I want to add one thing to this Milo, so that you and other who do not understand this can do so. Firstly you mentioned hypnotherapy, which is an art in trying to forget traumatic memory. Sorry, no such thing nor will your sub-conscious brain allow it. You said it best, you thought it worked until you walked outside, but the same reaction is still present.

You cannot hide or ignore your trauma, you must face it. I have dealt with people who have been in over 15 years of therapy, all of which achieved nothing to little towards helping them cope with PTSD. Why? Because the entire time they where never fully challenged towards their traumatic experience, instead they where nurtured to look at it, but if it got all too hard the therapist had a legal duty to cease due to being sued for professional negligence.

Very very few physicians will actually push a person to the levels they need be pushed towards their traumatic experience in order to fully deal with and face their greatest fears. Once you do it, you know it, because you WILL go down for months before coming back up. Once you do it though, once you come up, once you work through wanting to kill yourself daily and face the terrible issues that will arise, you come out of a place that nothing will ever be so bad again.

The more you work on your trauma from that point forward, being challenged and pushed the entire time, the better the outcome you will have at near permanently removing the majority of your symptoms for the longevity of your life, providing you change your lifestyle to suit a more stress free life period. If a person goes through this and wants to work in a job that deals with people or the public daily, you may as well know now and accept that you will need to be medicated and you will endure constant symptoms that PTSD presents daily.

You can work with PTSD, you just won't do well with public type positions for a long period. Not one person here who works in such a job has done overtly well from my reading. They have tried, they have given it their best, but PTSD has won every single time. Enough stress, enough buildup, and the sufferer will snap every single time. To work with PTSD you must make choices in your employment to begin with. Such jobs that allow a person to work alone, without deadlines, without public or constant interference.... these are just some of the knowns.

A train driver is often a good job for a PTSD sufferer, where you are alone all day to do a job that comes with giving satisfaction but without public interference or contact with people constantly. Lots of jobs exist, you just have to choose wisely. A taxi driver is not a good choice because of the traffic issues, as an example. Teaching, usually doesn't last long or you will find your attitude will have you pushed out eventually because of the stress your under constantly, and that is with medication, lots of it. Just ask the few here who do it, which only one or two are still doing it due to PTSD just not allowing them to continue.

There are just certain things you will never be able to do again, but they can be substituted with other things to compensate. I have helped people through this time and time again, not one yet has succeeded actually because the job is just too stressful. Every person eventually gives up the stress for a less stressful position or job. This is just acceptance, and regardless how much you want to fight PTSD, it will win every single time due to it very nature and seriousness. No amount of alcohol, drugs, cigarettes or medication can keep it at bay without consequences in a very short term.