Thanks for the welcome. I am working hard in therapy and do seem to be making some progress. I just hate that it seems I have to feel worse before I get to feel better. Numbing out had always been my coping mechanism. Now that I'm trying to get over that, the emotions can sometimes feel overwhelming.

A couple of months ago I pressed my therapist for a diagnosis. She said PTSD. I don't have flashbacks or any problems with my memory. I do have problems with my startle response, the sense of a foreshortened future, nightmares, an eating disorder and she says that I dissociate although I'm not completely clear on that one. Oh, I also have Hashimoto's hypothyroidism.

I'm still kind of learning and trying to figure out what this all means. But I do really like my therapist. It has taken me a long time to start to trust her and to be able to talk. But I'm getting there.