Symptoms

[Agara33]

I have so many strange behaviors and symptoms since having ptsd. It’s very difficult for me to make decisions on the spot, I always need time to think, when ever I have a new errand I need a lot of time to prepare to make the phone call or whatever it is. I usually need a couple days to do one thing, it’s very hard for me to deal with anything new. And I have very extreme emotional reactions to things, comparative and aggressive. Does anyone else deal with these kind of things?

[Dolphin14 Moderator]

Hi Agara33

I can relate to the phone call piece.

It takes me days to pick up the phone and solve an issue. It is such a simple task for many people but for me it has anxiety attached to it. I will wait until the absolute last minute to make a call.

My strongest emotion is sadness. I can start crying at things that other people may shrug off. I have this habit of saying to people " I'm sorry now I'm going to cry" I guess that's my way to prepare them for what's to come.

A lot of what you are saying sounds very familiar from reading other posts. I think that's one of the positives of being here, we think these things are odd but they are experienced by others and it's good to be validated

Thinking of you

❤️🐬

[Agara33 in reply to Dolphin14]

thanks for the validation, it’s like the smallest thing takes such energy and endurance

[Dolphin14 Moderator in reply to Agara33]

Yes and the more energy it takes the worse we feel.

I think the only thing we can do is recognize how much it takes out of us and be gentle with ourselves.

[SavingGrace Administrator]

Absolutely! When anyone tries to make last minute plans with me, I do my best to make excuses.

I might come full circle and do a 360 in my decision-making after a few days of mulling it over, but I 'need' to feel prepared. I think for me, it is about remaining in control of my life.

I expect people to give me good proper time to make decisions and to give a response.

If this were the olden days, it would take at least a day of horse-riding for a message to be delivered, a day or two to consider and, then a day back of horse-riding with a response!

I think our modern world has become so fast paced, we can barely keep up at times.

Modern communication is still odd/weird, because it has taken away so much of the 'natural' and has become so 'digitised'.

[Agara33]

yes, we’d also be traveling by boat and by horse-no need or possibility for everything to be as convenient and fast as possible

[Nathalie99 Partner]

I have had difficulty with making decisions because of ptsd too and I deeply feel for you, Agara.

I made some mistakes and then I lost trust in myself.

I think it can impact things on so many different levels.

Regarding modern technology, I do need to put the phone away and find it too much with all the notifications (at least a few hundred every day).

However, I do appreciate modern convenience of having warmth in winter, shelter and safe transport because I didn't always have it. It appears I look at the world differently because of my experiences.

I think gaining some level of trust in ourselves and feeling of inner strength that is so much needed, would help with the decision making.

A lot of stress can overload the body systems and it makes it very hard to function.

[Agara33 in reply to Nathalie99]

I started to realize that my system really is burnt out and to give it a chance to come back-not be so surprised when I need time to do things, not fight it so hard