Anyone ever have this?

by Country Girl 8 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Country Girl

  My therapist says that I have Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. One of the many symptoms of this is hypervigilance. If I hear a sudden sharp noise, I immediately jump twenty feet in the air and scream. I told my therapist if he'd spent his whole growing up thinking he was going to have a rock strike him into the ground (ala Paradise Lost, Paradise Found book) that he'd have a tendency to be a little jumpy, too! Have you this symptom even as an "out" person? If you have gotten rid of it, how did you accomplish this?

  Country Girl
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  Truth2Me

  For many years I have always been "on edge", often freaking out at the slightest thing....and though I think that multiple factors were involved, I'm sure PTSD has something to do with it. It took time, not having bad stuff happen for awhile, and lots of prayer, and finally I'm getting better!

  Truth
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  Lady Lee

  CG

  Many of the people here have expereinced the symptoms of PTSD.

  What you describe is one of the symptoms.

  Dealing with the individual symptoms of PTSD can help and learning to feel safe.

  The horrors that are taught to the JW children are scare tactics. We can remind ourselves of that but ultimately it will take time
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  Swan

  YEP!

  Especially when I am feeling depressed and vulnerable. People will walk up and start talking normally to me and I will practically jump out of my skin!

  Tammy (who looks better with skin)
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  TheSilence

  I've never had this... but I think it's because my dad was always the prankster when I was young and constantly jumped out from behind things to scare people among other things. You learn not to jump because it takes away the reaction he was looking for and he stops doing it. :::smile::: and eventually you get accustomed to it and it doesn't even phaze you.

  However, I do find that I will plan for exceptional circumstances. I live alone... I haven't planned for what to do if I'm murdered because, well, I'd be dead... but I can tell you what I would do and what choices I would make (I think, anyway, as I'm not in the situation) if I came home to someone in the house who raped me. I plan for how I would react to different people's death who are important to me... to the point of even planning some of the words I would say at my grandma's funeral. I can not believe it's a psychologically healthy pastime... but there it is.

  Jackie
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  berylblue

  Because I never knew when I was going to be beaten by my maniac of a father, I was extremely hypervigilant to his every mood change (which was about every 3 minutes).

  I tend not to notice things as much as the moods of everyone around me; I had to . My well being depended on it
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  Makaveli

  wow....

  Somebody else who feels like I do,

  hello friends.
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  maybesbabies

  Welcome to the board, Makaveli! I have the same thing, mostly trying to judge peoples moods, because I'm so terrified of what their reactions will be. I also have a hard time at night, listening to every creak and groan of the house, and having to tell my self over and over that there's no one there, the doors are locked, etc. It's gotten a lot better, I don't wake up terrified in the middle of the night anymore, so I think it just takes time. I also do a lot of reasoning with myself in my mind, giving myself logical solutions to why someone is frowning, what that noise in the kitcken was, etc.
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  oldcrowwoman

  Yes I experience PTSD. Yes I do startle easy. I am hypervigilant of my environment. I get trigger now and then. With help from therapy I am able to seperate whats the past and whats present with new coping skills. I am only in the past for short periods now and knowing now I am in a safe place. A long long process.

  My PTSD started long before I became a jw from childhood. It was enhanced being in abusive jw marriage.

  I was recently in a PTSD support group for several years. Which was helpful for me in finding ways to take care of myself and learn other ways to cope.

  I am glad you brought this up Country Girl. To acknowledge that these feelings that we all experience. And to be supportive.

  Old Crow