Just joined this forum today. Hello all!

[Moose410]

Hey there everyone. I am new to this forum. I'm 22 and from NJ. I discovered this website a few weeks ago. It's really good to see that there are other people out there going through a lot of the same things I've gone through my whole life.

I have been under a huge amount of stress recently. I deal with depression, anxiety and intrusive/obsessive thoughts a lot. I hope that joining this forum will help me deal with all the emotions I've been feeling recently. I'm hoping to figure out new ways of coping with the these feelings. I regularly smoke cannabis to help with my symptoms, but have recently had to stop because I was arrested months ago, which is why I feel like I especially need support right now. I just recently got married as well, and it has been difficult living with another person and dealing with my problems.

I wish I had found out about this site sooner! Only one other person I know has C-PTSD, and many of my friends don't seem to understand that you don't have to have gone to war to have PTSD.

[mourningdove]

Welcome, Moose410!   

[writetolife]

Welcome! 

That does seem to be a hard one for people to get, doesn't it?  I'm sorry. 

[Three Roses]

Welcome, Moose 410! Thanks for joining. 

[Kizzie]

Hi and a warm welcome to OOTS Moose    I just realized as I read your post that I don't know anyone yet IRLwho has CPTSD.  Is the person someone you can talk to about having the disorder?  If so it could really be  a mutually beneficial resource 

[alliematt]

Hello, Moose; welcome aboard!

[Moose410]

Hi and a warm welcome to OOTS Moose    I just realized as I read your post that I don't know anyone yet IRLwho has CPTSD.  Is the person someone you can talk to about having the disorder?  If so it could really be  a mutually beneficial resource 

Hey thanks for responding. The person I was referring to is someone I could probably talk to about it, but we don't see each other often because they live far away. But, I also recently found out (I suspected they had it but never heard them say it) that one of my good friends has PTSD too. We've both experienced childhood abuse and have talked about it a little. It does feel a lot better hearing other people's similar experiences.

[Moose410]

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone!

[sanmagic7]

hey, moose410, glad you made it here - better late than never, as they say.  welcome, and i hope you can find some extra support here - i've found this place to be very helpful that way.  lots of kind, caring, and generous people here. 

[Kizzie]

Hi Again Moose     that's great that you have a couple of people IRL to potentially talk to about having CPTSD. 

I don't know if you read this post earlier in this sub-forum, but Judith Herman  (the first to use the term "Complex PTSD"), wrote something quite eloquent  about the healing power that relationship and community with others who have suffered trauma can have:

Traumatic events destroy the sustaining bonds between individual and community. Those who have survived learn that their sense of self, of worth, of humanity, depends upon a feeling of connection with others. The solidarity of a group provides the strongest protection against terror and despair, and the strongest antidote to traumatic experience. Trauma isolates; the group re-creates a sense of belonging. Trauma shames and stigmatizes; the group bears witness and affirms. Trauma degrades the victim; the group exalts her. Trauma dehumanizes the victim; the group restores her humanity.

Repeatedly in the testimony of survivors there comes a moment when a sense of connection is restored by another person's unaffected display of generosity. Something in herself that the victim believes to be irretrievably destroyed---faith, decency, courage---is reawakened by an example of common altruism. Mirrored in the actions of others, the survivor recognizes and reclaims a lost part of herself.