[clara]

As far as spelling and name-giving confusion goes, perhaps we should all stick to acronyms!!! LOL

Roxanne and Rayma, having read your exchange, I hope you don't mind my 5 cents worth:

I can't help thinking that the extent to which you are "cured" from PTSD depends on how much you want to regain your own life and are prepared to place the past where it belongs, in the past.

I say this not because I want to reduce the deep and devastating impact abuse and trauma has on anyone, but because if I can leave it behind, so can you. It has nothing to do with being a strong or weak person, it has to do with the choices we want make for ourselves.
Letting go of the past means accepting new ways of coping with the stresses and challanges we face everyday.

Alcoholics Anonymous has a slogan which I have mentioned on another thread: living life on life's terms: it is not easy, but as adults we are no longer in that threatening environment. People can only abuse or mistreat us as much as we allow them to. We are not powerless as we were when we lived through the abuse and were unable to stop it.

Scientifically it is known that exposure to abuse over a long period of time can alter brain chemistry but that does not mean it is incurable or untreatable.

The problem is that many many people with PTSD avoid therapy and treatment: avoidance is a trauma based defence mechanism. Therapy does not make the past disappear, nor does it wipe out our emotional feelings about what happened, but it can change the way we allow those memories and fears to intrude and disrupt the lives we choose to live now.

The hardest, but most rewarding change is learning how to cope and do things differently and overcoming the fear of including those memories and feelings (good and bad) into the person we are now. That can make a world of difference to how we look at ourselves in the mirror each day.This is a process called integration and means accepting who we are and what happened without it controlling us now.

Any of you heard of Sidran and the PTSD Alliance? These are two organisations specialising in PTSD and have a wealth of information and resources about how to get past living in trauma.

I'll most more information in the next day or two....