Hi there,

I joined this forum a few weeks ago hoping to connect not only with other people that might be suffering PTSD, but specifically I was looking for other medical personnel or first responders, that have seen and know the things I'm talking about .

So far I have had one amazing man respond to my posts (thank you John), but is there really no one else out there who works in a hospital, police, fire, paramedic????

I really do find this hard to comprehend as there are thousands of us out there and I know it takes its toll eventually on all of us. Even the strong ones! 

I just thought I would repost on the off chance that someone new may want to chat.

Cheers

Hi Gas Tech

Looking at the threads and posts in 'depression' section it appears clear that that is where most common issue lie.

Back in the 1970's I worked as a prison officer and RAAF. Then in the 1980's and 1990's security. I have likely had some level of PTSD but them days less was acknowledged with this disorder.

This post of mine will bump it up somewhat and hopefully you'll get a reply.

Tony WK

HI Tony,

Thank you so much!

I'm still so new to the forum thing that I havn't fully learnt to navigate my way around yet. 

I really do appreciate your help, I was finding it more than a bit strange that there was only two of us on this site.

Thanks again and hopefully something becomes of it!

Donna.

Dear Gas Tech

Welcome to the Beyond Blue community.  The difficulty posting in Orientation is that posts tend to be one-offs and any replies will get lost in amongst the other posts. If I may suggest, repost your comments on one of the other forums and start a new thread there. That way all the comments will be together and the whole thread will be more visible.

You can copy and paste your thread to make it easier. Depending on what you are are looking for you could post in Depression, Anxiety, Staying Well, Supporting Family and Friends, or Treatments.  All of these forums get read and responded to very regularly, although as Tony has said, Depression is the most widely used forum.

Are you only looking for people who are or have been first responders or anyone who has experienced PTSD? There are people out there who have experienced multiple traumas and developed PTSD. Their cause may be different but the effects are similar.

I look forward to seeing your post in a different forum.

Regards

Mary

Hi Gas Tech,

I hope this finds you and find you well! I've only just joined so am still navigating my way around. 

 I am(or was??) a nurse, although my PTSD doesn't allow me to work at the moment. 

 My PTSD is due to multiple traumatic events unrelated to the medical industry, although I do not work currently as the things we see/do exarcerbate my symptoms.  

I've become quite the homebody with my two dogs but am slowly working my way back :-) 

 Hope to hear from you, 

:-) 

Hi Chris,

Thanks for your response.

I have just reposted this under anxiety, as that seems to be more of an issue with PTSD than depression, but I will also post it under depression also.

I appreciate the feedback from everyone here.

😎

Hi Mary,

Thank you for taking the time to reply to me. Being new at this is challenging!!

i have taken your advice and reposted my message under two current threads.

The first one is Anxiety, as I feel that most PTSD sufferers I've had contact with (mainly from when I was working) anxiety was the forefront debilitating issue. The second thread I posted too was Depression, as for PTSD suffers, this tends to be a secondary illness. 

What I was ultimately hoping for, was contact with other first responders or medical personnel who now suffer from PTSD, primarily from their job, but I'm really not that fussy.

Thanks again for the advice, let's see what happens .

Cheers,

Donna.

Hi Donna, here's the info on what beyondblue is doing around providing support for first responders. 

1. beyondblue is currently undertaking a project to improve the mental health of first responders and reduce their risk of suicide. The project focuses on first responders in ambulance, fire and rescue, police and state emergency services, and includes all workers including volunteers and workers on leave or retired from active duty. The first activity completed for the project was a mapping exercise of the mental health programs in place in first responder agencies.

2. beyondblue spoke to representatives from about 30 agencies across each state and territory to try to understand what supports are currently provided to staff, what seems to be working well, and what are the barriers and gaps. Many organisations noted that peer support programs are a vital form of support for first responders, and unfortunately all organisations reported that stigma is a big issue.   

3. beyondblue is planning to develop a good practice guide for first responder organisations, to support them to review and improve their employee support practices. The model will be based on the same areas of action we encourage all workplaces to address through our Heads Up initiative - raise awareness and reduce stigma, manage risk to create a healthy environment & support people experiencing problems (www.headsup.org.au). However, recognising that first responders can be exposed to greater risks because of the nature of their work, the model will incorporate additional strategies organisations should consider putting in place to effectively protect the mental health of their staff. 

4. beyondblue will also undertake  research to better understand the prevalence of mental health issues among individual first responders and to identify required resources/services. Anyone interested in participating in this research should contact the Workplace & Workforce team at beyondblue (muireann.heussaff@beyondblue.org.au or headsup@beyondblue.org.au). The research will go out to first responders in the blueVoices membership, so if you are interested you might like to consider joining that community.     

Hi Super Nurse,

Its so good to hear from you, someone else in the 'job'. 

Im so sorry for the delay in replying. It's been a hard week emotionally (PTSD wise), so I figured I should be in a better head space before I did.

I know that PTSD is the most devastating thing I've ever been through (and for my husband and son), and although a huge portion of mine is directly related to work, I was an anaesthetic technician for 10yrs in a trauma hospital with absolutely no management support, but I have also had quite a few personal trauma/tragedies in my life over the last two years in particular.

I often find when I'm talking about the personal stuff, that work bits creep in, which is why I thought it might be nice to have a thread based mainly of medical peeps that suffer PTSD for what ever reason.

I also have two gorgeous little dogs (Jack Russell crosses, so they're fairly hyper but they keep me sane!). 

Part of this forum for me is because I also have found myself becoming quite withdrawn from most of my 'previous' life, too many things at the moment still trigger flashbacks etc.

I haven't worked since late September, although I did try a return program in January that failed massively and after one week I ended up in hospital. 

I am lucky though that I have, besides my husband, son and dad, I also have the best GP ever and a psychologist that I get along with so well, when I see her it's like chatting to an old friend. So I've recently started intensive trauma CBT and soon we'll add in (EMDR) Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, which is supposed to really work well for PTSD. 

I would love to hear back from you, maybe you can share a story if you won't too. 

Take care,

Donna