Question:
Hi! > I’m taking Buspar now, and it’s helping a lot with the automatic anxiety > responses, as well as decreasing hypervigilance, but it’s a very delicate > balance….needing to keep control of how much outside noise there is around > me. (I’ve practically broken off the radio dial in my car when I suddenly need > NO noise around me.)
Well, I just leave the radio in my car turned off! 
This can be quite a challenge with a teen riding shotgun He usually uses earphones with his cd player for long trips, but he cranks it up so loud that I often can hear it, too. I keep warning about hearing attenuation, and he keeps ignoring me. :/ > It’s almost like sound waves are a form of pressure. I’m mostly wondering if > this will ever change, or if I’ll always have to have a sort of "sensory diet." > Sometimes my hearing is very acute — hearing some sounds from quite a > distance…other times, like in a restaurant, I can’t hear very well at all. I > feel more anxious when I can’t hear things, like when I have a cold….
I think that with PTSD we are supposed to be learning better ways to cope with ‘fear’. Part of our distorted thinking revolves around our belief that we can keep ourselves safe from external ’stuff’ by controlling our external environment(s), including sound. My ** therapist (I’m sorry, but it’s getting to be a real PITA that she knows me well enough to give me off-the-wall answers that work when I can get together the focus and will to implement them) keeps insisting that getting over ‘fear’ is an inside job. The phrase ’sensory diet’ is really awful for me to read. It feels like you are saying you want to stop hearing so much and that this is reducing your ability to live healthy and happy. I feel the same way about eating. :/ Food deprivation makes me crazed, but I probably use food to satisfy other hungers. Anyway … The idea that there is really too much sound in my life has given me some solace in the short-term. The concepts that I can choose what I want to hear and that silence is NOT a bad thing has been rather freeing. I think that more silence may be necessary for me to learn to pay attention to my body and my mind. After all, quieting my mind and paying attention to my body’s needs and feelings is part of the road to recovery though meditation. We all get told that soothing our body and meditating is part of PTSD recovery, don’t we? Maybe your ears are trying to help you get over some of your anxiety. Smile and there will be something to smile about! Nancy
Response:
Hi Odd Froggy, I sympathise. I live just off base too and it took me a long time to " tune out" all of the helicopters around here. Gotta love these pmq’s so close to base. ; ) Actually, this one isn’t that bad. It’s a duplex on a corner… I will never do the row house thing again… huge lack of privacy as I am sure you know. I thought I would share an experience… your message brought back the memory. Two years ago my hubby was on tour and it was just my daughter and I in the house really late at night and we were in bed. Suddenly there was a huge noise underground like an explosion and the pmq shook. I froze with fear in my bed waiting to disinigrate thinking some kind of nuclear bomb went off or something. It lasted several seconds and I was frozen for about ten minutes not able to move. The phone rang and it was my hubby calling from Haiti and when I answered the first words out of his mouth were "are you alright?"… I didn’t have much of a voice but replied I was scared sh*tless and I thought a bomb went off… he started laughing and told me it had been an earthquake. : ) I am sure you are aware of how fast news can travel in the military. That experience shook me up for a few weeks… I was paranoid with my hubby being gone on tour… I see humor in it now but it was serious at the time. I still get paranoid when he is gone on exercise or somewhere. Anyway, just thought I would share that, Take care and I wish you the best, Patricia. – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -Odd Froggy wrote: > Hi Elsie, > Welcome to my nightmare! All unpredicted noises send me to the roof. > Just imagine a cat that has be startled and has jumped up to the ceiling > hanging there with their claws…that would be me. > I live near a base that has lots of artillery shelling which is a > trigger for me. The sudden noise and vibration that it sends through the > ground reminds me of my accident and makes my knee buckle from under me. > It’s like being in a combat zone 24/7 after a while your nerves are pretty > irritated. I get these adrenaline rushes where my heart is beating a > million beats a minutes, my breathing becomes short and fast. It just > becomes unbearable at times. So I look forward to weekend where they do not > blow the s**t out of the ground. > I have become so sensitive to noises that even the toaster makes me > jump. I believe that for me it has to do with my lack of concentration. > Let me explain! I have to concentrate twice as much as before to do things > so while my mind is giving all of it’s attention at the problem at hand I > become unaware, if you will, to other things around me. So it becomes very > easy for me to be startles by the phone ringing or sudden screams from > children playing outside, etc. > Sometimes I want to have other noises around me instead of just the > noise of my thoughts but after a while it almost become like a sensory over > load and I have to turn everything off. It’s like if I don’t do it right > away I will explode from the inside out. Does that make sense to you. > Anyhow that is my $.02 worth on this thread for now. Take care > Odd Froggy > [Image]
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Response:
<ki…@cris.com> wrote in message news:8bifqa$do9@journal.concentric.net… > Well, I just leave the radio in my car turned off! This can be quite a > challenge with a teen riding shotgun
He usually uses earphones with his cd > player for long trips, but he cranks it up so loud that I often can hear it, > too.
I keep warning about hearing attenuation, and he keeps ignoring me. :/ I take the Fifth Amendment, your Honor. I know nothing of this type of behavior. I would never do this thing, I have never had sexual relations with a tobacco product. I do not own a blue dress. I dont know what color my lipstick is. I am not a crook. V ^_~ V Love and Kisses, Claudia
Response:
I had an interesting experience with my social worker once. I was talking when I heard a passenger jet going overhead, quite low and the window was open. I stopped talking and she looked at me for a bit, then asked what was wrong. After a few more seconds and the jet faded away, I said ‘I didn’t realize the planes flew so low over the hospital’. She looked at me funny, then caught on – she didn’t even hear it. Like someone mentioned, it’s the hypervigilence that seems to sharpen our hearing – we hear everything because we are always on the lookout for what might be a potential threat. It’s symptoms like this that I think will stick with me for a very long time. Lesleyanne http://home.thezone.net/~net * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet’s Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet – Free!
Response:
In article <8bjesg$b…@zingo.tninet.se>, <pzr***6…@tninet.se> wrote: x-no-archive: yes >(snipped for brevity) I’m scared of the dark indoors… but not >outdoors.
I have a ceiling full of stars in my bedroom. They give off a surprising amount of light for about an hour…just long enough to get to sleep. And also gives the impression of being outside. Would that help? I spent over $40 getting enough of the stick on stars from the gift store, but it was worth it. Risa Be curious always! For knowledge will not acquire you, you must acquire it. * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet’s Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet – Free!
Response:
Oh WOW Risa…. That sounds awesome. I’ve spent a few nights out under the stars with the military…. hmmmm….I have white ceilings…..but when I redecorate I’m going to look into that. Lesleyanne http://home.thezone.net/~chech * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet’s Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet – Free!
Response:
In article <2c759ece.615cb…@usw-ex0101-007.remarq.com>, La Chech <la_ch…@my-deja.com> wrote: >Oh WOW Risa…. >That sounds awesome. I’ve spent a few nights out under the stars >with the military…. >hmmmm….I have white ceilings…..but when I redecorate I’m >going to look into that. >:)
I have light yellow ceilings. They blend in pretty well. Why couldn’t you put them on a white ceiling? Risa Be curious always! For knowledge will not acquire you, you must acquire it. * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet’s Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet – Free!
Response:
In article <8F02D24F9tr0aDv3txf59mS2Rp…@207.126.101.100>, to…@m.is.invalid (SR) wrote: >What a lovely idea, Risa! $40.00 (US$?) doesn’t sound like a lot to pay >for something like that. Was it hard to get them up there?
$40 US. It wasn’t hard to get them up since my ceilings are low and I can easily reach them standing on the floor. (I’m pretty tall.) But I did break my wrist doing it. I was standing on the bed trying to get the area of the ceiling directly above the bed. Since the stars match the ceiling paint so well, I was having a hard time telling where I actually had the stars. I thought I’d get clever by turning off the lights, standing on the bed and then put the stars whereever they weren’t. Unfortunately, I didn’t take into account that I would get dizzy in the dark, head tipped back to see the ceiling. I fell off the bed and "Crack!". It was a lot of fun explaining to the doctor in the ER what I’d done. (And I still don’t know why it matters HOW I hurt myself, but they ask that question every single time.) Risa Be curious always! For knowledge will not acquire you, you must acquire it. * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet’s Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet – Free!
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Oh….the stars are flourescent…..you said that in the first post. <wipes glasses> I have to definitely look into that….. thanks Lesleyanne http://home.thezone.net/~chech * Sent from RemarQ http://www.remarq.com The Internet’s Discussion Network * The fastest and easiest way to search and participate in Usenet – Free!
Response:
- Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -"SR" <to…@m.is.invalid> wrote in message news:8F02EB892tr0aDv3txf59mS2Rpf4t@207.126.101.100… > risacaitlinNOriS…@aol.com.invalid (Risa) > <03bb2773.fbf80…@usw-ex0103-023.remarq.com> on Sat 25 Mar 2000 > 06:36:45p, wrote in alt.support.trauma-ptsd: > >In article <8F02D24F9tr0aDv3txf59mS2Rp…@207.126.101.100>, > >to…@m.is.invalid (SR) wrote: > >>What a lovely idea, Risa! $40.00 (US$?) doesn’t sound like a > >lot to pay > >>for something like that. Was it hard to get them up there? > >$40 US. > <snipped story> > >It was a lot of fun explaining to the doctor > >in the ER what I’d done. (And I still don’t know why it matters > >HOW I hurt myself, but they ask that question every single time.) > Plain human curiosity I guess. Risa I don’t know whether to laugh or cry at > you story, so I’ll laugh ruefully instead. I’ll paint my ceiling blue > before I put mine up. I get dizzy in the daytime with the lights on > standing on anything over chair height. You should see me on a ladder. ;`) > seana
Oh I LOVE the idea about the stars on the ceiling. Im going to make some that look like Sailor Moon figures and I guess I will just have to get a friend to put them up for me. I get so dizzy in the morning, and have fallen out of the bed sooo many times, that Mom was actually considering getting me those "training wheel bed things rails, whatever you know"" Like what you put on Baby’s first real bed. I had a fit, I dont need those, I just need to remember that I cant leap out of bed like I used to. I just have to sit there for a minute. And I usually plan what I am going to do while I sit there. Next thing I know she will want to put those Pull-Up diapers on me and have me be a toddler again. Can you imagine, one of your friends from the school you used to go to, and now just go when you can to turn work in, and you miss all the good stuff anyway, comes over to your house, There on your bed, are your rails, to keep you from falling and breaking a hip I suppose,. I would rather die. I am rambling, I know, but I am happy, and want to stay that way. Love and Kisses, Claudia
Response:
risacaitlinNOriS…@aol.com.invalid (Risa) <02727a4f.ae2c3…@usw-ex0101-005.remarq.com> on Sat 25 Mar 2000 05:23:49p, wrote in alt.support.trauma-ptsd: – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->In article <8bjesg$b…@zingo.tninet.se>, <pzr***6…@tninet.se> >wrote: >x-no-archive: yes >>(snipped for brevity) I’m scared of the dark indoors… but not >>outdoors. >I have a ceiling full of stars in my bedroom. They give off a >surprising amount of light for about an hour…just long enough >to get to sleep. And also gives the impression of being outside. >Would that help? I spent over $40 getting enough of the stick on >stars from the gift store, but it was worth it.
What a lovely idea, Risa! $40.00 (US$?) doesn’t sound like a lot to pay for something like that. Was it hard to get them up there? seanna — "look back and weep; look forward I am new there is dignity slide, crawl, walk with veil’d limp speak with no voice. O the heart knows, the heart knows… look back and weep; look forward — I am new" –
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