PTSD and trauma

A space for discussing post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), domestic abuse, sexual abuse and other trauma. Please note some content may be distressing.

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A_Tech PTSD for Medical and First Responders
  • replies: 276

Hi, Well obviously this my situation. I was hoping to find others here that might have a similar background to chat with, it can be so hard to talk about this stuff with non-med people (and I mean no disrespect, it's just often graffic or upsetting t... View more

Hi, Well obviously this my situation. I was hoping to find others here that might have a similar background to chat with, it can be so hard to talk about this stuff with non-med people (and I mean no disrespect, it's just often graffic or upsetting to others). Im a 40 year old female that has spent the last 10years in the State Trauma Hospital as an Anaesthetic Technician. My PTSD was brought about after years of exposure to shocking traumas, deaths, and no support from management. I would love to hear from anyone that has a similar story, or just wants to chat. Cheers

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Harry_S Spiralling out of control
  • replies: 2

Hi I’m Harry, 20. I’m not the one to try and reach out, talk to my friends or family cause I hate people I love, worry about me so I thought I’d try this I honestly can’t remember the last time I was truly happy. anyway long story short. I was sexual... View more

Hi I’m Harry, 20. I’m not the one to try and reach out, talk to my friends or family cause I hate people I love, worry about me so I thought I’d try this I honestly can’t remember the last time I was truly happy. anyway long story short. I was sexually abused by a family “friend” multiple time around the age of 9-10. I grew up in a India till the age of 12 with my mum and sister, my dad was rarely in my life as he was working in aus trying to get us here. The person I looked up to, a father figure I guess, was my uncle, my best friend. Just before we were ready to move to aus he committed suicide. Ever since that day I’ve just been just numb. I started experiencing major depression and anxiety towards the end of high school. It has progressively gotten worse, I’ve tried committing suicide 3 times now. I’ve tried pretty much everything. SSRIs, Therapy, even talking to a close friend. Nothing works and it keeps getting worse. Now, Difficulty sleeping and when I do sleep I have horrible nightmares. They usually end with me dying. Recently i have been experiencing something wired it feels like I’m someone else, like my arms and hands don’t belong to me and I keep catching myself Making up these wild imaginary worlds with people I know in them and playing out scenarios in so much detail. Last weekend I broke down I’m front of my mates and started weeping. I only see one path forward and I don’t want to do that for the sake of my friends and family. Any help and guidance would greatly be appreciated. Thx

lillicat Aftermath of child sexual abuse. Separation
  • replies: 3

Two months ago I became a single parent. I was with my partner for ten years. I have a daughter from a previous relationship, and we share a four year old son together. We also have a joint mortgage. My twelve year old daughter told me she had been s... View more

Two months ago I became a single parent. I was with my partner for ten years. I have a daughter from a previous relationship, and we share a four year old son together. We also have a joint mortgage. My twelve year old daughter told me she had been sexually abused by her stepfather. It happened more than once. I am a shift worker and the abuse happened when I was on night shift. I still feel sick thinking about it. I confronted my x, but he denied it. That night we fled the family home and stayed with family for a few days. He eventually left the house, so my children and I returned to our home. I felt like I had no choice but to inform police. Then followed an apprehended violence order. He ended up getting arrested, but released on bail with strict conditions. I felt so guilty and confused. I still cared about him at the time even though he did these horrible things. I think most of those feelings have since developed into pure hate and anger. I am angry at him. I am angry at myself for not knowing what was happening. When we first met I thought I had met someone really amazing. It didn't take long for things to go pear shaped. He was a heavy drinker. Drinking turned him into someone else. He had a short fuse. He humiliated me in public. He was so controlling. I was not allowed to spend $10 on myself. My daughter and I have started counselling, however I feel the road to recover is going to be very long. I had to go on medication to function. I am sick of pretending I am okay when I'm not. I have continued going to work to support my family but it has been an effort. I can't tell my work friends the truth. It is too full on. I just say I had to separate as he did something that was unforgivable. It is like bottling everything up inside. Things just got worse as I heard from his lawyer the other day. It is clear he wants us out of the house. It has only been two months. I am too miserable to sort my life out at the moment. Now I have had to organise legal advice and an evaluation on the house. I don't think I can afford to buy him out. I am worried we may become homeless next. I am worried about money. There will be lawyer fees and my daughter needs braces. How do you ever recover from something so horrible? How do you ever trust someone again. The pain is too much. The betrayal is too huge. My life is a mess.

Guest_2350 Losing the war with myself
  • replies: 12

Hi everyone. I first posted in this forum 5 years ago. Everything that had to do with mental illness, medication, treatment was new to me and the people on this forum helped me heaps, I have PTSD from childhood sexual abuse and from war. Bipolar. Anx... View more

Hi everyone. I first posted in this forum 5 years ago. Everything that had to do with mental illness, medication, treatment was new to me and the people on this forum helped me heaps, I have PTSD from childhood sexual abuse and from war. Bipolar. Anxiety. Bushfires and Covid haven’t helped. Since that first post I’ve lost my job because of discrimination. I tried to kill myself twice. I’ve had countless admissions, meds, one on one and group therapies. I work hard to implement what I learn, I try not to work so hard... I try new things, I try old things... I’ve lost friends and family, made new friends, lost most of them... I don’t know what else to try, I feel defeated.

Elsam Marriage problems
  • replies: 37

I have been with my husband 25 years, i feel like I do still love him but hate him at the same time for the way he treats me and destroys our life. We have been together 25 years and there has been a long history of Domestic violence, abuse, cheating... View more

I have been with my husband 25 years, i feel like I do still love him but hate him at the same time for the way he treats me and destroys our life. We have been together 25 years and there has been a long history of Domestic violence, abuse, cheating and dishonesty. I cannot trust him. The violence has now stopped but he has now started with emotional abuse. I left him in August last year and then he begged me to come home after 8 weeks, I finally came home because he promised me the world (all fake promises, just telling me what I wanted to hear). By Christmas he abandoned me on Boxing Day for 2 months, I never saw him and he never spoke to me for the 2 mths. February I went to see a Solicitor and they sent him a serious letter, he then called the Solicitor saying he wanted to work things out with me. My brother has just passed away and now he has abandoned me again and I have not seen or spoken to him for the last 3 weeks. I cannot go on like this but I am suffering from depression and PTSD from the trauma he has put me through. He is a narcissist and very controlling and manipulative. He is good at Gaslighting and giving me this silent treatment to make me feel guilty so I come crawling back to him! It is just a cycle of abuse that never ends I just don’t know how I am ever going to get away and feel as though I can survive on my own I am so scared. He has made me co-dependant. I want to be on my own and he happy but feel like I still love my husband but cannot keep letting him treat me the way he does. Does anyone have any experience with this abandonment? Is it another form of abuse? He never used to do this before? I have tried for so long to get him to address our issues and problems and attend marriage counselling together but he just runs away from the truth all the time! We are living separately in the same house! I just don’t know what to try next or who to turn to, it is always me making the effort in this marriage

samwise New Here
  • replies: 1

Hi, I don't really know where to start but I am struggling right now. I have had ongoing treatment for CPTSD for over 3 years and right now the frustration of everything is getting to me. I am 24 and I really struggle to make friends, people don't qu... View more

Hi, I don't really know where to start but I am struggling right now. I have had ongoing treatment for CPTSD for over 3 years and right now the frustration of everything is getting to me. I am 24 and I really struggle to make friends, people don't quite understand my need to sit facing a door where possible and a lot just laugh at me when I startle at noises. This just makes me not want to leave my house because I just embarrass myself. It seems like I will never have people like me because in spite of me doing all I can, this is still a major aspect of my life. I wish it wasn't but it is, and I find myself so lonely because of that.

Ambivalent repressed memories from childhood
  • replies: 1

lately a topic i hadn't thought about in a couple years has become prevalent again because i started opening up to a friend, for some time i've thought something happened to me as a child, that someone did something sexually inappropriate to me as a ... View more

lately a topic i hadn't thought about in a couple years has become prevalent again because i started opening up to a friend, for some time i've thought something happened to me as a child, that someone did something sexually inappropriate to me as a child. when i was 16 was when the idea and thought effected me the most because an incident happened when seeing family members, though the incident was small, what really effected me was how it made me feel, i completely sank into myself so much so that the world felt like it was closing in and i felt like i was going to throw up, it effected me so much after that because it felt like i was a child and i had no voice, and it took me to such a place that almost felt repressed, it felt like it dwelled up all this disgust and guilt and shame that was so familiar but i hadn't felt for a very long time. after the incident i just left the kitchen and went to my bed (we were staying in a rented home for a family members birthday ) the next day, i asked my dad to wear his hoodie even though we were in qld and i was sweating , but i just wanted to hide and get the rest of the day over with and go home, i started to feel guilty for wearing so much makeup and acting older than my age, but in hindsight i did feel a little nervous going there and that was my way of putting a mask on , by acting grown up. although to some it might seem insignificant it pushed me into a full blown thing for the next year because of the way it made me feel , it felt like such a trauma on my body that i was convinced something had happened when i was younger. other reasons before that i had thought something happened was because i used to feel unwell everytime i was in qld, the smell, the feeling of the air,when i was younger i would feel it and i tried to push it from my mind ( my dads side of the family live in qld and we would visit them every so often when i was younger) ive had body dysmorphia since i was as young as i can remember, i used to try starve myself when i was like around 7 id say and onwards, keep in mind i was a thin kid, i remember i used to get really uneasy unwell feelings around men when i was younger and male authority figures, like teachers, principles, bosses!! and i always for no reason feel slightly resentful and bitter towards them, like when someone makes you uncomfortable and your only defense is to disregard their character even when none of them did anything wrong and were all actually quite polite, even though this is the case a lot of my sexual thoughts were always around someone with authority. my dad was also kind of not great at times and didnt put us kids in the best of situations when we were young, because of a court order i wasnt even allowed to leave the state with him until i was seven, my mum has expressed a lot that she always worried something happened to me as a kid or something would . ive had bad anxiety control since i was a kid, i couldnt eat in public , starving myself comes up all the time in my life since i was a kid.

Endthestigma My PTSD
  • replies: 2

I am 11 years old and when I was around 5-7 I watched some scary stuff happen at my house. My brother is suicidal and sometimes he would threaten to kill him self. That experience affects me now more than it did before. I have been diagnosed with PTS... View more

I am 11 years old and when I was around 5-7 I watched some scary stuff happen at my house. My brother is suicidal and sometimes he would threaten to kill him self. That experience affects me now more than it did before. I have been diagnosed with PTSD,anxiety, depression and ADHD. I get a lot of flashbacks of the past.

Hope3110 Had enough... feel like giving up. VERY COMPLEX PTSD
  • replies: 9

I’ve always experienced anxiety and depression from years of sexual, emotional and physical abuse. I grew up in a house where my dad was an alcoholic and was violent towards my mum. When I was 6 years old I was first sexually abused by my neighbour. ... View more

I’ve always experienced anxiety and depression from years of sexual, emotional and physical abuse. I grew up in a house where my dad was an alcoholic and was violent towards my mum. When I was 6 years old I was first sexually abused by my neighbour. Then my grandfather for 20 years. Then witnessed a sexual assault on My friend and sexual abuse for me. Another 3 of 4 episodes of this. And I sought help from VOCAT and did PTSD counselling. but the last 12 months of my life have been the worst of my life and it keeps getting worse I’m starting to think it’s me. my depression and anxiety was getting better. Until my mum (the one person I could talk to about anything ) got diagnosed with a stage 4 brain cancer. She was given 12-18 months later. She died 6 months after I took her into hospital. 3 days after my mums diagnosis my Aunty commit suicide. A month later my grandfather who had been sexually abusing me my whole life died, I had to take my mum to see him, because she was sick. First time I had seen him in years then I got stuck planning the funeral. My mum got married to her partner of 20 years but my brother tried to commit suicide 2 days after the ceremony. We spent my mums last birthday in the psych ward. Then my mum went into a coma just before Christmas (all this while working and looking after mum) then she died a couple day’s after Christmas. After my my mum died everything got harder. My brother went out of control again (he has a drug addiction) he believed we murdered my mum and she never had brain cancer. He tried suicide again and has had another stint in the psych ward. we hadn’t heard from my Aunty in NZ did a welfare check and she had passed away of some kind of cancer that affected her scalp and eye. So I had to tell my dad and grandma. then last night my step dad had a fall and seriously injured himself. I was up all night at the hospital and I’m really stressed. I’m over COVID. I’m having multiple issues at work. I don’t know what to do anymore. im on medication, I’m seeing a psychologist and my GP every week; but it’s the fact something new keeps happening. Plus I’m turning 30 soon and I haven’t achieved anything in my Life. I’m starting to want to stop trying I feel like all these bad things are happening as I must have done something wrong. someone please help give me Advice I know I’d be ok if I wasn’t constantly having issues but it’s out of my control. it’s all circumstantial. thanks xoxo sorry for the rant

Alice182 Family Trauma/Anger
  • replies: 5

Hi, I have been dealing with severe anxiety and mild/deep depression for years now. It is undoubtedly linked to the divorce my parents got when I was about 10 (I am 22 now). It was ugly. I saw things as a child that I shouldn't have including assault... View more

Hi, I have been dealing with severe anxiety and mild/deep depression for years now. It is undoubtedly linked to the divorce my parents got when I was about 10 (I am 22 now). It was ugly. I saw things as a child that I shouldn't have including assault, courtrooms, back of police cars, suicidal attempts by a parent. I know for certain all this has impacted me, but it has been the last few months that I have seen myself spiralling. I am constantly angry, trying to control others with minuscule tasks, snapping at them, just being plain awful. I drink more than I should, and it reached a tipping point the other night when I was wallowing in a bout of depression and got blind drunk. I had a fight with my mum, that I don't remember, and said some things that I know were disgusting toward her. We are not talking, just avoiding each other. I live with her and her husband who I really don't like. I don't talk to my brother much, as in the past I took my mums side in certain matters. My family is a mess, I don't think I've been stable since the divorce. I need to change, stop taking my anger out on others. But the loneliness and weariness is overwhelming. I simply give up and let myself wallow. Most days I feel like simply vanishing somewhere else. Start something new. But there is this hold my family has over me that guilt trips me into staying, from trying to separate myself from them. I am ashamed of myself to say the least, I simply don't want to be this way anymore.

Island11 Why do I feel like this
  • replies: 12

Things have been deteriorating with my partner since January. There have been sexual incidents which have upset me. I want to leave but can’t access the finances to do that and have no support from family. Every time he upsets me I go shopping and sp... View more

Things have been deteriorating with my partner since January. There have been sexual incidents which have upset me. I want to leave but can’t access the finances to do that and have no support from family. Every time he upsets me I go shopping and spend wildly. It seems to be the only way to feel ok again, to hurt him back, to feel like I have some control again. It’s not a conscious thing, i think it’s just a coping mechanism. I retreat inward emotionally yet lash out at him verbally. I feel a little bit like a caged animal. My joy and motivation in life is dissipating and I am simply here. He kisses me good bye and tells me he loves me and it feels at odds with everything else going on. My judgement and thinking feels so clouded.