It depends on what someone is struggling with and how well/accurately that person is "diagnosed" and the "quality" of the therapist the person works with.

Mowtown, you have "complex PTSD" and that simply doesn't get "better" overnight.
If someone expects to go to a therapist and "just quickly get fixed" they will be disappointed, especially with complex PTSD. Also, these "extreme" mood changes/frustrations/ wanting to just end do come and go for a time while working through complex PTSD.

Therapists are people too, and honestly, I wonder how they manage considering all the terrible things they sit and listen to and try to help their patients slowly work through. It is not unusual for a therapist to also need some help because of the stress they are under wanting to "fix" and "help" a patient more then they can.

I have a wonderful therapist that really "listens" and is "calm" and it really makes a difference to have someone that understands PTSD and can validate instead of "pushing or expecting a patient to do better then they can depending on where they are in recovering".

The human brain is amazing, simply amazing at what it can do when it comes to "healing". However, it takes time and "patience" to develop new skills and neuro pathways when it comes to addressing certain mental illnesses.

We are studying the brain, learning all the time about how it really works and for what we do know, there is still much we do not know.

Look at this site for example, how nice it is to be able to interact with others who can relate to our challenges and for the most part, this site is pretty "safe". What did people do who suffered before we had ways of identifying certain mental illnesses? Oh how alone these people must have been.

Misfits?, well, hey, there is no such thing as normal and if you went to a big busy mall and just sat and looked at all the people, what is normal is to be "unique". We are all different shapes and sizes and colors and my guess is our brains are all a bit unique too.

I think that what we tend to consider "the right kind of life" should be adjusted, because not everyone is going to get married have children and that house with the white picket fence, acquiring that doesn't necessarily equate to "fulfillment" either.

I raised a child with dyslexia, I was lucky that this difference in the brain was known about and was also being studied. People who have dyslexia learn differently, they remember things differently, and they tend to be hard on themselves too. They look at words and often these words don't make sense to them the way the average brain can make sense of words.

So I live with a husband and a daughter who both have dyslexia and they do think differently then I do. I can remember things that happened long ago where they don't remember these things the same, that is something "common" with dyslexia. People with dyslexia often struggle with low self esteem, however they also have a tendency to be very "driven and goal oriented too". There are many people who have dyslexia who have become very successful people, but they just do it differently.

Well, that is just "one" difference that can happen in a brain that individuals have to "learn skills to get around this challenge".

In my own journey to understand PTSD and "complex PTSD", I can look back on some of the therapy I received and see that I did not get treated properly, and no, it did not help me. However, I kept "learning" and in spite of feeling like I wasn't going to possibly get better, I did keep reaching out for help and I did find a good therapist that even gave me a discounted rate. I still struggle, and some days badly, but I am doing much better then when I first joined PC and sat at the computer trying to figure out how to get my brain to stop racing and just think one thought at a time.

I had no idea that my brain could produce the flashbacks that I have experienced either. I had no idea that when I was traumatized as a child that my brain stored these events the way it has that could just come up so vividly like I am that child in that experience in the right now, so many years ago, who would have thought, because I thought that I survived them and was moving forward, never guessed these events harmed me the way I see them now. BUT, when I work at it and process these memories better, these flashbacks weaken or stop taking place.

Mowtown, I have told you, I have been where you are, can see the stage you are in and I know you "can" do better, I also know how it doesn't "feel that way" for a while though. Well, I have "yet" to take down my mood from being "frustrated". Well, I often am, but not as much as I was.

I remember about a year ago when the powerball was huge. There was a thread asking people what they would do if they won it. Well, I thought about how I would want to design a place people could go where they could get "better help" and support. It just seems to me that there are a lot of people who need that kind of place, but that kind of place just doesn't exist, not a place that is welcoming and "safe" and can help someone develop a good support system. When someone has PTSD, they really need a good understanding support system.

My daughter has dyslexia, and I did my best to have her in a supportive way of life so she could do well. I talked to every teacher and I even made sure I met her teachers in the first college she went to. I "know" people who have support, no matter what they struggle with, can do better and be "happier" in their life. After all, isn't that what life is about anyway? We need to understand that we do and will "learn" all our lives and have to "learn to adjust" to the hardships life also presents us with.

Mental Health treatment is not supposed to make you feel "worse", but it doesn't just "fix" you overnight either. Unfortunately, the quality of "mental health care" isn't so great depending on where someone goes, I do know that first hand. But that doesn't mean someone isn't worth it or should give up either.

OE