Intro

Just got diagnosed for ptsd so now what? I was in RVN 40 yrs a go so why now. 6Gunner

Welcome 6Gunner,

It took 25 years for my PTSD to rear its ugly head. I would recommend that you get into therapy. It is tough but well worth it. Find a good T that has experience in PTSD. The VA can be a good place to start.

From personal experience there will be good days and nights and tough days and nights. Being diagnosed helped me to realize that I wasn't crazy, other people go through this, there is light at the end of the tunnel and it is not an oncoming train.

The people on this site are very helpful. Just remember you are not alone in this. Feel free to PM if you want to discuss something without everyone else reading it. Be good to yourself.
Dolphin

I was diagnosed a week and a half a go but My thoughts never left the Nam. Just last Nov they brought home one of the crews we lost and put them in Arlington. I wanted to go but certain events prevented me from going. So I never forgot my friends.6gunner

((((sixgunner))))

I am sorry that you are experiencing PTSD after all these years. While I am not a vet, I had the same thing happen to me. I had something happen that was tramatic and it brought forward alot of things in flashbacks etc that I never realized affected me so profoundly, and I had really thought that I had made peace with many of my troubling experiences in my past as well. So this really came to a huge surprise to me.

I discussed this with my therapist and he told me that this can and often does happen with many who present with PTSD years and years after the original tramas occured. He told me that there was a huge convention to commerorate many vets where they all got together and even got to see pictures and footage of the war they fought in. Many of these vets were older and 30 and 40 years had passed since they had been involved with their service. Many men had gone on with their lives, had careers and families and had managed well too. After attending the even many of these men started experiencing full blown PTSD and started complaining and were very confused as to why it was happening so many years after their service.

So yes, this can happen and it can be very troubling. For some reason the brain can be in some kind of situation where suddenly the very troubling memories and experiences can be jogged and can draw out tramas that for years the brain found ways of surpressing.

Yes, I am sure that you never forgot your experiences in nam however you still managed to continue to surpress a lot of how it effected you emotionally. Yes, this is very troubling and confusing when you are suddenly presented with this.

One of the biggest things that helped me was to learn that this does happen and understand that what it means is I am going to have to slowly learn how to deal with the raw emotional memories and visions that somehow my brain storred and shut off to protect me so I could continue to thrive and survive.

Try to allow yourself to not feel that you are being punished or should be frightened by it. It is important that you allow yourself to deal with it and not feed into it. And that can be a challenge because yes, your brain is presenting a lot of emotions now that are troubling. If you can learn to slow down and simply allow the emotions to come forward and then deal with them gradually as they do, it will be much easier for you to work through. It is very important that during this time of working through this that you establish some safe places where you can retreat and rest and calm yourself quietly and feel safe.

If you are in a situation where you have a spouce and family member around you, I strongly reccommend that they meet with your therapist and learn HOW TO SUPPORT YOU and ALLOW YOU TO FEEL SAFE while you work through this. I cannot say enough that once that was finally established with me, I could take off my focus of feeling ashamed or frightened my husband simply would not understand and turn my attention to what I needed to do, focus on it and work through it.

I can say that when I was in a very bad spot and extremely crippled and confused, yes, I felt that I could never get others to understand that what I was dealing with was real and very difficult. I went way too long in an environment that was very unsupportive and it made it much more difficult for me to calm down and try to understand what was happening to me.

There is often a desire to isolate when in the throws of PTSD. This is because while we experience it and do not understand it, we become very aware that we are very vulnerable and can be triggered into a flashback or emotional memory that is very diffcult to experience, let alone explain to others.

dolphin is so right, you MUST remember above all else to BE KIND TO YOURSELF and do not allow yourself to feed into feeling you are a failure in anyway because you are experiencing troubling things that you don't quite understand yet.

I am glad that you found PC where you can come and talk to others that can relate to what you experience and help to support you and calm you down. To let you know you are not alone and be here to offer you kindness and encouragement in allowing yourself to work through it slowly.

It is important that you work with a therapist that can help you through this process of understanding it and learning methods in how to self sooth and calm yourself down when you experience some unwanted floods of anxiety that can frighten you and even make you feel lost too. And yes, sometimes you are going to get really angry and frustrated too, that is normal and it will lighten up as you continue to work through it. Any thing that you experience that you don't understand, yes talk with your therapist and you can also come here and just ask anything at all and we will do our best to share what we have learned ourselves.

Welcome to PC.
(((Hugs ))))
Open Eyes

Just reaching out is a great step. I am so glad you are here. There are many supportive, knowledgeable people on this site...good people. I was diagnosed with c-ptsd just a few months ago and am still trying to figure things out and put together the pieces...some days are better than others. I'm glad I found this site.

Along with seeing my T/P, writing in my journal, and coming here...it helps a lot.

I hope you will continue to come back.

Hello 6gunner
Jme, but the current war(s) and the treatment of our returning veterans was a trigger for me.
Until recently there were very few Welcome Homes for them, either.
They come home to their own second battle; much like the one we came home to--battling the VA for benefits.
Perhaps the VA has streamlined things a bit, but it's still not widespread at this time as far as I know...

It was/is harder for me around anniversaries of especially horrendous events.
The passage of another decade will bring me to tears. 40 years ago, yep.
The DOD announcement of their plans for the 50th POd me.

With the help of caring individuals and taking itty-bitty steps on my path of healing, the majority of my nights and days are very good.
When the nights/nightmares are bad, my being awake will be day-mares.

It passes. It takes a toll on the soul. In many ways, though, it strengthens me.

Be as good to yourself as you are to others walking their own paths of healing.
It's not a race to a finish line.
It's a walkabout, we learn as we go.

In Peace,
Catherine

Thanks for the advice. I am going to the VA theripist I have ongoing appointments. I find if I keep myself busy it's easier and sometimes when I am alone is the hardest. The meds they gave me help me sleep but the daytime is when I think of it the most. Thanks again sixgunner