PTSD Survivors Speak: Celebrating the Joy of Survival
Wednesday, August 4th, 2010 • PTSD Guest Post: Survivors Speak •
Today I’m hijacking the Survivors Speak feature because I have exciting survivor news! I’ll begin with this question:
Do you notice that around your trauma anniversary your PTSD symptoms increase?
If you answered, yes, you’re not alone. Many of us exerperience intensified PTSD responses around the calendar date of our events.
August 31st marks my trauma anniversary. This used to be a date that really set me off — my PTSD symptoms seemed to vibrate at an even higher level and every year for over 20 years my hair fell out by the handful on the anniversary of my trauma. Pretty intense, huh?
But what if your trauma anniversary was all about celebrating the joy of your survival instead of remembering the pain you felt in the past?
Now that I’m 100% PTSD-free there is so much more to August 31st in the present than what it is associated with in the past. I think one of the things we can do in our self-empowered quest for freedom is celebrate our survival. This year I want to celebrate with you!
This August there is a lot to be excited about as we kick off Heal My PTSD support groups this fall (details coming soon) and the launch of my PTSD and recovery memoir, BEFORE THE WORLD INTRUDED: A Memoir of Trauma, Survival, Identity & The Pursuit of Joy (have you downloaded your free preview?).
There’s no one I’d like to celebrate with more than you who know best what it means to have PTSD and search for release.
Team Heal My PTSD and I have designed a special event for the night of August 31st — I hope you’ll join us to rock the anniversary curse. For details on what we’re doing and how to participate click here. I’ll give you a hint: Celebrating the Joy of Survival: How to Cope with Trauma Anniversaries has a phenomenal panel of both civilian and vet survivors and leaders coming together to talk about coping strategies for trauma anniversaries.
In addition to this, from August 16th – 31st, our Healing Thought of the Day will be devoted to sending you special tips and suggestions. You can sign up really easilyhere.
Plus, we’ve designed a Facebook page dedicated to the idea of having a discussion about anniversaries, triggers and how to cope. Join the conversation already in progress!
I also want to hear from you. Tell us how you:
1 — cope with
or,
2 — reclaim your day?
Please share your thoughts here on this page, or on any of the Heal My PTSD fan pages and twitter streams. Tweet us your experience, ideas and suggestions @micheleptsd or @healmyptsd or share on our Facebook trauma anniversary page.
Leave a comment below and tell us what worked for you. Then, starting August 16th, check back here as we offer a weekly update on how to cope with and/or redefine your trauma anniversary.
We have more things planned for my actual anniversary date. Whether you are comfortable on a teleseminar, Facebook group, Twitter or chat, we are going to celebrate our survival together!
In joy,
Michele
Photo acknowledgement.
Tags: anniversary, Facebook, Joy, survival, surviving, symptoms, trauma, Tweet, Twitter
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What about us who were traumatized many times? I was abused more than a hundred times as a child.
@Sigrun — That’s a great question. Even with multiple traumas (mine lasted for weeks; the date marks the beginning and was always a trigger for me) sometimes there is a date or time of year that things seem heightened or worse, or a particular memory looms larger than the rest. Does that happen for you?
No, it doesn’t. I was abused during my whole childhood, from I was three or younger, and till I was a teenager.
@ Sigrun — I’m so sorry to hear that. To answer your original question, in the case of survivors who have multiple traumas so that there is no single date: I think coping mechanisms for anniversaries still apply as they give ideas for how to manage out-of-control symptoms. As much as coping strategies can bring relief to a particular date they can, also, build relief into continuing symptomatic experience. I hope you’ll stick with me through the month and let me know if you feel that some thoughts, ideas and conversations are helpful.
I share Sigrun’s problem (no ONE date because of multiple traumas). How about celebrating the day the abuse ended? Or the day that you first realized what they were doing to you was wrong? Or if your abuser is now deceased, celebrate the fact that they can never abuse you again. Or pick a day (maybe Independence day or Cinqo de Mayo) to stand symbolically for the end of your trauma or for your survival. I use Cinqo de Mayo to celebrate my last divorce, and my escape from an abusive husband.
My symptoms are always worse around the holidays, because there was such a contrast between the expected season of love, joy, and family closeness, and the reality of the traumatic events that occured around that time year after year (child abuse, fires, murder/suicide).
I could pick my mother’s birthday and celebrate (ding, dong the B**** is dead), or pick my grandmother’s birthday and celebrate the one person who loved me and did NOT abuse me. Or I could pick the day after Labor Day, which was the start of school (I was safe during the hours I was at school).
I can relate to the multiple trauma thing as well as struggling more on the holidays. But I can say that the summer time overall is very much a struggle for me. I have an eating disorder that almost always gets worse in the summer, & it wasn’t until this year why I’ve figured out in therapy why “I just hate the summer.” In addition to physical health issues, I have emotional issues with the summer. I count down to the fall. But I have never made peace with the summer. I almost landed in a higher level of care for my ED again this summer, but have avoided it so far. I feel like I’m always a step away from giving in because I haven’t found anything that helps enought to really cope with the summer, or any of the other trauma anniversaries I have.
I feel like I’m going to cry just writing this, so I’ll end there. I look forward to the suggestions you have coming even though I sort of cringe every time I read the words “trauma anniversary.”
I used to struggle with my late brothers death anniversary, as he commited suicide and I felt that I wasn’t there for him. However I now deal with this in a enlighting way. I know if he could pass me a message he would not want me to feel down or go to pieces, he would be proud of me for getting through my own mental health issues and helping others with a simlar disposition… Jason Tune
Many have been traumatized as children throughout infancy and beyond. This is so rarely addressed and there are millions of people barely surviving as a result. Surely there are resources for them? With all due respect to you and your Journey, it’s not the same kind of trauma. The core self is effected when the horrors ensued between the formative years of 0-5.
@Jjstar — Absolutely, different types of traumas lead to a variety of PTSD experiences. In all of my work I have not come across specific resources that are different for people traumatized between 0-5. We are all individual in our traumas and so our healing journeys will each be unique. However, in my work I interact with a large community of healing professionals, both in the PhD traditional psych world and the alternative healers and many believe that the authentic self is not destroyed. There are modalities that actually begin with this accessing this aspect before any of the actual trauma healing work is done. In the end, as you know, there is no single best method for recovery. We each must establish our beliefs, discover the process with which we resonate, and find our way. Thanks for adding to the conversation.