This week I took a major blow in the healing department.
I was rejected by my choice facility because drum roll….I am poor.
Also, I have night terrors. Is that a liability? How can a place “specialize” in treatment for PTSD, but deny me because I have night terrors? Why is that a deal breaker?
More to the point. I have no money. All of my care is covered by super amazing and generous people who donate to my medical fundraiser.
What kills me is the knowledge that with poverty comes violence and with violence trauma and there-are-people-suffering-from-PTSD-that-can’t-get-care.
I am a well connected and weirdly shameless person who suffers immensely from shame. I’m going with Jesus being at the center of all my actions that can be considered shameless. Except the weird ones.
The point is that I am being helped. People find reasons to love me and help me and my husband and things end up working out.
What about the people who have no one?
PTSD steals your voice. How many rapes go unreported? How many service men and women can’t get help because the VA is so backed up? How many kids get hurt and are literally too small to stand up for themselves?
There is so much misinformation about PTSD and other trauma-related disorders. I didn’t even understand what was going on with me until a doctor explained it. And I got to see the doctor because someone helped me get there.
We are the 7.8% of Americans who will experience PTSD at some point in their lives. I have C-PTSD, so it’s been going on my whole life and I can hope for manageable symptoms instead of remission and there are more people like me. We are mostly unable to get care because we lack insurance. And the medical-insurance community seems to be obsessed with medicating us into zombies instead of signing off on therapies that have been shown to all but cure our symptoms.
So, on behalf of all of us, here it is:
HELP.
PLEASE HELP US.
Look at programs in your community.
Look on GoFundMe or You Caring.com.
Look for us. We need your help.
When you find us, please, help us.
Not everyone asks for help. Please be willing to listen when they do. Listen, believe, and act.
Please.
photo credit: <a href=”https://www.flickr.com/photos/tom-margie/1546045630/”>twm1340</a> via <a href=”http://photopin.com”>photopin</a> <a href=”http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/”>cc</a>
I do not have a diagnosis, but I did have constant traumatic stress and then major traumatic stress and then had a breakdown, I was defriended on Facebook by, drum roll please . . . a PTSD expert. I had actually thought about working with her and her group but apparently she did not recognize hypervigilance and the concept of re-enacting the trauma (I did so by writing publicly not acting out with people) was foreign to her. Thank GOODNESS she defended me. I am not shocked by this and I am glad you found your voice.
Thank you!
It is a difficult thing. I’ve had to break a lot of ties because of people not understanding or caring to understand how they were triggering me.
I am happy you have found your voice too! Keep it up!