"Something OE and I seem to have in common. except she can't seem to avoid connecting personal significance and I can't seem to avoid connecting cultural significance. :enlightenment:" quote Michanne

You remind me of the people that tell me it is ok to put horses in together in one paddock, after all they are "herd" animals. Yet, I am someone who learned "first hand" that when horses are put in together, they stress each other, have separation anxiety, and they tend to practice pecking order challenges that can result in a horse suffering from a broken leg, something I did experience "traumatically" with my horse the I had as a teenager and had to put him down. I have also warned others about that to no avail only to see other people experience the same kind of loss or significant injury.

But you continue to tell me that just because it happened to me, well, that doesn't mean anything, that it doesn't happen, therefore basically totally dismissing what I have learned through not only first hand experience, but by also seeing it happen to others as well.

The problem with me is that when I remember that, it is not just something I recall like a simple math problem for example, instead the entire emotional experience comes into the present for me (which I hate about what I have), and if that keeps getting "dismissed" or I am told I simply do not have the facts right, I don't fair well. One of the problems that has happened to me too much in my life as well, is that because I have already experienced/learned something that I know can have a bad result, I try to "enlighten" others (I would like to see others not suffer the way I did, at least my trauma can possibly lead to someone else avoiding the same trauma). Unfortunately, I find my gained wisdom and insight the "curse of Cassandra", where one has to gift to fore see, while the curse is that no one believes her, so she has to watch the sad result happen even though she sounded the alarm.

When people do not understand PTSD, it will be obvious because they are dismissive and continue badgering. When someone has "enlightened" themselves about PTSD, they will see the red flags and validate the person who struggles and back off. This has been something my husband who himself suffers from ADHD has had to meet with my therapist a few times to learn about PTSD (ugh, he can be brutally intrusive). People with ADHD and Asperger's have similar intrusive behavior patterns.

What worries me is not you or my husband, but how the opposing attorney will do that to me to try to rattle me on the witness stand, that's where I don't want to have a bad PTSD reaction or go into a flashback as I already did that in a deposition and people in general do "not" understand that.

OE