hello? anybody here? ptsd troubles.

[wasabi]

I've noticed that there are no recent posts here, but I'll give this a shot anyway. I've seen some great posts via google on here regarding those of similar troubles and the community seems friendlier than most.

I recently ended sessions with my therapist. I felt better, but I asked her If she thought I was ready. I didn't think I was. I mean, I'm doing better but still having issues. I feel like she kinda blew me off. There wasn't much of a connection there anyway.

I scared to seek out somebody new for treatment of my ptsd-so I'm trying to help myself. If that is even possible. I keep having nightmares of my childhood abuse, and I can't seem to grasp my emotions. I'm really irritable for no reason at all sometimes.

If you have it, or know about ptsd, how do you/would you handle those thoughts? I'm thinking of trying EMDR treatments. I refuse to take Prozac because I can't be creative on it(which my job depends on) and it doesn't seem to help me with my obsessive thoughts. I was on it for a year and a half and then went off of it with the help of my doctor.

Tonight, I stayed up thinking again. I truly feel like a prisoner of my mind. Every time I get to thinking I can't sleep. Sleep medicines really have no effect on me. What about meditation?

 

[Malika]

This forum is mainly for parents of troublesome children but I am sure anyone is welcome!
Your phrase "I feel a prisoner of my own mind" is very interesting... I am a Buddhist practioner of some years. Buddhism teaches (and people can investigate for themselves to see whether they think it is true!) that the mind is where happiness and unhappiness are created, not outside in external events. Sometimes things that have happened in the past, particularly traumatic events, keep coming up in the mind, in a sometimes obessional way. It is one of the characteristics of PTSD that the traumatic event or events keep being "replayed" like this. Anything that would break the power of the trauma and its hold over the mind would therefore be welcomed. I think that without external supports, meditation on its own might be insufficient in cases of trauma such as yours. A two-pronged approach of therapy (I have heard good things of EDMR) and meditation would seem wise...
If you begin, in daily life, to observe your present suffering as arising in the mind, as just being a thought and that the thought is not "real", not relating to anything that is real now, that can be very helpful in breaking the power of suffering... To bring yourself back to the present, observing the mind in this way - and that is all meditation is, often using the breath as a focus - is also really helpful. What are you feeling NOW, what is happening NOW?
All these things are trainings, they do not happen overnight. But bit by bit you can free yourself from even the most terrible memories.
Please don't take anything I have said as an advertisement for Buddhism - I am really just talking about bringing yourself into the present without any religious connotation!
Go well.

 

[exhausted]

My daughter sufferes with PTSD. We saterted EMDR therapy because there is good empiracle evidence to support its use. However we have not been able to finish as she was a runner and did not keep herself safe. We have had to seek a more secure facility. Why not give it a try? One study says the benefits last more than other treatments.-can't remember where I saw this. It's a tough illness and takes years. There is no shame in keeping up treatment. You need a person you are connected too-we know that is a big deal with our daughter. Sleep medications have not helped much for our daughter but she started a new SSRI that has helped and is commonly used with PTSD. Please take care of yourself. Your gut is telling you to do something.

 

[flutterby]

EMDR is the standard treatment protocol for PTSD, along with CBT.

We are parents of kids with 'issues', but have you tried crazyboards.org?

 

[Jena]

hi

i suffered from that as well. meditation, yoga, charting it helps. write down the most horrible memories of it. subject yourself to it, close yourself off from everyone and allow that go insane time. sit there and set a limit to it, do this for a week. each day making the time loner. so say start with ten minutes increase to a hr by end of week. let yourself feel, cry, etc through it. sounds insane i know yet this is exactly what i did and did do nd it's the only thing that got me ok.

once i was down giong down the list of the most horrifying moments of it. i let myself feel all the pain etc. i than began replacing each memory when it would hit with something that i loved to do or favoite memory. each time you have to redirec the mind and go there. i too felt like a prisoner in my own mind i thought at one point i'd lose my mind it was so bad.

yet i did this, i meditated, i let out each emotion in a controlled time frame and in time it did pass im not a prisoner anymore. lastly i suggest writing a letter to your abuser if you know who they are. they is the closure end of it. you dont' have to give it to them you just hae to write it get out your junk. burn it when done.

it won't be easy yet it'l be soo worth it in the end. i'm finaly free after literally years. good luck to you!!!!