Living with PTSD is living between a rock and a hard spot.  In order to have medical insurance cover any of the treatment for PTSD, it must be in the latest DSM-V, Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder.  Unfortunately, heavy prejudice exist for anyone diagnosed with a mental illness.  The DSM-V organization posted this link to their PDF file about the changes to the latest DSM: http://www.dsm5.org/Documents/PTSD%20Fact%20Sheet.pdf

Knowing how the insurance companies view treatment is important step in finding ways to help pay for treatment.  Sadly, insurance companies want cures not maintenance techniques.  They also want ‘traditional cures’ for a disorder that had only been recognized in the last 30 years, not much time to do long term studies.  I had help in paying for my years of counseling I was blessed.  My insurance allowed 10 sessions, I spent 10 years in counseling.  Acceptance is an uphill battle because someone will always point out that so-and-so experienced something worse but they don’t have PTSD.

An overview of PTSD by the VA:

http://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/PTSD-overview/ptsd-overview.asp

When I was diagnosed with PTSD about 10 years ago, I had to look it up.  Almost everything I found was rated to the military.  I read the articles that debated that the atrocities I experienced didn’t match what they endured so they didn’t want people like me walking around saying that I had PTSD.  During my years of research, I came to view that trauma is trauma doesn’t matter if it is physical, emotional, first hand or viewed. PTSD is an emotional reaction to really bad stuff.  Having a pissing match to see if my experience is ‘bad’ enough seems ridiculous.  Then I watched a TV situation that a person claimed PTSD as an excuse for murder.  I thought about this for a long, long time.  Sadly, there are people that will use PTSD as an excuse for bad behavior.  There are people that walk around with PTSD undiagnosed for years like I did.  There are people that will use PTSD as an excuse to curl up and hide from the world.  There will be people that will put every bit of energy they have into fighting their way back to a life of thriving and peace.  People are going to react in a variety of ways.  I can’t control people.  I only decide for myself how I can cope, overcome, and thrive while living with PTSD.