1/15/11
About six months ago I started a blog titled Understanding PTSD. You can see the story behind that blog below. That blog was intended for friends and loved ones of those living with PTSD. I was shocked by the response I received to the blog and on the blog's Twitter and Facebook sites. In addition to friends and loved ones there are several people living with PTSD who also follow the Understanding PTSD blog and I was beginning to receive questions/comments from them as well. I felt that these were addressing different areas and after much thought and consideration I decided to start this blog as a sister blog for those who are living with PTSD.
This is a place for people living with PTSD to share thoughts, comments and questions. Please submit them on the Submit Comments/Questions about Living with PTSD page and I will work them into a blog post. In the blog posts I will share my experience with living with PTSD in the hope that it will provide encouragement to others also living with PTSD. All posts are open to comments. I would just ask that you be respectful and mindful that everyone's experiences with PTSD and avenues of successful treatment are very different for each person.
Please read the Important Information page for more information about what this blog is and is not.
Please read the Important Information page for more information about what this blog is and is not.
Here is the story behind the Understanding PTSD blog.
I have been living with PTSD since I was a child. I was raped more than once and I witnessed a violent murder as a child.
I have found that the only persons who truly have any real understanding of my life are those who are also living with PTSD. Recently, one of those persons in my life committed suicide. Afterwards, I found myself in a conversation with a close friend of hers who I had never spoken with before. She understood that her friend had been in a lot of pain and she understood that was the reason why she made the choice she did but there was a lot that she didn’t understand about what that pain was really like for her friend. I told her she could ask me any questions she wanted and I would do the best I could to answer them. We talked for over three hours that day. In the midst of the conversation, it occurred to me that my friends might want to know some of the things I was explaining to this stranger. Later that night I sent an e-mail to my friends with tidbits from that conversation. My friends’ responses stated that the email helped them understand me better but their responses also brought me to the realization that my friends understood me less than I thought they had prior to the e-mail.
While I completely and fully understand what led her to that point, the death of my friend and the resulting pain her friend now lives with and the gaping canyon of lack of understanding that exists between those living with PTSD and those living without PTSD all sadden me. Living with PTSD is a very lonely place, even if it may not appear to be from the outside. I hope that writing this blog will help build a bridge over that gaping canyon.
