Hey Kay,

A thread is the entire topic of this conversation, ie. Hello From Kay Dee - Little Family Support with PTSD is the thread itself, and it contains individual posts from each of us. So, posts make up a thread, threads make up a forum, and the forums (uniquely) make up the entire forum board. Hope that sounds right?

Let me just say, I absolutely know where your coming from having negative people around you, in that they don't really understand, nor sympathize to what is happening with you. It makes your life a great deal harder to continue. My wife was exactly that, as she knew nothing / little about what I was dealing with, and I had lost emotions to deal with her, so it was definately a two sided event. If my wife or anyone around me would have continued being negative at this point in time, I would have stopped seeing them, whether that be move away and live by myself, that is what would have happened.

I don't have any experience with EMDR, so I hope you can share all that with us when you go through it, but I do know that with the PTSD course itself, they weren't backwards in coming forwards, and telling us we would get worse during the course, before we get better, though that is one of the things bringing everything to the top again and having to deal with it. I hated having to do that, and I am still right now coping with some of the worse parts.

It was only the other day that I told my wife not to go out, as when I returned from a day of course, some of my previous trauma's where hitting me hard, and I was thinking it was easier to go out the back, get a beer, get a smoke, sit in my chair, slash my wrists and bleed to death, just to end it all. But they where only thoughts, which something that I have learnt during the course to deal with, which really helped me a lot at that point. What was certainly positive and stood out for me, in that the course and techniques where helping, is that my mood only lasted for just over an hour, and then I was fine again. Before attending this type of therapy, I may off not even talked for a few days... literally.

I guess, bringing the worst things to the top and dealing with them head on, has helped me a lot, though its not just that, its learning techniques and other skills that comprise my overall new sanity level.

I really hope that EMDR does something similar for you. As you know, there is no cure for what we have, but with techniques, we can learn to live with it, though we will always have our ups and downs, I guess its just the intensity of those ups and downs that should get better, and I am already noticing mine are.

This forum is a good example of me getting better than I was, as I wouldn't generally talk about these kind of things, nor make it public. I don't care if people judge me anymore, as those who have the illness, and those who understand it, are the ones that will be close with me, and those that just reject it, can leave me alone.

I'm really glad you have come here though, as it helps me, and more importantly, helps you vent things also, and just to discuss things, whether public or private (private messaging through the forum), and feel a little better about yourself.