What's your story?

Trenus wrote:I am very confused with mosaicmonkey post. System?

Yes, we are a system. many people sharing one body. We have Dissociative Identity Disorder (previously Multiple Personality Disorder)

CrackedGirl wrote:Hi Kerry and welcome to you all

Cracked

Thank you You've gone all green since the last time we were here Congrats

Thank you

Cracked

Hi people,

I was never officially diagnosed with PTSD, but lately I wonder if I have it. In the past, I experienced physical, mental and emotional abuse, along with my siblings and cousins (and sometimes by my cousins). But, after a while, I considered the rough lifestyle a normal thing. I was 100% convinced that I was unaffected and that I deserved whatever was happening. Then when I finally got away from them at age 14, I met a lot of friends and started a new life, but I still noticed how I seemed to be different from others--quicker to jump the gun, a lot more angry, a lot more spiteful, and sometimes, a lot more depressed. Then, in the past couple of years, I've had three near death experiences. One of them was my boyfriend and I exploring an abandoned building and an Arian brotherhood guy and an old guy and a few other people showed up in there, then took out knives and threatened to kill us. One was when my friend and I were going to the store, and a car was coming towards my door at at least 60mph, and I knew it was gonna hit me head on, then somehow, they hit the brakes and my friend hit the gas at the same time, and amazingly, it missed us. And the worst one was when my boyfriend and I were crossing a highway on the way to taco bell and a cop in an SUV hit me going about 65 mph. Some how, I got out of that with a sore back and scrapes and scratches, nothing more. Since all that happened, I never thought about it, and I have always thought that it was just a series of unfortunate events, and I got over it--but I'm terrified to cross the streets with other people. Alone, I'm fine, but I won't cross streets with other people anymore, not even a little road in a neighborhood. I've also found myself to be very quick to get violent. Most of the time I don't actually act on it, but it has happened a few times, and I've really hurt a few people unintentionally. I grew up seeing violence a lot, that's most likely why... but a lot of others who seem to be from abusive homes don't seem half as angry as I am. Also, I had a big black lab named Ubu who was my best friend, and he was the best dog ever, but he always tried to climb in the window next to the porch, even with his leash on. Then one day, he tried that, only the window was closed, and he ended up falling and hanging himself. I came home and saw him hanging from the porch, neck broken and mouth hanging open, bones sticking out and all. He had just died right before I got there. Anyway, that's the end of all my stories, sorry for ranting and good luck to all of you with your problems, God bless

Hi all. A loved one was recently diagnosed with PTSD.

The weekend before Christmas one year ago she had a traumatic experience where her clothing caught on fire. I was the only one there at the time and I saved her life. Her burns were very bad (mostly third degree, covering a good part of one side of her body.) She had emergency surgery (skin grafts) where the skin was taken from her thighs (which are now also scarred). She is currently interested in possible plastic surgery to improve the overall look of the scars. She has remarked several times that she "feels ugly" and is very disappointed that the scars, while they have healed a lot, still don't look anywhere near to her normal skin. She is worried/scared that she will never marry because she doesn't think that anyone will love her because of the way she looks. We've told her that someone definitely will; that people marry for love but I'm not sure if she believes us.

This year, as Christmas was approaching, she started to experience some psychotic symptoms about 2.5 weeks before Christmas. She didn't sleep for 5 days straight and experienced paranoid delusions and both visual and auditory hallucinations. She thought that she was going to die and that people wanted to kill her and our family. Then she thought that we (her family) wanted to kill her. She thought that she was going to burn to death. She thought that the water was poisoned...pretty much anything bad that could possibly happen to her, she thought was going to happen. We found out later that she also thought that the world was going to end. The whole thing culminated in us having to call the police because she was outside in 30F weather for several hours in her pajamas, because she thought that she was going to be killed. In the end she was hospitalized for almost two weeks (fortunately, voluntarily, amazingly enough). Still, she continued to experience many of the same symptoms, although the medication they put her on seemed to help a bit (Ativan, Risperdol and Cymbalta).

Yesterday she met with a psychiatrist who diagnosed her with PTSD and discontinued her Risperdol and Cymbalta, but kept her on Ativan and also put her on Lexapro. I only hope that she will improve because we all love her a lot. We are behind her and dedicated to her every step of the way.

Hello, everyone! Please start separate threads for advice and support, I will lock this sticky.