According to P. Hyland, 70.4% of the population (across a 24 country study) have suffered a traumatic event in their lifetime. This my friends, is merely the defining number of people who are aware of their disorder. Many are living in silence, others are suffering undiagnosed.

In todays blog, we met with a woman who has suffered with PTSD for the majority of her life. She shares the event which led to her diagnosis, how she became diagnosed and her first-hand experience with structural violence. The individual interviewed wishes to remain anonymous and will be referred to by pseudonym for the purpose of this article.

"Anna" depicted her life prior to trauma to be a piece of her that no longer exists. She emphasises that she cant even grieve this period of time as shes so detached from it, that it may as well have happened in another lifetime. Anna was just 19 when her the life she knew was gone in the blink of an eye. She recalls conducting her normal morning routine- wake up at seven, scurry to get ready, eat a quick bowl of cereal before running out the door an jumping into her car to go to college. She collected her best friend "Emma," and they set on their journey, that consisted of karaoke to all of their favourite songs. The pair had quite the commute to college and had to endure an hour and a half journey, daily, that was sometimes extended due to traffic.

Anna recalls the moment that a huge truck in front of them accidentally deployed its load of what she believes was wood and sawdust off its back. As a result both her car and the cars in front and behind her were forced to hit the breaks. They could no longer see through the sawdust on their windows and in attempts to avoid the wood logs on the road, Anna spun into a nearby ditch. Anna tells me that it felt like she drove into a blackhole. The car toppled upside down before hitting a tree and coming to an abrupt halt. She describes the moment the airbags deployed, hitting her already injured friend Emma so hard, that she passed out.

This is where Anna decided she could no longer continue the story of this event as the information becomes far too sensitive. She concluded that both herself and Emma made it out of the event alive, but Emma suffered permanent spinal injuries that resulted in her need for a wheelchair. Anna describes how the guilt continues to eat her alive to this day.

For months after the accident, Anna couldn’t sleep. Every time she closed her eyes she relived the moment over and over again. Her parents had to sell her car for her as the sight of it in their driveway would cause her to have extreme panic attacks. After about a year of struggle, she decided to consult with a psychiatrist. It was on this day that she received her diagnosis of Complex PTSD. She was prescribed Venlafaxine, an SNRI known to treat severe anxiety disorders. While it did take the edge off of her pain, even being left with 50% of the flashbacks she once had was far too much to take.

Anna recounts that due to the lack of mental heath facilities in her hometown, she struggled to gain access to therapists and mental health practitioners. Many of the available resources required her to commute there by car, which was of course, out of the question at this time. Out of desperation she found herself at regular checkups in the local doctors office, with a female general practitioner, who clearly lacked the qualifications for anything other than physical illnesses. Anna elaborates on the complete lack of consideration she was often given for her PTSD diagnosis. She found herself being subjected to regular blood tests, which drew no pathological indications as to why Anna couldn’t simply "stop stressing so much." She was often encouraged to take up exercise and frequently found herself subject to leaflets entailing mini marathons, new spin classes in town and even yoga classes. Her doctor continuously stressed healthy eating, insisting Anna needed a more nutritional diet to relax her nervous system. Time and time again she was told that she is not taking care of herself, and that integrating a daily routine into her life would lead to progression mentally. Anna recalls the disappointment she often faced following these appointments, as the struggle she had to get up and even attend them, let alone join an exercise class was dismissed repeatedly.

Anna expressed her gratitude for the aims of PTSD: Please Take Someone's Distress (seriously). Healthism was not a term she was familiar with prior to our interview, but she said that it is a subject that was unknowingly, very close to home. To this day, Anna is struggling with Post traumatic stress disorder, but since moving out of her parents home and into an urban region, she is within walking distance of her current group therapy sessions, which have provided her with a community of people struggling in a similar manner to her.

Stories such as Anna's, are the catalysts to our online community. Our discord is a safe place for victims of PTSD to come together, no matter their location, to express their feelings, understand each other and escape the world that promotes the idea that PTSD is simply stress that can be self managed. We are here for you. You are not alone friends.