i have severe PTSD from both never ending childhood and adult sexual abuse. friends have asked how common was it..(geez like why would you want to know anyway...)...i say like well..you ate dinner every night...well in my house...all hell broke loose instead

this was also compounded by working at a federal site (a park) where we conducted bomb sweeps at least once (or more) each day and hostage negotiations, and all sorts of things now common post 9/11...and this was from 1986 on. we had riots, take overs, protests etc....
i think all of our staff expected to be injured severely or killed at some point either by an explosive or a terrorist...especially during the gulf war, 1st WTC bombing, lockerbie bombing, flight 800, other conflicts etc...it never was safe

i am a PTSD nightmare i think for my therapist (and for me too) so many things can set me off...it makes life difficult at times and hard to explain to others who have not been in either situation..once at the psychiatrists office a car alarm went off and i damn near landed under my chair...i honestly don't think he realized the PTSD was as bad as it was until that point...he does now....

it's very hard some times