I agree that the Media has played a roll in some DX's being portrayed wrong... DID is one of them... So many times they think of the Movie Sybil or the Three faces of eve and they have no clue what it is really like. So unrealistic the movies just make me angry... I guess they call that Artistic License.

I live next to a military post and watch so many of our soldiers come home, there lives changed forever with life changing injuries and nightmares of combat and PTSD. So Mimsie, I understand how people could think PTSD is only for soldiers.

It's funny I have so much support from friends and family with the fact that I survived and statistically un-survivable shooting. The chances of living were 5% and the chances of keeping my cognitive function was 3% of the 5%, (some may debate if I kept my cognitive function..grin). However I am blessed and I know it. I am not certain why I survived, but It has drastically altered my path and course in life.

I am truly trying to look at life differently, let go of the past and enjoy the present. I get frustrated, with the depression that sneaks in on me, or all the other stuff that happens with my DX, But I keep trying and trying.... But the worst of everything is the stigmatism that goes with my Primary DX. I denied it for years, I still go back and forth denying it... it feels so shameful and invalidating... which just compounds the problem and perpetuates the problem.

I am very good at pretending and hiding and being whom I need to be for every situation. I think we all do that to some extent... I am just a little more separated than the everyday Joe.. grin.

If anything, I am stubborn and I will continue on this road to recovery... it is painful, it hurts and it turns your whole life upside down.

It hurts me that the people I have met here are some of the most caring and supportive people I know, yet they live with the stigmatism of some sort of Mental or emotion needs that have not been met, and continue to be invalidated and stigmatized. I just don't like loosing a friend or a really good pdoc, just because they find out my DX, sometimes It is just better to be quite.... and not say anything... people don't want to listen. They just want to hear what they want to hear... When you need support the most, you get abandoned.. just perpetuating what has happened to so many and keeps the cycle going.. How do you heal, if the stigmatism is so strong? That at times, I deny everything myself...