I went to my first therapy session on Friday, and it wasn't so bad as I thought. By the end I was pouring my guts out, and there was so much that I wanted to tell her that I didnt get to because our session was over. So I am going back in two weeks :claps:

Anyway..she said some things that I was a little confused about. She said that the first step in PTSD is turning your fear into anger and then learning to control it. Huh? :dont-know I am doing GREAT with the turning fear into anger thing, but how can that be healthy? I have a seriouse problem with it..

Congrats!!! I was shaking like a leaf before my first therapy session and I ended up so glad I went.

My therapist has talked to me about anger, too. He said when you keep everything bottled up for so long, build walls to block the pain eventually when then walls come down, everything behind them comes out. Being angry in a constructive (rather than destructive) way can be healthy. Writing, talking, dealing with your trauma(s) and being angry about the reasons for them or the people behind them. Rather than lashing out at random or being angry with people because they're close.

Anger is a powerful thing. At least that's my opinion. It can help you to access parts of you that have been locked away, get them into the light of day to examine them and deal with them. It can be healthy because it can help you to release a lot of old 'junk' that you carry around with you.

BTW-I'm glad you found a therapist you're comfortable enough with to trust right away. Keep going and keep talking...you're helping yourself to heal.

Congradulations!

Good deal. The hard part for me is keeping my appointments. I forget or just don't go. My docs are PISSED.

I think this is a really good description of healing from PTSD. From the very beginning, even before my therapist called my problem PTSD, he has said my problem was with anger. I have reeeeaal problems getting angry and actually feeling it and not turning it on myself with self-harm.

I think Marlene summed it up well. It's about being pointedly, appropriately angry--with who and what happened to you. Getting angry and deciding what effects the trauma had on you, when it happened and now, are a big part of getting on with your existence beyond PTSD.

Good for you for being brave enough to do this!

Congratulations spoke... well done. You can turn fear into anger if you want, that is one way of doing things, but the end result is, you have to learn how to control anger. The only way to actually control anger, is to become proficient at identify the raw emotions, as anger is not an emotion, its an emotional response, being another emotion is always present before anger, ie. frustration = anger; offended = anger; hurt = anger; etc etc.

Learning how to identify the raw root emotions and dealing with them, is the key to managing anger, controlling it, actually merely making it non-existent for the most part because you deal with emotions before they become anger, or you identify them to stop your outburst, pause, analyse, then think about what you really feel instead of just having an outburst.

Hm..that is really interesting anthony..it makes a lot of sense.

I wonder how to tell if she is a 'good' therapist? Anyone have any tips there?

Therapists are taught theoretically, then they have to learn practically with people, which means lots of mistakes. It depends how much commonsense they have IMHO. If your hurting when you leave, they are doing something, if not... ditch them because their bludging on you. A therapist should not agree with you, they should push you, push you, push you... your job remains simple: be honest with them and don't leave things out thinking they don't need to know. If they can't help you with every piece of information, then change. At the end of the day though, you are the one that has to do the work, not them; they are merely there for you to help support you with techniques, give you things to think about, bounce ideas around, you do the work though.