Are You Happy or Sad?
I gasped for air. I couldn’t move, I couldn’t breathe, and somehow I still heard myself scream. I thought I was dying. One evening I started a blog post I couldn’t finish. I wrote it, I stared at it, and I deleted it. Then I cried. Life has been really good for me the past month. I finished a semester, I got good grades, I took a vacation, I got a pay raise, I leave the house regularly, and I have even better things to look forward to. Sometimes I feel so happy and encouraged! That is not why I cry. The National Institute of Mental Health says not every traumatized person develops post-traumatic stress disorder. It actually surprised me to see how high I scored on the screening tests. Then my roommate woke up to my screaming (again) and I stopped feeling so surprised. PTSD is an anxiety disorder which can develop months or years after a traumatic event. Since I was 17 I’ve always felt a little traum...