[MyFathersGirl]

I am going to start going to a group for abuse survivors but before I do that everybody who goes to a group at that agency has to go to an eight week group on PTSD and healthy coping strategies. I know for sure that I could use the healthy coping strategies but I'm wondering if maybe I should just allow myself to tune out (I'm pretty good at daydreaming) the PTSD stuff and just get through the eight weeks until I can get into the group I know for sure I need. I am wondering though because I have some of the other symtoms the leader was talking about yesterday.

My mom literally tried to kill me when I was nine (as in saying "I'm going to snuff the life right out of you and proceeding to wrap her hands around my throat.) When I tell somebody like a mentor who asks if there was any abuse in my history or talking to a psychologist for disability, etc I can picture the even like it happened yesterday even though it was 25 years ago but there is no emotion and in fact like one person pointed out I was telling them something horrible and smiling. I don't have nightmares and other than when I'm telling somebody I don't have a picture of the event either.

Can you have PTSD without the flashbacks and nightmares or are the symptoms of irratibility, depression, eating disorders, and addiction disorders common with any type of trauma and PTSD includes those aspects of reaction to trauma but is made worse by flashbacks and nightmares?

[Open Eyes]

Well, we are not therapists but I would say that I think that someone can have PTSD without having the flashbacks etc. It is not "just" about flashbacks. It can be avoidance due to fearing that something bad may happen. It could be that deep inside you feel that if you try to live your life and be happy it will just end up hurting you somehow. When someone experiences abuse or trama it effects their capacity to feel safe and thrive comfortably. There is also a heightened awareness and extreme sensitivity to things that many other people don't get bothered by and can manage to just overlook and not feel are important or threatening enough to be concerned about.

People with PTSD tend to isolate because they recognize they are very vulnerable and cannot predict how they will react when they are around other people. They feel they have lost that ability to control their emotions and they can get very anxious and uncomfortable and wont know how to explain it to others. They can also get extremely frustrated and angry because they have somehow lost that ability to "just" keep their composure and not have certain reminders of their trama/tramas disable them where they feel very threatened and unsafe and extremely vulnerable.

So it is not all about flashbacks, it is more about a sense of loss and confusion.

Open Eyes

[amandalouise]

Originally Posted by MyFathersGirl

I am going to start going to a group for abuse survivors but before I do that everybody who goes to a group at that agency has to go to an eight week group on PTSD and healthy coping strategies. I know for sure that I could use the healthy coping strategies but I'm wondering if maybe I should just allow myself to tune out (I'm pretty good at daydreaming) the PTSD stuff and just get through the eight weeks until I can get into the group I know for sure I need. I am wondering though because I have some of the other symtoms the leader was talking about yesterday.

My mom literally tried to kill me when I was nine (as in saying "I'm going to snuff the life right out of you and proceeding to wrap her hands around my throat.) When I tell somebody like a mentor who asks if there was any abuse in my history or talking to a psychologist for disability, etc I can picture the even like it happened yesterday even though it was 25 years ago but there is no emotion and in fact like one person pointed out I was telling them something horrible and smiling. I don't have nightmares and other than when I'm telling somebody I don't have a picture of the event either.

Can you have PTSD without the flashbacks and nightmares or are the symptoms of irratibility, depression, eating disorders, and addiction disorders common with any type of trauma and PTSD includes those aspects of reaction to trauma but is made worse by flashbacks and nightmares?

yes you can have PTSD without having flashbacks and nightmares..

PTSD is a label that makes up a group of symptoms. But that does not mean you ****have**** to have every symptom in that group..

heres what the DSM IV TR says about PTSD and as you can see it does not say you ****have*** to have every symptom..it says you have to have 1 or more


B. The traumatic event is persistently reexperienced in one (or more) of the following ways:

1. Recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions. Note: In young children, repetitive play may occur in which themes or aspects of the trauma are expressed.

2. Recurrent distressing dreams of the event. Note: In children, there may be frightening dreams without recognizable content.

3. Acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashback episodes, including those that occur on awakening or when intoxicated). Note: In young children, trauma-specific reenactment may occur.

4. Intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event

5. Physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event