Well, I had another session with my individual therapist today. We did a lot of talking about my recent realizations about being black and white about everything. We still haven't come anywhere close to a work around or work-through. One realization that I did make was that survivor's guilt plays a huge role in setting the standards I hold myself to (and my inability to forgive myself for not being good enough) and why I can't forgive others for disappointing me (well, violating my trust is more accurate). There's a lot more to this that I still have to work through, that's for sure. One of the things she told me is that she's concerned that because I need to have people fall into one category or another (Trusted or Not), I may try to force people to fit into those narrow categories, even when they don't belong there.
We talked about this for the vast majority of the session and she asked me if there was anything else bothering when I unintentionally dropped a bomb on her. I could tell it concerned her greatly because her demeanor went from relaxed and attentive to focused and intense. Here's the situation: Last week, Thursday night into Friday, I lost a day. What do I mean by that? I went to sleep a little after midnight and the next thing I remember coherently is waking up and realizing I have to be at work in 45 minutes - work started at 2PM. I slept for over 12 hours. I remember nothing in the interim. The next thing I remember clearly from that night is helping to clean the slicers at the end of the night. I know interacted appropriately with my coworkers, but I have absolutely no sense of the passage of time for that night. None. I have no idea whether I was asleep all that time either. I drove home that night wondering whether I was going to be walking into a shitstorm at home. I had no idea. After talking about this with my therapist today and seeing how concerned she got, it raised some alarms in my head and I ended up not working on the newsletters I wanted to send out today - I could barely concentrate on writing this blog post. So I decided to take a break and watch a movie or two. I couldn't concentrate on anything and it was starting to ratchet up my anxiety something fierce. What I thought was strangest was the timing. Everything was going well. My PTSD symptoms were wll-managed. The only thing I can think of is that it happened the night after I talked to the consultant about incorporation and foundation documents for the non-profit and I had a funding proposal that I put before a local veterans group for consideration. I was extremely excited. I was thinking that maybe my body doesn't know how to tell the difference between excitement and fear. I know my adrenalin was pumping like crazy. Unfortunately, the end result was the same - I lost a day. So now, I have to track when this happens to see if there is a pattern. I did some looking online and the specific information about the symptoms of TBI seem to fall in line with some of the issues I have with short-term memory, loss of sense of time, anger, etc. Anyone out there know more specifics or resources online that articulate this better? I don't want to pee up a tree and send doctors looking for ghosts if there's nothing to this. 5/14/2013 06:37:40 am
Thank you for letting us into your PTSD world, I'm a 13 yr combat veteran, with one tour in Iraq, Desert Sheild/Storm...PTSD has haunted me since, it was worst in the beginning, I use blogging also to help deal with my ordeal in Iraq and help myself. My true story at: 5/14/2013 01:38:19 pm
Larry,
Anji Wiley
5/19/2013 01:58:24 pm
There are some very good article out there about TBI. In the field I work we deal with extreme cases of TBI which result in total loss of control, no sense of time, paralization (partial or total), violent behavior, etc. Below are some articles i found that deal specifically with Combat TBI: 5/20/2013 05:18:00 am
Anji,
fran luxton
5/21/2013 01:41:19 am
hey Max ...Just wanted to say , I read your blogs and I often think of you ...from across the pond :) 5/27/2013 01:08:44 am
Hey Fran, 5/25/2013 01:30:17 am
I'm doing OK. I have been struggling to work through the latest revelations and health issues, but I am doing ok. I am still working on the latest blog post and struggling to articulate accurately what I feel right now. All things considered, I'm doing well and glad I have off on Memorial Day to reflect. Comments are closed.
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Max HarrisAs I continue my life with PTSD, I will share my challenges and discoveries on this blog. Archives
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