Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

I have PTSD - Post Trauma Stress Disorder. For those of you who don't know exactly what PTSD is (from the DSM-IV definition):

309.81 DSM-IV Criteria for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

A. The person has been exposed to a traumatic event in which both of the following have been present:

(1) the person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or a threat to the physical integrity of self or others (2) the person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror.

B. The traumatic event is persistently reexperienced in one (or more) of the following ways:

(1) recurrent and intrusive distressing recollections of the event, including images, thoughts, or perceptions.
(2) recurrent distressing dreams of the event.
(3) acting or feeling as if the traumatic event were recurring (includes a sense of reliving the experience, illusions, hallucinations, and dissociative flashback episodes, including those that occur upon awakening or when intoxicated).
(4) intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.
(5) physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event.

C. Persistent avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma and numbing of general responsiveness (not present before the trauma), as indicated by three (or more) of the following:

(1) efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations associated with the trauma
(2) efforts to avoid activities, places, or people that arouse recollections of the trauma
(3) inability to recall an important aspect of the trauma
(4) markedly diminished interest or participation in significant activities
(5) feeling of detachment or estrangement from others
(6) restricted range of affect (e.g., unable to have loving feelings)
(7) sense of a foreshortened future (e.g., does not expect to have a career, marriage, children, or a normal life span)

D. Persistent symptoms of increased arousal (not present before the trauma), as indicated by two (or more) of the following:

(1) difficulty falling or staying asleep
(2) irritability or outbursts of anger
(3) difficulty concentrating
(4) hypervigilance
(5) exaggerated startle response

E. Duration of the disturbance (symptoms in Criteria B, C, and D) is more than one month.

F. The disturbance causes clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning.

How do I deal with it you might ask? I go to a lot of therapy and I try to do a lot of relaxing things like my cross stitching and reading. It is very hard to deal with. I have many of the symptoms listed above in the DSM's criteria for PTSD.

For Criteria A: I experience the event firsthand...I was burned 45% of my body entirely in 3rd degree burns.

For Criteria B: I have intense psychological distress at exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event. I also have the physiological reactivity on exposure to internal or external cues that symbolize or resemble an aspect of the traumatic event. The external cue in question is fire, sometimes hot things on my skin like a hot shower is difficult to endure. Having a campfire is difficult for me to be near so I usually sit farther away from it. Also sirens set off both a psychological and physiological reactivity in me.

For Criteria C: I do avoid talking about the accident. I don't like talking about it. I also have amnesia of the event so I am unable to recall the events of the accident. I have a diminished interest or participation in significant activities and I have a sense of a shortened life such as not being able to have the normal things in life that other people have like marriage and children.

For Criteria D: I do sometimes have sudden outburts of anger or irritability and extreme difficulty concentrating.

For Criteria E: This has definitely lasted for more than one month.

For Criteria F: This has also definitely caused significant distress and impairement in social functioning. I have a hard time going out and I have a hard seeing people, which is why I didn't go to my reunion after all and why I always, ALWAYS get nervous going to go see even the friends that I have already seen.

So as you can see, I'm kind of messed up and I need a lot of help from my friends and family to get through this. I also need a lot of help from my blog followers so don't be afraid to leave a comment on anything. It helps me a lot to read what you have to say. I want to inspire you and show you that your life, compared to mine, is not all that bad and the little things you think are the end of the world, aren't, compared to what I'm going through. So don't hesitate to say something. I need and love to read what you have to say in response to something I've written, especially if it has opened your eyes or inspired you in some way because that is the goal of my blog.