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differentdena
05-12-2007, 05:43 AM
Hi, Im new to here... my counsler suggested that i look for some support online so here i am. Im turnin 19 next month and here is my story behind my ptsd

Before May 1st of 05 you could not of met a better person then me. I was just full of life and really happy with myself and how my life was goin. A few months before May 1st i met a boy named Cody through a friend..... He lived almost 200 miles away from my small town in a big "rich" county outside nashville called brentwood. The reason he was alwyas in My small town on the weekends was becuase his parents owned a house boat in a marina about 30 min. away and his dad runs a business here. Me and Cosy staid friends and he asked me to his prom. WOW sophomore year... 16 years old and i was asked to a prom in a big city. It was awesome i felt like a princess. We took lots of pictures.

A couple weeks after prom, on May 1st, me and a close girl friend of mine went to the lake to codys house boat to show him the pictures. After we did that we decided to get out in the water on the speed boat. There were so many kids there from 15 yrs old to 22. We always had fun. We rode jet skis.... It was a great start to the summer. Well around 4 we started gettin wore out from the activities so me, my girlfriend, cody, and two other boys i knew but didnt know very well just decided to relax in the boat and talk in the middle of the water. Cody had to go back to his boat to eat dinner with his family and me and lori didnt want to intrude so we decided we would stay on the boat with the ohter two guys and ride around for 30 minutes then go back to get Cody.

When we dropped Cody off one of the guys, Chad, Asked me and my friend, Lori, if we wanted a drink. We said yea so a couple house boats down we got off and went in i knew he was goin to put vodka just a lil in with my diet coke and with loris cranberry juice. but let me remind you A LITTLE. He poured the drinks while me and Lori and the other guy walked back out to the speed boat. He brought us our drinks and i started drinkin mine. Lori didnt touch hers yet. Suddenly with in ten minutes at the drop of a dime everything just went to a blur. I remember bein on the boat and Lori tellin the guys we needed to go back and get cody but i was in my own world. The guys were drinkin beer. I finished my drink and i was literally out of my mind but i didnt care at that moment. Well according to Lori the one guy, Chad, started gettin mean. He threw a beer can at her and hit her in the head with it. Keep in mind there is no cell phone service what so ever around here so no one could call us or could we call them.

Finally sometime after dark they took us back to the house boat. I remember thinkin how am i goin to walk all the way to my car from here. Lori got off the boat in a hurry and the guy Chad was helpin me walk becasue i couldnt do it my self well the other guy staid on the back of the house boat. we went through the sliding glass doors and then walked to the front. Lori walked out of the sliding glass doors on the front of the boat and me and chad were behind her. As soon as she stepped out the door... chad slammed it shutand said we will be out in a minute. Then he started to drag me to the back bedroom i remember lori beatin the door screamin and i was yellin for her. Somehow i manged to get in the bathroom but that didnt stop him from comin in. When he opened the door i remember standin up tryin to get out but as soon as i got to the door i just fell face forward... like i said i couldnt walk on my own. Well if you have ever been on house boats some have a step thats beside the bed and when i fell i hit my head on it because it was right outside the bathroom door. The next thing i remember is openin my eyes and he was on top of me talking but i couldnt comprehend and i knew he was havin sex but i couldnt fight, i couldnt even talk. The next thing i remember is someone carryin me like a baby down the dock to my car.

Lori had NEVER been to that marina or anything like that before and she didnt know where to find people or even remember how to get to Codys boat or to the parkin lot. She just ran and eventually found cody and his family about to leave to head back to franklin in the parking lot. She told them what had happened and Cody and hhis dad took off runnin to the boat. Cody had to break through the bathroom window to get in and let his dad in. They found me in the bathroom crying and i dont remember it. But Mark carried me to my car where lori was waiting and she drove off. I was in the boat with him for at leat 25 min.

Lori called my boyfriend at the time and told him what was goin on and he told her to bring me to his house because it was just a few miles away and apparently i was askin for him. He was milking cows that night so we set in the office of his barn and they said that i kept goin in and out. I would all of a sudden pick up the phone and say i had to call jared "my boyfriend" but he was settin right there.... and i broke the phone because i threw it so many times. Jared told his parents somethin had happened and he had to take me and lori home. Loris dad use to beat her and she was home like 2 hours late so she had to go home.... but in the end ended up gettin beat. Jared then drove me to my house where i went in the house collapsed in the living room floor and my mom started freakin out and then i told her what had happened.

We went to the hospitial they did a rape kit thing on me took my blood and honestly i cant remember what else. They did police reports but for some reason they didnt have enough blood to test and see wht else was in my system. There is no way that alcohol alone could of done that to me. That guy is still out there because no one did their job right.

I started counselin about a week after. I went through so many counselers and hated all of them. They just made me tell my story over and over and over and didint give me any feed back. I thought hat i was ok but they told me had ptsd which to me meant nothin back then i didnt care about myself anymore. I looked at everything different. I didnt take the medicine because i thought i could cope myself and i didnt need medicine to make me better. I went to counseling on and off from then till now. Last fall i really thoguht i had my life together. I met an awesome guy that knows everything and doesnt judge me. I figured out what i wanted to do with my life.... become an LPN... and it was just awesome. I finshed school on my 18th birthday in jan. (home school i couldnt go to school anymore after this happened) then in May my my ptsd took a turn for the worst. Anxiety struck me HARD i was having panic attacks like crazy. Two days before i would walk across the stage to get my diploma for all my hard work. The anxiety was BAD. My doc put me on prozac and gave me xanax for when i have attacks and i started my counselin agian ( ifinally found one i liked) well in the middle of june i thought i was ok had barely any signs of anxiety so once again i stopped my meds. At the end of Oct. i got hit hard with anxiety really bad and i have not felt the same since. The doc said i have to got to a specialist which i dont go until the 13th of this month (just next week!) but i just need some support people.....

My anxiety has me feelin just hopeless i am stuggling with gettin out of the house i hate goin to public places. I cant stand it. Everytime i do i have to go STRAIGHT to the bathroom for some reason. I dont feel like my self. I think its called depesonalization or derealization that i am strugglin with the most. It just feels like i am in a dream every single day. Im am constantly worrying about going into an attack. Its SOOOOO hard for me to drive. I get anxious and sweat and feel like im going crazy literally. This is affecting my realationship of 1 and half years. I just dont want to be touched anymore but i love him so much. Why is all this. Honestly does the medicine make all this go away?? Please someone if you have managed to read all this do me a favor and give me some kind of hope or something to hold onto. I am almost at the end of my rope and i need support please help and give me some feed back....

veiled
05-12-2007, 10:10 AM
Welcome to the forum.

Personally from what you describe you show a lot of promise and have a lot to have hope for! There were a few things that really stood out to me that show you probably can live with PTSD quite well. Even medication free at the very least for the most part if not all the way.

First you listed one trauma. Trust me, this is a actually good thing. You won't have years and years worth of trauma to sort out and try to process.

Also, your ability to go off of meds you have displayed. I have a guess/theory on this I will explain in a second. Some people just can't put the drugs down at all and are completely dependent on them. Some just will never be able to function off of them and that is just how it is, then you have some just see it as easier to stay on meds and are not ready to try to live with this on there own, and then there are others who do have to take it but only here and there rarely when they have "flare ups" get out of hand.

Another thing in your corner is you are asking questions. You are being open and blunt. Not pussy footing around. you just blurted your experience with detail and asked for guidance.

These are all tremendous positives for you. In time you will see that as you begin to heal.

Honestly does the medicine make all this go away??

No. What medicines like xanax you took can do is take the edge off and end an anxiety or panic attack. This is good and bad. If they are out of control daily, months on end they can be good as you can gain some of your footing. If you have non stop panic attacks it can escalate into phobias which are very hard to break. Also, this drug can help settle your mind well enough for you to be able to understand and practice what you learn in therapy. (I am happy you are finally seeing a specialist).

Now the bad thing about this. You first can be addicted, meaning you will get even worse rebound attacks when you try to go off if taken too long. I was addicted to xanax so if I take xanax for even only a week or two I still have rebounds coming off the short term dose. These are not the same attacks. It is the lack of the drug causing them and the dose will have to keep being upped as your body gets used to it. Many people become very lazy in therapy on this drug as it can relieve many symptoms so not much motivation. This backfires badly down the road.

Drugs can be both a blessing and a curse.

Now to my theory I have from first impression and single posting by you LOL... You were on the drug and it controlled your biggest symptom being the panic attacks as that seems to be your biggest complaint (BTW needing to potty is a symptom of an anxiety attack, you are normal). Now once you take it and these are kept at bay for a period of time and your fear of them reoccurring can drop dramatically. Did you notice your fear of an attack lowered? The best way to have a panic attack is fear having one as the fear of fear is what keeps them going. (panic attack is fear in over drive simply put)

Now that your fear of them lowered you can function pretty well and panic free. Then something comes along, either too much stress or a trigger and pow, an attack. Then your fear of them returning all the time is refueled and there you go, you get sick for months until you are remedicated. See the pattern? This was the pattern I read in your post (thank you for being so detailed).

There is much more I can say but it would be a lot of repeating myself. Please use the search for panic attacks, CBT, disassociation... Also read the information as it is full of lots of helpful info.

I am very curious as to what your therapist will think of your disassociation. Because if you have PTSD that could be a form of a "flashback" too. Many with PTSD go back to the state they were in during their trauma and will even get phantom pains. And having your drink spiked is very close to the same feeling of disassociation. I have had it done to me but the moron who did it did not see I walked in the bar with someone and that someone took care of my very high ass that night. I was walking down steps and could not feel my feet, they worked but I was "walking on air". Sorry to ramble, I just find that part very intriguing.

Again thank you for detail, it makes it so much easier to comment on if we don't have to go fishing for the facts.

nie
05-12-2007, 01:32 PM
:hello: Welcome to the forum. I feel like I am making progress through being in therapy. I hope now that you are seeing a specialist, you will begin to feel some relief too.

She Cat
05-12-2007, 10:16 PM
Welcome to the forum......

becvan
06-12-2007, 03:02 AM
Hi Dena, welcome to the forum. Can't add much since V covered it all! lol

bec

anthony
07-12-2007, 09:06 AM
Welcome to the forum.

hollyberry
07-12-2007, 09:31 AM
welcome to the forum

vst
09-12-2007, 08:50 AM
Welcome to the forum.

vst