If you are looking for a quick fix, for easy answers, you've come to the wrong place.

There are already plenty of websites, books, and 'one-hour miracle' healers to offer you cures for post traumatic stress disorder. Come back here, after you have tried those, and are ready to hear the truth.

Or read down just a little further for the truth. Then run like hell back to the easy answers.

Yes, there are treatments, medications, and therapy programs that help with the symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. You might need some of those. Hopefully, you are already getting that kind of help. But you need something more, or you wouldn’t be here. You need hope: the kind of hope that only comes from knowing the truth.

So here's the truth:

You will not, ever, ever, ever, ever, be 'over it'. Never. Things will never be just like they used to be. Ever. Sorry about that. But it’s the truth.

Now here's the good news:

You will get better. Post traumatic stress disorder can be overcome. You will get your life back. Not the same one you had before, of course. That life belongs to who you used to be. You are not that person anymore. That’s the truth too: you are not the same person you were before. You know too much.

You thought the world was a safe place.

The wind might blow, but it never took everything you owned, away from you. And then it did. On the news, they called it a natural disaster, but it did not seem at all natural to you.

People weren’t always nice, but people were basically good. Then you were raped, or stalked, or saw a friend murdered. You spent some time in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Vietnam, or the mean streets of the good ole USA. You went toe to toe with the devil, and he won. You saw evil in a stranger, in a friend, maybe in yourself.

Or you might have grown up never feeling safe. Other people think the world is safe so you wonder what’s wrong with you. (Answer: nothing.) Children who see violence, in their home, in their neighborhood, up close and personal, should not think the world is a safe place. They know better. But they can heal, too.

You can heal.

Once you’ve experienced trauma, your life changes. What you once believed was true, you now know is false. If you try to go back and pretend that it didn't happen, that you don't know any better, you will get sick. You will develop the symptoms of PTSD. You can't fool yourself. You know. And your life will never be the same. But that's okay.

You will experience healing. You get to re-invent you. This time, it won’t be a life scripted for you, planned out by your parents, your boss, or what the neighbors will think. This time, you make the choices.That is the gift of post traumatic stress disorder. You learn to value your own truth.

Check out the buttons on the left to start exploring this site and finding your way to the life you want.

If you love someone with PTSD, here is some advice on how to help them find healing.