PTSD Break The Silence

People with PTSD can create and maintain good relationships by:

Building a personal support network to help cope with PTSD while working on family and friend relationships
Sharing feelings honestly and openly, with respect and compassion
Building skills at problem solving and connecting with others
Including ways to play, be creative, relax, and enjoy others

Yea, this would be awesome….except, yea it so didn’t start out this way.

Team Froglogic taught me a lot about team building.  I first had to face the truth that there were people in my life that were supposed to be on my team but never were.  Other people that I didn’t expect became strong team supporters.  Consciously choosing people that builds on your strength is a learned skill.  Team Froglogic http://www.teamfroglogic.com/

Respect and compassion can be learned but don’t come without being taught what they are.  Sharing feelings, wow, I first had to connect with them.  I am learning to do this after a LOT of hard work.  Honesty and openness are a goal to head towards.

Many sessions of counseling were spent teaching me skills that toddlers learn.  I didn’t have time, energy or resources in my childhood.  I was focused on survival, not much time for learning problem solving.

Learn to play….I joke that, “If I didn’t have a first childhood, can I have a second?”  Coloring is an amazingly relaxing activity.  Play, creativity, relax and enjoy were all a foreign language that I worked at learning.  I am starting to get those concepts.  Kind of amazing to do something relaxing.

This list won’t come easily to a PTSD survivor.  PTSD helps us to survive really, really well.  Learning to live is a whole different matter but not impossible.  Set goals toward a place you want to be.  I like the meme, “I may not be where I want to be, but I am glad I’m not where I was.”