Good perspective to have Mouse. Strive for positivity myself.

Jim.

I agree with veiled, in that people need to get off the forum and more into life; its called exposure therapy. I know I certainly push people to get back into life, and I do hope people do exactly that. You cannot solve all your problems online, far from it. You can not solve all your trauma via words or a trauma diary. Yes, it is part of the bigger picture, though you need so many things combined into the total package in order to truly heal. This forum as a community for understanding is only one part of that. People must take upon themselves to be in therapy, to expose themselves to life, to force themselves beyond their own boundaries. People need to team up and help one another, though also need to be very careful at the same time in that they do not enable one another, as that is easily done and often missed by many.

What veiled is saying I take as what I would say, being people need to get away from relying upon just any online medium.... it cannot be done, you MUST use all things in moderation, this forum being one of them. This is nothing new though, and said here quite often by veiled, myself, Kathy and others. You cannot depend upon one thing, because it can make or break your foundation of healing, which is not the desired effect. You need face to face communication. You need to expose yourself to anything you fear.... from walking out your door to shopping, entertainment, etc. It is about exposure.... though first you must push yourself through healing your trauma. You cannot get around it, over it or under it, you can only go through it and face everything it has to throw at you. How you do that, well... that is unique to you. What works for you must be found from trial and error.

From what I understand veiled to be saying.... I totally concur.

I have been off living life off the forum for a bit and in reading this I think I understand. When it comes to me this forum has meant so much, I used to need to be on and study myself through others and their PTSD so much, I have taken a big step and went back to work. However, I still have PTSD and think that you never really get rid of it ever, you just learn to take bigger and bigger baby steps towards healing. I still find myself attached to this forum and think I always will as this is HOME BASE for me. I have found support, friends, a boot in the butt at times, happy tears, sad tears and angry tears while on this forum. I do believe this forum is a "Place for healing" and Anthony may not have credentials but NO ONE can tell me that this forum is not (as Lisa would say) brilliant. Thanks everyone, I lurk often and really do care about you all, and I hope vice versa.

Well said portabella.... very well said. I certainly do like not having credentials though, otherwise I wouldn't be able to help online, thus only being able to help those who pay for a local service. There should be more scope IMHO for even professionals to be allowed online and provide their experience and knowledge so people can gain more options.... as that is the key to all this... options. The more you have, the more you can try for yourself.