Hello CoffeeSnob
Birdy and GGrandy have already welcome you to the Beyond Blue forums. They are great supporters as you'll find when you travel through the threads and posts.
It's great to have you here. There are many different forums, threads and posts that you may be interested in. There is one under the PTSD & Trauma forum - for Medical and First Responders. That you might find useful.
You'll find as I go on I'll ask some questions. It's just to see how we can help some more. There's no pressure for you to respond at all.
Just to let you know, I too have PTSD that is from trauma early in my life. Though I was only diagnosed 7 years ago. I'm now 64 and retired. What I've found is I have to continually be aware that I can be triggered. It's only been recently that I've learnt to identify the triggers immediately and challenge my beliefs. I've had other different therapies over the years - emotional behavioural therapy, cognitive behavioural therapy, exposure therapy (with drastic results) with varying degrees of success.
What I've found is - it's ongoing management to keep and stay well. It works most of the time, however, retirement sent me into a tail spin. That's when I joined Beyond Blue forums. This and a new psychologist have helped me tremendously.
What type of work are you doing these days? Do you have any one that provides support or that you can talk to about your PTSD?
Again, no pressure to answer. Just if you feel like it, to get the conversation going for us.
Kind regards
PamelaR
