[Minelrie]

I have recently begun to tell family about the molestation I experienced as a child. It was by an extremely close family member who even lived next door. Since then I have withdrawn from society, have extreme social anxiety, nightmares... and I'm afraid to be alone with any man. Even my own father. It's awful because I know my father would never do anything to me but that fear is there. I shake around people and worry constantly. When I talk to any man... seconds feel like minutes. There is much more to it but I don't really want to talk about it.

My mother says I may have my own form of PTSD... When I think of PTSD I think of my ex husband who was in Iraq... not being molested. Could it be?

[Open Eyes]

(((Minelrie))),

This was so brave of you, it's an important step in finally "healing" from all the ways this situation had "hurt" you.

Your desire to "withdraw" as well as your "sensitivity" level right now is the first part of what takes place in the "healing" process. Just because you finally opened up and have talked about it, doesn't mean you have any of the "healing" journey to understand how to "know" how to deal with all of the "hurt" that took place in you.

It is very "normal" to experience the "nightmares" and all that means is that your brain really doesn't know how to "process" this experience at all. However, you do need rest, so it is recommended that you find a medication that will allow that rest to take place. It won't be as restorative for a while, because the restorative can't happen until you are at a point where your brain has more information to "help" you process whatever had hurt you.

Often what helps is medications that can help to protect your brain better while you "slowly" talk about how this experience has hurt you and work on collecting more and more information to help you with the ability to finally process it better in your sleep.
The night mares only mean that your brain is struggling to process, it means your brain just doesn't have enough there to finally figure out how to store this experience. That is why those struggling are often "afraid" to sleep, however, the body still needs rest, especially with this because of the way it really does tire someone out physically too.

It is important to understand that you "do" need to be patient and do lots of "self soothing" while you are "finally" working through this "trauma". Trauma work/healing can present a feeling of fault, that others won't understand, and self blame too. These feelings "will" ease up during the healing process so it is important to understand they are "normal" feelings and to do your best to "self comfort" when they present themselves and "not feed into them", but, instead acknowledge them and self comfort each and every time.

You took an important step, it was time for you to do so, it's time to finally "heal".

You are welcome to come here for support any time you need to. Please don't worry about "needing" ok? It is more important that you have a place to that you can "verbalize" whatever comes forward. It takes time to verbalize all the different parts of how a "trauma" affected a person, and there "are" areas the brain stores things that don't have language, so it can take more time to develop the language when these emotions or other things come forward. It's all necessary so that you can "finally" have what your brain needs to "process" it all.

(((Gentle Caring and Welcoming Hugs)))
OE

[CosmicRose]

Yes you may have PTSD. PTSD is not limited to war veterans. If you look up the definition of PTSD, it lists things such as traumatizing life experiences, as well as rape. PTSD can occur in anyone who has been through a situation so jolting or scary or threatening, that it causes the person to have an extreme stress response to other life events.