I am really anxious to feel better emotionally and am really putting a lot of effort into being positive. I just really need to know something...I am wondering if people with PTSD ever get better ie. stop being so jumpy and frightened of failing so much that it interferes with living. There is this suffering that goes on and on and all I want is to accept that I am who I am and it is okay to be less than perfect. And it would be nice if the flashbacks would go away. I just need to know if all this crap gets a little easier. I know my therapist has no definitive answer for me, but he doesn t live with this

dshanks,
I can tell you that in the years since I was diagnosed I have had long periods of time where I was almost completely symptom free. I am currently dealing with some issues that have only recently come to my awareness. I am now having alot of symptoms but I fully expect that as I work through things in therapy I will again reach a level of recovery where symptoms are not a problem most of the time. I hope this encourages you. Hang in there. PTSD can be lived with and recovery is possible. Eagle

Yes you can get better. Not cured as there is NO cure for PTSD, but symptoms can be managed very well as Eagle put it.

I agree, symptoms come and go for me. right now mine are pretty mild so I'm able to work on things like getting out of my comfort zone... of course that's when my symptoms rear their ugly heads so I practice managing them and so on.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that we can be symptom free but that doesn't we should stop working on our PTSD.
Just to be clear here... I'm not implying that anyone here feels differently as I don't think you would even bother with this forum if you did. I'm just stating what I learned in the hospital... and I kinda learned it the hard way if ya know what I mean.
take care. I hope your symptoms improve.
Morgan

dshanks:

We've yet to see where you fall on the scale of PTSD. Some have it mild and some severe.

I am on the severe end. I do not get any period of my life where I have no symptoms. I have them everyday and have had them everyday for twenty years.

What we do learn is how to manage and minimize our symptoms with a lot of hard work. It takes a long time and can be very painful. I can't tell you that you will be flashback free, or not have anxiety. Only you will be able to know that, after working hard to get to the management phase.

Keep hope up though. We can learn to manage it and to minimize our symptoms. Some people with PTSD can manage it better than others. It just depends where they fall on the scale.

bec

You asked two different questions...

Get better as in healed and symptom free? Like bec, said depends on how severe you PTSD is. We don't know that much about you to answer that and even if we did know you better and your PTSD we probably still could not answer that. It being PTSD and not PTS it is safe to assume you will always have some symptoms lingering or ready to pop out. PTS goes away once treated, PTSD is now a lifelong disorder. I can't vouch for it but have read here that the startle likes to stick around. I don't know if that symptom ever leaves, sure hasn't one me judging by a fly landed close to me the other day while I was channel surfing and I jumped so high the remote flew from my hand and smacked the hell out of me right in the forehead :). The only symptom I have had actually take a hike are nightmares.

Yes! But it does get harder first. Many of my symptoms are much better nowadays. Some days are better than others. I manage my symptoms. With that I know what my limits are and how much stress I can handle. Downside life is happening around me and sometimes life happens to me and unexpected things can cause me to collapse and have a complete relapse of most of my symptoms.

Once you hit a management phase it is very individual.

Hi Dshanks,
As Becvan pointed, there are more severe and less severe cases. It probably depends a lot on the degree of severity how your progress with controlling your symptoms. It may be compared with some chronic physical condition. However, it is always worth trying to improve. The effort you put on may be surprisingly rewarding. For me, it defenetely is. I can not even compare my life before I started to work toward my healing and now. And I made the greatest progress over last few months.
I think this is unrealistic to say that you will be cured. But it is realistic to expect improvement.
Good luck,
Linda

Forgot to ask, are you on medications? I have learned through trial and error sometimes some people need to be on it. I think anyone with this should give medication free life a chance on it before throwing in the towel to see if they can do it, but if you absolutely cannot function med free even after working on yourself for extended periods of time, processed all your traumas, use all the exercises you have learned... There is a whole world and a life waiting to be lived. Some people benefit a great deal on a drug designed to be on long term to control some of the hardest symptoms. Bi-Polar and Schizophrenics have to be medicated for life. Some PTSDers may need it too.

There are good weeks and bad weeks. Good days and bad days. Good hours and horrible minutes. It waxes and wanes like the moon , only faster. There are too many factors involved: I can have a good day go bad if some asshole cuts me off on the road and nearly kills me, then that hour is angry, then it takes me a while to get my blood pressure down, then I am okay until I hear a song that makes me have a memory that makes me cry. But then I come home and my cat just greets me at the door and all the problems of the day go away and she loves me unconditionally and all is well. Life happens, and PTSD makes us more susceptible to strong emotional responses, sometimes. I think that I will always have PTSD because I got it when I was an infant, but luckily I have medication that works great and a therapist that does too. Plus, I am not going to stop talking about my trauma, which is healing for me.

Thanks for all the support, by the way, and yes I am on meds -mood stabilizer, tranquilizer, anti depressants and ativan for panic. My shrink says my PTSD is quite serious, however, I have had it for a long time and I seem to be getting used to it sticking around until some emergency or problem comes along. I just really have a hard time with the mood swings and startling