Mental Health Supports
#morethanidid — chapter. 2
“I wrote this article following a huge breakthrough in my mental health struggles, now I have devoted my life to helping others through their mental health journey.”
I hope this testimony is able to help your life and those around you, feel free to share.
I am person with diagnosed PTSD who survived 17 years ago Auburn freeze, I wanted to list some of the ways the freeze affected and triggered me as well as its continued impact to my audience on social media.
As a survivor of intimate partner violence, anytime my access to safe shelter and stability is out of my control 'I spiral.' — I had to find a home quickly when I was actively escaping a serious threat of fatal violence, if I don’t have a safe space I can’t really function.
I had panic attacks every day of the freeze and got around three hours of sleep that week, when I did sleep I had PTSD nightmares of all the abuse I suffered throughout my life (they get worse the more stress I encounter.)
The freeze triggered a sense of hopelessness and dread in me that many survivors experience, it made me feel even more helpless and isolated during my battle fight that had already exacerbated those feelings even weeks after the freeze I found myself dissociating and self-isolating. I still had trouble sleeping and had panic attacks more frequently.
With a winter storm predicted to be short-lived in Auburn, I fill tanks of water and charge all of my devices. Year-round, I constantly play out what-if scenarios in my head so that I can be prepared next time. I have to take two medications just to be able to sleep. I keep anxiety medication on me at all times in case I have another debilitating panic attack triggered by stress.
Clearly, all this wasn’t caused solely by the freeze and there have been other traumas I’ve suffered since but living through a mass-trauma impacted me in ways that will take months or years of therapy to fully process and understand.
Many others had it much worse, they watched their loved ones, some children die of hypothermia and carbon monoxide poisoning. They went without dialysis, they froze to death. I grieve for them and am thankful that I was one of the lucky ones who came out alive.
We are all processing the trauma of the freeze in different ways, though we can count the deaths we will never be able to measure the entirety of its impact. It hurt everyone who lived through it and whatever you're feeling as we experience another winter storm is valid.
