Have you ever had a traumatic experience happen in your life?

Wow! My whole life has been trauma, up until the day I met my husband of course. He turned my life around. Here, I want you to read and respond to this: http://www.mylot.com/w/discussions/1232565.aspx Once you think you have got it bad, think of how this girl survived, and you will think your life grand. The girl in the discussion is me. I didn't write it to have people to feel sorry for me, I wrote it to let others know that life can be good even after trauma, as long as you let it. No, I wouldn't be the same person without the trauma, I think it has made me a stronger person in some factors of life. But, if I could change it, I probably would. I wouldn't have mental illnesses as I do know, but, I don't think I'd be me.

Yes, several years ago my mom had a massive heart attack and she was only in her 30's. It came from diet drops that she was taking to lose weight. The doctor's weren't giving her much hope of making it out of there alive. I was so torn up over this....I wouldn't eat, sleep, and I was going to college at the time and I wasn't even caring about my classes. My mom went into a coma for 13 days and was transported to Duke University for a heart transplant. When she got there they said she didn't have to get the transplant and that they could just do the bypass surgery. She survived and is doing good today. I don't know what I would have done if I would have lost my mom because I was taking it so hard. I have always been close to my mom but I became closer to her after that happened. And I'm very protective of her now. If someone says something mean about her or to her or anything then I'm there to defend her and I will tell someone off in a heartbeat if they do something bad to her. I'm just glad to still have her here with us.

Yeah, I had been under a traumatic experience in my life before. When it happened, I felt the world is going to end. My head was spinning, and I felt panic starting to attack me. I couldn't find a way out, as if I was trapped with nowhere to go. However, as I was feeling the traumatic experience I told myself that if I can't get out I have to accept it to come. So I sat and think about nothing. After a few minutes the panic attack subsidized and I felt a very peaceful state of mind. I was not happy, not anything, but I just felt blank. It was a relief thought, and I think that is what people will do if they don't find a way out or a solution to a problem. Their brain will be blank. I didn't feel scared, I felt nothing but it was very peaceful and calm. I was grateful that I had achieved the state of blankness without being crazy or something, lol, and it taught me to always be happy with what God has given me. The blankness only last for one hour or so. Afterwards I felt normal again and I could go on with my life as usual.

There were a lot of traumatic experiences in my early life, (from child abuse to rape) and each one changed me and shaped me in its own way. As an adult, I've been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and disassociative anmensia, and it's very frustrating because there are so many parts of my past that I either just can't remember or where the memories are kind of jumbled around out of order. Would my life be better? Well, I'd like to say "Of course it would be" but the truth is that I don't know. If my life hadn't been horrible, I might not do a lot of the charity work I do. I might not have been in the right place at the right time to save someone's life when I did. I might not have moved across the country to live with my husband whom I met online, and might not have had my son. So I wouldn't go back and change anything if I could now, because I don't know how it would affect all that stuff that's happened since. But I certainly wouldn't go back and experience it over again either.