I didn’t mean to blow off the whole menopause part of my answer. I was tired last night and it just slipped my mind. When my symptoms first started, they mimicked a lot of peri-menopause symptoms. Since things have calmed down with my symptoms, I don’t have the peri-menopause symptoms any longer. But since I’ll be 40 in four months, I’m sure that things are starting to get onto that slow down spiral towards the big M. Gee…it gets worse when you add menopause to PTSD??? Boy, I can’t wait! *rolling eyes*

Wendy, you said don’t fight and just let it go. Sorry, hon…no can do. For me, everything about my PTSD has been a fight to get back to some sort of normal. Even if it’s been a normal that I’ve had to reinvent for myself. And if the battle is partly fought by me doing word puzzles and such…so be it. But to not fight (for me) is to give in to it. And I’m just too damn stubborn to give in.

Rather than ignoring these ‘moments’ when they happen to me, I’ve begun to pay attention. There’s really no rhyme or reason or pattern to them. It’s almost like there’s a short circuit in my brain. Sometimes it’s really short lived and other times it hangs on for a while. Saturday was a big ‘hang on for a while’ day. Today at work, I was filling out a form and the first line was ‘Date’. I remember staring at the page for most of a minute. Not only could I not remember what date is was, I couldn’t understand what the word ‘Date’ meant. Then things clicked back and I was able to continue. But these intermittent brain shutdowns are a real pain in the ass. But they come and go at their whim. Of course when my symptoms kick up, so do these. For the longest time I blamed it on the meds. Then I blamed it on the withdrawals from the meds. Now, since it’s not going away, I guess the blame goes onto my brain and what the PTSD has done to it.

Lisa