I'm sorry to hear of your great stress. What's often helped me when suffering severe worry is a short prayer... It can be a real release.

Regarding what you wrote, well, we are speaking  of severe trauma, not regular stress from ordinary life events. In those conditions it seems doubtful that a person can make a cool appropriate decision; that his judgement would be clear . Especially not a child or young adult.

It seems that under such duress insanity is, perhaps, a coping tool of the mind. That it might actually be a protective survival method of the individual.

i personally know an elderly woman for many years, who during late childhood was abandoned by a close family member whom she dearly loved and was very close to. It's my opinion that this is what drove her over the edge. She simply was unable to cope with this life-shattering betrayal, and to save herself she went into another more sympathetic and kinder world of her own creation. Was this reasonable? Yes... it helped her survive. It protected her mind from the horror of what had happened to her...

There was no one there to give a helping hand to her, to pull her up from this abyss, so that this was her only way of coping.

It is only in much later years, i think, that a person develops the coping skills and acquires the wisdom and ability to deal with calamity. And then only sometimes...

It's not only our bodies that are fragile, our mindes are too... And some people's minds more than others..

i recommend this excellent book to you (written by Mira Rosenberg). It is not only very interesting, but a real eye-opener

Yes, I do know what you are talking about.  I had a disappointing childhood where I felt underappreciated and my parents were overly strict.  I was always within their sphere of control.  Then I married an abusive man who was also controlling and my reasonable response was to escape mentally -- through both psychosis and depression.  Psychosis created another world and depression numbed me.  Now that I look back, hindsight always better than foresight, I should have had the marriage annulled from the very start, but I stayed with him for 13 years.  I kept thinking, "I can cope with this.  I can cope with this."  But I couldn't, so my mind took off in another direction!

The important thing is that you did finally have the courage to end an abusive marriage-even after so many years. Many people lack the emotional strength to end abusive relationships and live their entire lives in misery...

More power to you that you were finally able to make this most difficult step; i'm sure it had many positive ramifications in your life.

As a young woman i remember being contemptous and,frankly, incredulous of people, especially women, who remained in abusive relationships. As I became older (and after my own personal experience in this sphere), i began to appreciate the difficulty of being caught in such a snare, and the seduction of self-delusion and denial. Now i have real respect and appreciation for anyone strong enough to end a personal involvment in such a relationship, especially after being imprisioned in one for so many years.

Thank you.

By the time I was so sick that I was hospitalized and had attempted suicide, I finally told my sister what my husband had done.  She said, "See that phone over there on the wall?  You are going to get up and walk over there and call your husband and tell him to be out in 3 days, because that is when you are being discharged."  I did it!  I called and he took his half of our stuff and was out of the house.  I have only seen him once or twice since then, by accident.  Btw, I filed for divorce the day after I was discharged!

hello donna.... i am not a doctor for sure but i've seen enough to say that you are on your way to recovery. i got stuck with bipolar on top of ptsd from the army(now theres a combo) there seems to be some sort of a timeframe where you can say wow, im starting to feel like i think i should actually feel. then you ask yourself am i feeling to good and why? well i ran into that kind of stuff after i hate to say this but since 1993 until approx 2004 i felt like i was grabbing life by the horns. today i feel pretty darn good with the help of psychiatrists and councilors from the military. ups and downs are far between and its nice, but took awhile. the biggest thing you can do is say to yourself"i will work on this and get better, not cured, in time if i work hard enough with help".   keep on keeping on donna there is a pot at the end of the rainbow, i am feeling the glow from the gold after years of seeing black. its hard work and the rewards are sweet, the harder you decide to work the better the results.