When you cannot cope

Trauma and subsequent PTSD puts me in place when I struggle to cope. In July 2023, after some events it go so bad that I could not cope (this is also not the first time I got so overwhelmed). PTSD symptoms got so strong that I could not feel safe no matter what I did. None of the strategies and tips that I had so far worked. I was not able to find help so many times before, but I thought I will try again. I was offered to visit place called Safe Haven on 2023-08-02. I felt welcomed there. People here showed empathy and care about how I feel, understood the burden of troubles and tried to help. After short chat I asked can I lie down on sofa. I was able to rest and nap for more than an hour without being hit by flashback of the injury for the first time in last seven days. I wish there was place like this 8 years ago when I got injured. It helped me a lot and now it is on my emergency list.

Not being able to cope

We all do have some hard times in life. Problems may build up over time or they may come suddenly, it may be our own mistakes or completely out of our control. It does not matter. Sometimes, it may get so difficult that we can not deal with it on our own. Humans are social beings. We are not meant to deal with difficult problems on our own. We are physiologically adapted to seek others for help and to recognize when others need help.

The first challenge is to recognize that you need help. It is very good skill to be independent and capable to face challenges. The list of advantages is very long. Then it might be difficult to realize that in particular difficult situation it is better to seek help. The good indicator might be is feeling overstressed. Short time stress helps to focus better. However, if it continues over long time and it significantly reduces your capacity to act, you better seek help. This is what your body is telling you. The other good indicator is when you are so stressed that you can not sleep. Sleep is very important in very short time it may become problem on its own.

My case

For timeline and details please check 2015-03-30 road traffic injury.

Before I got PTSD, I did not know that there can be situations when I cannot cope. There have been difficult times, there has been very stressful or situations, there have been situations when none of the available options were good. However, I always was able to move on. Sometimes it took some time for stress to ease or to deal with the grief, but I was able to think what I need to do and take action. This time it was very different.

How did it happened? It got extremely bad after very offensive and unfair Personal Injury Commission tribunal (I cannot remember such intense bullying by using the power given by government), and even more unfair determination based of absurdly incorrect statements (that I can explain only by corruption). I lost any hope in getting justice and PSTD symptoms were extremely intensified. My body was in constant state of immediate threat to my life. None of attempts to calm down where helping. I could not sleep at all. As soon as I fall asleep, I am hit with flashback being hit by a car. I would wake up with full panic attack. I needed new way to deal with it or I would not last long.

Finding help

Almost from the start I was looking for help and struggled to find it. This gave me motivation to create this site. I found that unfortunately people do not understand what you are going through, so I will try to describe the problem. Getting adequate help or even good advice is difficult, but there are places that can help. Here is what I found so far.

Place	Address	Comments
Newtown Safe Haven	168 Missenden rd, Newtown