Different meanings.  One of the hard things about writing a blog about PTSD I can use words like dissociation, nightmares, suffering, and many other words and what I mean may not have the same definition to some of my readers.  I went on some websites and felt marginalized and dismissed because I was not in the military.  I didn’t see explosions and bullets but people I knew are equally dead.  My PTSD was not brought on by one BIG event but by years and years and years of not having basic needs met.  Some people can point to a solitary event and say this caused my PTSD.  I’m not one of those people.  In isolation, any one thing doesn’t seem like that big a deal.  Easily dismissed and considered trivial.  Suffering stretched over years if it were compacted into a short time would exceed any explosion.  Part of my counseling was learning to have a similar language that we could discuss how I felt with my counselor.  He used words that were new to me.  I used pictures because I had no words to express what happened.  One of the frustrating parts of healing is finding a common language to share our experiences.  Talking with others doesn’t always go well especially when large differences exist between the words and their meanings.