Sorry you are having a rough time Sky.

PTSD can be very difficult to deal with for sure.

I do believe that triggers can be learned, understood and eventually dealt with in a healthy manner.

Here's a few quotes from one of my favorite sites- by a man that had PTSD from his childhood and is now helping others to better their lives too.

from his article "Triggers"....
>>"The faster we get at recognizing triggers when they occur the better off we are. If we recognize a trigger before it starts, we don't go into a reactive state. If we recognize that we have been triggered when we get reactive, we can back out of our reactive state."<<...

I don't believe we have to remain "victims" to PTSD-- I believe with help and a lot of energy we can deal with things in a better way. The brain-- has been proven-- is able to learn until the moment we die.

and here's a part from the article "Catastrophizing"....
>>"What can we do to catastrophize less? My mind tends to respond to this question by turning to several of our old standbys. We need to turn to the tools in our tool chest and apply them liberally. We have learned that whenever we notice ourselves being reactive, we need to question our reactivity. We need to journal, meditate, visualize and say affirmations. We need to look at the situation through the eyes of a third party, either in our imagination or literally through our relationships. We need to follow our intuitions and insights."<<

so the way I see it, we can stay stuck and say we have no power over the reactions of our mind-- or we can take each reaction and learn from it and go in a more forward direction.

Sure some people aren't going to understand our reactions-- but why do they have to?.... so long as we understand, and can work in a positive self-empowered direction-- I think it's a lot about good self-care.

Anyway-- I hope the quotes from the articles will help. Mr. Flanagan has worked with adults with PTSD for 20+ years and has written many many articles-- and like I said-- he's experienced PTSD himself.

mandy