This poll was originally from Pita's questions in regard to her research. Please take the time to answer this as correctly as possible for PTSD research.

Please respond if you have more to add. Remember, this is for research, so the more the better the outcome.

Ok, here come some real life examples from myself.

1. If I go out drinking, it generally would mean that the place would be crowded, or when I get a few into me, I want to continue drinking, so I would move to another place to party, thus as the night goes on, more and more places close down, and the remainder get more and more crowded, hence for the following several days, I will suffer deeply from particular symptoms, ie. basically a delayed anxiety will hit me, possibly some depression, night sweats, can't sleep, etc etc etc.
2. If I go to an entertainment event, I know that I will get ill the next day or day after from the crowd, ie. a concert that I really want to go and see, I will sacrifice my health I guess, to see that concert. I will get anxious at the concert, generally begin feeling trapped and disorientated, though I will fight myself through it to enjoy the moment. I will then be ill for a day or two afterwards with the same effects as above from partying.
3. If I go to a shopping center in peak hours, ie. late night shopping or saturday mornings, I know I will get immediately anxious, generally anger will come through, I will feel trapped and need to escape. I have gotten to the point in those situations that I have started pushing my way out to get into open space, ie. outside the shopping center.
4. I suffer from exposing myself to people that I don't know, which means to meet new people is often harder for me, especially that I never had problems with that previous to PTSD. If I drink alcohol, then the layer disappears for that brief time, but then the issues above step in the following days.
5. I struggle to maintain friendships because of fear they may find out more about my past. I know some people who haven't experienced war zones think its cool and exciting, but when you have experienced it and lived to walk out the other side, you no longer think its a fun and cool thing to do. Generally I know people will want to know more as soon as they find out my past, hence I just stop seeing people in precipitation of them asking to begin with. If I don't see them, they can't ask, thus I don't get symptom outbursts.

I think you can see from the above, that yes, PTSD definately affects how I perform and move within society as a whole. I imagine it will for the rest of my life, though I plan to slowly continue pushing some boundaries to expand them within my mind, so I can begin to enjoy friendships and general social surroundings more than what I do now... being little to none.

PTSD changes the way you think. It changes who you are. It changes everything, including what you once thought of society, and how you handled yourself in society.

It has affected every aspect of the way I function socially.
And I wouldn't say it's for the better

My view of what is considered 'normal' in society is completely distorted. My experiences have meant that I simply cannot integrate with people to whom reasonably healthy families are the fabric of society. There are so many triggers in social life that it's near impossible trying to pass off as just another regular human. Even when I'm feeling quite sunny and confident my 'norms' leak through and mark me out as different, and I may go off my head at any time.

I have also noticed that some forms of upsetting experience are considered more 'normal' than others, and it is far easier for some people to find kindred spirits or to be acknowledged in society at large - coming from a broken home is now common; having been molested by your grandmother (for instance) is not even on the scale of general awareness. This public acknowledgement is an important factor, I believe, in people retaining their sense of being 'in' society, and not feeling as much inherent shame.

Victims of PTSD, whether domestic or military, often represent things that people would rather forget. They are often treated as unwanted aliens by society at large, which can only exacerbate their condition if they don't have a rich support network.

Just some rambling late night thoughts!

Ptsd affects socialising and life 100%. Everything purdyamos has written I relate to also.

It is exceedingly difficult to be yourself in society when the levels of mistrust are very high in yourself and also in others (about anything different or deeper than 'usual'). Unless it's within the bounds of a forum like this, or somewhere that equally you feel there is understanding, I don't feel it's easy at all to be open or yourself. Personally I find it too painful to pretend, especially as this often means feeling more and more divided within and distant from yourself, so I decided to limit as much as possible being in situations where there was no option but to wear a mask.

If someone has to be outside a lot, having others in life who do understand (whether that's a counsellor or otherwise) and who they can be congruent with has to be a centring thing, or otherwise, being very centred with who you really are yourself. But that last one doesn't cover the social side of things! The only way to become social I think must be with the right mixing and/or enabling via the right counselling.

Cat

Ofcourse, when you look at the symptoms of PTSD, it would be impossible that it would not affect the way you operate in society. The difference here is what happens when you have these things in check and have dealt with the trauma and can function 'normally' again.

The question is bizarre, because in a period of managing a team of people over not so many years I saw each one go through changes which affected their daily functioning to varying extremes. There was not one who could say the way they operate is society 'was not affected' at that time. Be that through bereavement, divorce or something else.

It is the degree to which PTSD affects performance, memory, trust, mental acuity, organisational skills etc that is fundamental to normal performance in society. And it is these that are more drastically affected so that in the worst throes of it, we cannot accomplish anything.

1. I hate crowds. I don't like the feeling of people pressing in on me. For this reason, I pass on sporting events (i.e. I LOVE hockey - you couldn't pay me to actually go to a game. Ditto for football, amer. football, etc).

2. Scared to death of people. On an abstract level, I'm not. On a practical level, I'm petrified. I don't socialize and I especially am unresponsive and avoidant when I'm forced to do so.

3. I don't like to be touched, except by very few. I was at my sister's this weekend, and my 6yo niece (who is very touchy-feely and cuddlesome) had her arms around me and I just wanted to wiggle out of her embrace. And forget tickling me: I'll slug you.

4. I dissociate a lot whenever others show emotion. Mine are too intense and I want to keep mine from falling out by association.

5. I'm hypervigilant -- enough said. Paranoid as hell, always looking around and over my shoulder. I'm always on the lookout.

6. Anger is my big problem. If even the slightest detail doesn't go according to plan, I go spasmodic. It's mostly internal, though; it's killing me.

7. Indifference. When I'm not pissed-off, I'm indifferent.

My back tensed. I heard the sound of a car driving up and the thud of the car door as some faceless interloper emerged. I held my breath, dreading to hear the clumsy clumping up the stairs that would announce the un-welcomed company before reaching the door.
It was always a clumping too; as if they wore boots that were five sizes too big whenever they came in order to instill some kind of low-budget horror movie suspense into my already edgy response to their coming. After a few rigid moments, I heard the sound of the car door again, and then the car drove harmlessly away. It had obviously been a delivery to the people across the street. The neighbors are much too close, I thought for the thousandth time that week.
Just because this last car was not a danger did not mean that I should let my guard down completely; I took this opportunity to go lock the deadbolt. Sometimes they would just walk straight in as if they had every right in the world to open my front door. Maybe by their rules they did, but I would never become accustomed to it.
I remembered a time and place where people would knock at the door, and wait for you to answer it.
I took an open-mouthed chug of my drink, catching an ice cube. Concentrating on the cold on the roof of my mouth and the grinding of the cube against my teeth enabled me to remove herself mentally from the seemingly ever-present doom of my current situation.
If I hear the phone ring, I feel on the inside like the aliens from Sesame Street - BBBRRRIIIINNNGGG!!!! AAAAAGGGGHHHHH!!!! TELEPHONE, TELEPHONE!!!! BBBRRRRRRRRRRIIIIIINNNNNGGGGG!!!!! My hackles rise and I say a silent prayer. The prayer begins with hoping that it is nothing more than bill collectors, and ends with me being thankful for answering machines.

i hate to admit it, but a lot of times i find myself "going through the motions" with friends, at church, at school. i was always the one that the kids, and friends, would come to for a hug and some encouragement. as much as i want to be able to do that, sometimes the genuine feeling is just not there--its like your emotions in some ways have turned to cardboard. but in other ways, your emotions are too strong. i have never liked crowds, but could tolerate them, now i get shakey and lose my concentration just trying to shop at wal-mart. many times at church, i feel the need to walk around, so i sneak outside, or go to my husband's office. it is a good thing, i guess that my faith is not based on "feelings" but i would like to be a feeling person again. i have to keep my curriculum out at school to remember what i'm doing, i used to be able to just make lesson plans and go with it, after 13 yrs.
i have added a lot of things to the curriculum to supplement, and now i have trouble recalling when i should introduce these things. it makes me unsure of myself as a decent teacher. it's like somebody sneaked in and stole all my confidence.it makes it hard to concentrate and listen to someone, your attention is aways drawn to what's going on around you, constantly distracted by it. it has made me a better driver, in that sense, though.i always know where everyone around me are. but , on the other hand, if i'm alone driving i take chances more often than i would have before. my husband has been wonderfully supportive, but it has definately affected the trust in our relationship, he is always "checking" on me to make sure i'm ok. it took a while before he would educate himself on the ptsd, but he finally did after talking to my therapist and the dr. for himself, and it has made a world of difference for us. sorry, i didn't mean to write so much.