You have no idea how much that means to me. For 59 years my brother has been bad mouthing me to the point where I was starting to believe him. It certainly was a contributing factor in my panic. I feel like I belong here and I feel like I can help, and I want to.
You are definitely a true friend and not just a fair weather friend. We are very lucky to have you here with us on this site to help us through the thick and the thin. You are truly a special person don't you ever forget it. I will never forget your friendship and support and want to thank you again.
Isn't it interesting how this comes up when you are doing so well? What an amazing test. Red if you can prepare and get yourself through this you can get yourself through anything. It will be hard but I know you can do this. Keep working on the program and keep being confident. Just yesterday you were saying how free and alive you were; use that power.
I know you are scared. This is a big challenge but try to remain positive. We will be here with you every step of the way. You are not in the alone.
You can rant at me all you want. If it was me I think I would just say HUH. to all there questions. I think you are tough enough to do this I just think it's a shame you have to.
Thanks for the response! Yes you can get out of jury duty for medical reasons but they have made it a lot harder to do. If you are under 70 years old who have to get a written statement from your Dr. to be permanently excused from jury duty now.
I don't want to go to my doctor and explain this all to him. He is a Dr. of internal medical not a psych. I don't have a psych I've been down that road before and all that psychs in the states do now is put everyone on drugs they don't do therapy. If you want therapy you have to find a psychologist or counselor for that. I contacted the veteran center here in 2003 and the said they couldn't help me because my husband the veteran had now died and their was no money put aside to help me. They did look for a therapist outside of Veterans affairs that used to work with ptsd and could not find anyone who was willing to take on a window of a veteran dealing with transference ptsd. So no I can't get excused from jury duty and now I guess I just have to do my duty again to this county. Thats if I don't want to be charged with contempt and put in jail. I was deserted by my country and now they want more from me. I am sorry I am ranting and raving today it is not directed at you. I am just upset about all this.
Anyway I like your idea about turning this into exposure therapy and trying to make a positive out of the situation. I am planning to go to the court house before my jury duty date and get myself used to the building and metal detectors and getting their on time. I hope they don't mess me up asking me personal questions about my past but their is nothing I can do about that. I do think this will help me deal with the anxious and panic feelings I am having with this situation. I have a little over a month to get this done. In the mean time I want to continue to work on me and getting better and enjoying my life.
I'm not familiar with jury duty. Can't you just mess up or look undesirable and get passed over? Is there no way to get out because of medical reasons?
My Dad haunts my dreams and he has been dead for thirty years. All I can do is tell myself it's not real and go back to sleep.
Could you possibly treat this jury duty as a form of exposure, making it something to look forward to rather than something to dread? If you can (God forbid) make it something to look forward to as exposure therapy then you can put it on the back burner instead of having it in your face each day. Other than that I don't know what you can do. It gives me butterflies thinking of your situation because I am still a bit agoraphobic.
Well I received a summons for jury duty yesterday. I am very anxious about this and am obsessing about it. I have always been able to get out of jury duty before but have no excuse this time. I am worried that I will not be able to get their on time due to my anxiety. I am worried about all the personal questions they will ask me during the selection process which could bring up unpleasant memories etc. etc. My date to appear is March 3,2010. I really feel that I have already done my duty to my country and really don't like being forced to do this. Anyway last night the anxiety dreams started up again and I was with my family and the demands were being made on me again to take care of everyone and of course I had to put myself on the back burner again. I was camping in this dream and what is strange is that I do have ptsd dreams about taking care of my husband and family members even while I am camping, and they have all passed away now and don't need me to take care of them any more. I wonder if this will ever end. I was doing so well and making real progress and I have to put myself on the back burner again because of this jury duty. Does anyone have any ideas how I can stay focused on the program while I am waiting to do my jury duty and not obsess over it with anxiety and let consume my thoughts? Any suggestion would be greatly appreciated.
