Part of a trauma statement

As part of CPT, I had to go back in my pain and remember as I wrote. I had to write my trauma statement. I actually have written 2 and a half. One for the first Iraq trauma I covered in therapy, one for the second Iraq trauma we discussed, and part of a third one for the PE work I started with the childhood sexual abuse.

I thought a lot the last couple of weeks about the first trauma. A lot of that thought wasn't intentional; a lot of nightmare issues and some flashbacks coupled with some of the old guilt TRYING to come back. So, I thought about this and, without seeking any advice from the Doc or anyone else, I thought it might be good to go back over my trauma statement...kinda.

I think I want to write it out again in all it's details of sound and heat and emotions and sights and etc. However, what I don't think I am ready to do is put anything here that might indicate the specific event or who I am. I don't know if this is guilt or fear, but I think if I put anything here that is specifically searchable, especially names, then people might find this blog again. I guess I really don't care if anyone reads it but I worry a little bit about having a repeat of the bullshit with the past blog (facebook hacked, blog broadcasted, email hacked, all by an asshole who used to be a friend, and who probably are the reason that some aren't speaking to me anymore...but this is a WHOLE different topic that REALLY pisses me the fuck off!!!).

Anyway...here goes:
Something shitty happened and I feel like it was my fault.
All done.
Nope...that's not going to be good enough. I know that. However, I am very tired tonight so I think I just want to scratch this in...
I had to go take care of somethings. While at the building I ran into one Soldier first. He was pretty cool and we talked for a bit after I overheard his conversation with someone else and stopped him. He was talking about pictures from the war, which I had a disgusting fucking habit of collecting from my own camera as well as from other's. In any event, I stopped him and we talked for a few minutes. After these few minutes of chatting, before he went into the building, another Soldier came up and joined our conversation. Shortly after this interruption, the first guy excused himself and left the other Soldier and I to talk.

We talked for a few more minutes. I liked this guy as he seemed really fucking cool. I even invited him to our weekly poker game. He seemed interested, we wrapped up our conversation, and I headed across the street to take care of the next chore on my list.

When I got accross the street, I hung outside the door and smoked. After smoking for a few minutes ALL hell broke loose.

I have to stop here. I don't want to write this anymore and I am very tired. Hopefully the fact that I don't have to wake up so early tomorrow and that I am sooooo fucking tired, this will mean no bad dreams or nightmares.

I'll do plan to update this soon. Tomorrow (later today) I need to write up a short list for my session with the Doc. Kinda excited about this appointment, like I have a mission to tackle regarding my therapy and unless the Doc is too busy, mad at me for something, or just fucking tired of me, I think it will be a great session!

Associating my wife with hell????

My wife and I have been having some really stupid but fucked up arguments as of late. The bottom line has been that she believes that "if [I] inists she see a counselor about who she's become then I can just leave." This was only part of the argument. A lot my complaints with her revolve CONSISTENTLY around her constantly shitty temper and the yelling.

I HATE yelling and I do it myself ONLY as a LAST option before using my fists t settle something. Yelling has a VERY strong ability to trigger ALL of my trauma from my childhood as well as some of the incidents from Iraq. So, yelling kind of ALWAYS takes me back to that hell of being raped as a child...EVERY time! Since I have started explicitly working this trauma with the Doc, my reaction has worsened! It's even been so bad as to cause me problems when a specific group member looses his temper. It's like an isntant flashback trigger. Now, my wife has been kind of the same.

So this past Monday we had this continuation of the fight and she was yelling. She later gave me her "apology" in the form of a hug and a dirty joke. Shortly after that, she wanted sex. So I had sex with her.

I am sure that I only go hard was due to being physically horny. I was able to get into us having sex but I had to fight a lot of shit from when I was hurt as a kid. It might be germane to note that we JUST had sex...some oral and grouping and kissing and them me on top. However, she had asked to get some of our "things" and to 69 with her. I would normally be OK that, even like it, but it seemed like everything she did or wanted just triggerd more memories of hell!!!

This wouldn't have been if it was just one night. However, happeded that night and then again Thursday. And that wasn't the worst part. What was the worst was actually 2 things...equally horrible: 1) My nightares have been horrible since Monday night, and 2) EVERYTIME I have been around her this last week and looked at, I either see those fucker's face or I see her face on the necks of those who raped me!!!!!

The Doc was helpful, even if she did have to miss my second appointment for the week this past Friday. However, I am falling asleep typing this so I will have to update or post a part II. The only good news is that I am out of town for a week, so I don't need a solution this very exact second.

Unwinding and Focus

The last two weeks have been really rough in terms of nightmares and fighting with the wife and just a SHITLOAD of triggers. The Doc made some really good, but tough, comments on an interaction that she witnessed months ago between my wife and my kids and my kids and I. The gist was that I needed to remember that I learned a lot of wrong things as a child due to my trauma, only to be punctuated by Iraq, and that I should pay more attention to how I teach and talk with my children. There was a lot more to it, but that's a whole different post. One good final point that she made was that I should/could change my focus from being so obsessed about the recent nightmares/triggers, and to think more on how I am raising my children. So for the last couple of days, that has actually helped a lot. I did send a text message to tell her thanks...no reply, but that's to be expected I guess. One thing that struck me as odd...I have kinda thought for a while that I could tell sometimes that the Doc had more she wanted to say at this or that point/session...and her waiting quite a few months to mention this I think is evidence of that. She really is a great Doc and I told her that there wasn't a whole lot that she could say to piss me off. Her reply was to the affect of that she thinks a lot about the timing of things, including things she says to her patients.

Tonight we had some friends over for BBQ and beer. I only had a couple of beers....didn't want to get shitfaced and some of our friends were being VERY loud and a little too dirty for the younger ears in the house. Had a good time but by 9pm I was just ready for a quiet house. Between shopping today and a LOT of fucking pain in my lower legs, I was kind of on edge most of the day. It was however really great to just kind of kick back and hang with some friends. The last two weeks had been SO bad that I was really going south mentally and just fucking hating life. I wasn't even all that happy to go see the Doc, which usually brightens my week unless I know I am doing exposure therapy stuff that day. But the comments she made really made me take pause about my focus and about my children. I feel like I just want to tell everyone how I feel and what they mean to me...the few I actually give a fuck about anyway. Maybe I could just write some letters that maybe one day I could send?

PTSD and my wife

There has been, for some time now, this strange phenomenom in my household: If I speak VERY highly of my wife while being away from home, she is a complete bitch at home but if I speak poorly of her away from home, she's fucking awesome when I get home. This happens CONSISTENTLY like a poor joke.

So tonight she was being bitchy, kinda anyway, and she has been for about 5 days now (this does coincide with good ol' Aunt Flo coming to visit...EVERY fucking month!!!) As we were leaving the rib shack tonight after dinner, she asked if I wanted to go to Lowe's to get some blinds for the house (we need 2 last sets). I had told her no, that I just wanted to get home. Her response was that I "never want to be around people" and that she's "getting sick of it." WTF??? She knows that I don't do good in crowds and that I have already been having a rough 10 or so days due to a bunch of fucking nightmares. So what does this have to do with my original comments above???

Today the Doc made some rather pointed, but correct, comments regarding my wife and I and how she (the Doc) thought about how we were treating our children. She pointed out some things that I have noticed in how I talk to my son...maybe a little to "toughly"...and it's actually somehting that I hav been thinking about for some time now.  However, she also mentioned how my wife was treating (being hard on) one of my daughters. The Doc actually referenced the possibility (fact?!) that my wife has piss-poor self-esteem(my words) due to her own weight problem and health. On top of that we talked aobut my feelings about my marriage and how 50% of the time, I just want OUT!!!I don't know if I would feel this way if my wife had a move even-keel (normal) temper and better self-esteem. I do know that it's something I was thinking of LONG before the Doc said anything. 

Sometimes I think that she is way too good for me...sometimes I think I am way too ogood for her. I DO love her, deeply, which is probably the biggest reason why I stay(and that I believe she might hurt herself of my kids if I leave). But, when ALL of my friends since my youngest daughter was born and the wife gained all the weight have said the same shit the Doc was saying today...it makes me really wonder aobut what the fuck I am doing, and what I need to do and what I should do. I mean, very few of my friends have ever been able to put up with her long...and a LOT have just flat out avoided us becuas they can't stand her yelling and temper.

AAAAGGGGGHHHH. So WHAT do I DO??? I am going to ride it out for now. After this visit with Aunt Flo, I am going to give her a pointed letter (face-to-face will not work as she NEVER admits ANY wrongdoing) and ask her if she will see a counselor or something. I don't know if between my PTSD struggles, stress at work and school, and her on-again/off-again niceness, if I could do many more years of this without loosing my mind or hurting someone, including myself.

It's too bad she can't just easily slip back into how she was before all the post-partum crap. I mean, I KNOW I have changed since Iraq and the memories of being raped multiple times came flooding back. I don't think anyone else would have me. I mean, Angela and Marissa would probably both jump if I said I was coming to get them....but they are not really what I think I want full time...I guess??? I do know that I wish my wife, or whoever I end up growing old with, is more like the Doc. At least in the intelligence, compassion, AND looks department. She's got her flaws, I assume anyway, and she knows way TOO much personally to ever actually be interested in a lost cause like me...but someone like her...and it would be great if the wife started developing these traits...that would fucking rock!!!

Long overdue Check-In

So it's been like seven months since I have remembered, or found time, to post anything on here. However, I have been doing a LOT of writing in journal that my doc has had me start using. I think I will start working on transferring that chicken scratch to this place so I can get rid of the hard copies at home.

Where I am at since my last post:
Things have been a lot better since last November. I did a lot of work through CPT with the Doc regarding the trauma from Iraq.
...Then I started a modified form of PE with the Doc regarding what she had termed CSA(Childhood Sexual Abuse). This has actually been much, much more painful AND difficult than the work on the Iraq trauma.
There have been some seriously strange side-effects of this therapy, for lack of a better term.
- Really bad dreams, some which are an inter-mingling of Iraq and one of the three separate CSAincidents.
- The realization that I hate myself almost 24/7 for the guilt that I carry from both Iraq trauma and some of the particular CSA.
- The remembrance of the some of the most painful (emotional AND physical) memories of my life
- The remembrance of a time when I had actually planned, and (the part I didn't tell the Doc) started to carry out my suicide. (I got lucky that I passed out before doing anything irreversible, even if I passed out only because I was waiting for my wife to come home so I could "finish" it)

It is so strange, and very fucking frustrating to me that I have these memories of major events or decisions in my life, and that I have apparently gotten exceptionally good and pushing these fuckers so deep I forget about them until some unknown trigger brings them back.

Some GREAT News:
my friend Shane is out of Jail after a long stay on some bullshit charges from a crackhead DA and an estranged spouse. But, he's home with probation only on misdemeanors as the new DA dropped/reduced the felony charges!!!!
WELCOME HOME BROTHER!