Member-only story
How Did I Get Here?
An important story
*In response to the Put It To Rest writing prompt on healing
Because I felt this was such an excellent writing prompt, despite some writer's block, I refused to give it up. It gave me the cause to reflect on my journey. I am fortunate to have reached a level of self-awareness that enables me to write about what it is like for me to live with PTSD.
Because being able to share my story hasn’t always been the case.
It was nearly twenty years ago when I first noticed I was experiencing “problems” — frequent night terrors, periods of terribly disturbing disassociation, and whose onset were completely unpredictable. I now know there is a name for these — flashbacks.
I was also prone to slip into lengthy stretches of crippling depression, my sleep was disturbed and inconsistent, and it was common for me to suddenly erupt into frightening bouts of blind rage. I also began drinking heavily, hoping to blot out the chaos inside my head. I had no idea what this all meant or that I had already spiraled out of control.
As the years passed, I experienced more and more traumatic incidents — one after another. In addition to the traumatic incidents, and the daily carnage naturally inherent in my profession, the problems I was experiencing compounded exponentially. To…
