I echo the comments to rely on friends, to involve police, not just campus but the county or town as well, since they may know the sneaky yucky person (I live in a college town, that happens here somtimes), and by all means, do not feel you are reacting oddly. If you are not scared by scary things? Then worry.
Much hugs and puma support