National PTSD Awareness Day

When my daughter was 19 she came down with a rare neurological disease that nearly killed her. I left my newspaper job in Alaska and flew down to Seattle to live in the hospital for a few months. Once she was out of the hospital, I dove right back into work -- when I wasn't helping her go through withdrawal from her addiction to hospital-prescribed painkillers, or driving her to and from PT, or dealing with the extreme tension between her and my then-husband, who just wanted everything to be all right again and didn't want to hear that it wasn't.
It took more than a year for me to seek help for what I thought were signs of me losing my mind. I felt shame that I was having trouble. After all, I wasn't the one who'd been sick. What was wrong with me? What kind of weakling was I?
The physician who saw me initially listened to my symptoms and then handed me a piece of paper. It listed the signs of PTSD. Just about all of them applied.
I got treatment. Many other people who have PTSD don't. When I meet people who've been through traumatic events and tell me of their issues (sleeplessness, hypervigilance, et al.), I urge them to seek help. And you know what? A lot of them react the same way that I did when I was feeling so low: "It's not like I was in a WAR or something. It's just some kind of failure of will."
So thanks for writing this. It needs to be heard.

Charlotte, thank you for your response! I love that you mentioned the "A-haa moment" because that is exactly how it felt for me as well! Once you really start to understand it, you can start to heal from it. At least that's how it is for me. I'm a big believer that a little information can go a long way, and it sounds like you are too!
Also, I think my therapist would agree with somatic therapies being helpful. She's always encouraged me to try things like yoga... :-)

Rachel
www.brightenthepath.com ( http://www.brightenthepath.com )
"We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own." -Ben Sweetland

whatlolawantslolagets.blogspot.com

Hi simplyjune! Thank you! I think many people feel the same way, that life is just tough sometimes. While that can be true, those of us who have been through trauma (and it sounds like you've been through a few!) often suffer needlessly because we don't realize that maybe it life doesn't have to be so tough! Well, at least not in the same way. Thanks for sharing!

Rachel
www.brightenthepath.com ( http://www.brightenthepath.com )
"We cannot hold a torch to light another's path without brightening our own." -Ben Sweetland

whatlolawantslolagets.blogspot.com

Thank you so much for posting this. Education on PTSD is really important to the healing process. You're doing a great service by making people aware! Whenever I've given people new information on trauma and how it can affect the physiology of the brain in my classes, the response is overwhelmingly positive. Despite the fact that it's sometimes hard to talk about,people usually have an "A-haa!" moment which helps explain their symptoms. I also find that somatic therapies like yoga and acupuncture are really useful. Thanks again. You're doing great work.

Thank you for bringing attention to PTSD. About a year ago I was given a list of over 20 major tramatic experiences a woman can go through and ask to check all that applied to me. I left only 2 unchecked. This led me to finding out I probably needed to talk to someone about the "drama" in my life for the first time ever. I have only recently been told I have most likely been suffering from PTSD for many years but just chalked it up to life really being tough at times.

Like you said, it's not just veterans that find themselves dealing with anxiety on a grand scale, so thanks for a great post with lots of good information & links. :)
http://simplyjunehaskell.blogspot.com/