You do know I am all too familiar with what you went through. Our paths are maybe parallel but grow closer on occasion and further apart on others, but I do understand. The part of the brain that controls our emotions and our responses is responsible for maintaining and managing memory. When the memories or even the events become too much to handle, the brain sets them aside; almost like storing them, while the brain and the body cope with the trauma.

The trauma may be different for each of us, but the response is identical. So someone like Jill may have flashbacks or nightmares that go back decades to Vietnam, while yours may flood you with fear and terror over something so horrible you can't even say it in public...even if both of you remember the events. The emotional overload of the moment(s) of trauma are too much so the brain says NO! In my case, I remembered events for the first time fifty years after they occurred, because, as my therapist says, my eight year old psyche couldn't handle the horror of what my sister and I were going through. Three different people with three different stories to tell, with many if not nearly all of the symptoms.

So we all cope. I find that both of you are so dear and precious to me, even though we've never met. We all dealt with different horrors, but we have one supremely wonderful commonality. We all survived. You and Jill and I are alive because our hearts and minds refused to give up and surrender to the terror. I thank God for both of you, and I'm so glad you are alive.

I really appreciate that this thread started. Thanks to Stan for including this in his story. I wonder how many folks here actually have either been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress disorder or suffer from the symptoms as described on the website I linked to in my previous comment. It might be a good idea for any of us who experience this to look at the link, as well as the links over at Wikipedia. And perhaps a blog later in the week with an idea for a poll. We have so many veterans here who served our country and other countries as well. And we have so many abuse survivors as well. Knowing that we're not alone...knowing that I'm not alone...a great thing.

She was born for all the wrong reasons but grew up for all the right ones.
Con grande amore e di affetto, Andrea Lena