I’ll never forget the day it happened. I was walking to my car from my friend’s apartment in the middle of the night getting ready to head back home. As I was walking, I heard little footsteps behind me. I occasionally looked back a couple times to see where the footsteps were coming from, but I couldn’t see anything. I thought I was becoming delusional. I started to tell myself maybe it was just because I was really tired and exhausted. I mean, it was 1:00 in the morning. I decided to not look back anymore and continued walking back. As soon as I approached my car, I grabbed my keys from inside my pocket. As I was finally getting ready to get into my car, a guy ran up to me with aggression and put me in a head lock. He then turned me around and pistol whipped me in the face with his gun. My mouth was bleeding everywhere. The man started asking me for money and my car but I refused to give in to his commands. He got even more upset and began to choke me and throw me on top of the hood of my car. Afterwards he pulled his gun out. He had the gun to the front of my forehead and was ready to kill me. It wasn’t until police lights came around and the man quickly ran away from the scene. Crazy to say that if the cops didn’t come around I probably would have been dead at that moment. I just sat on the hood of my car worthless as my body felt numb and I couldn’t believe what just happened to me. The two police officers stepped out the car and ran over to me. They asked me if I was okay and I could barely respond with my mouth full of blood. They then called an ambulance and rushed me over to the hospital.
As I was headed to the hospital, one cop decided to stay and ride with me in the ambulance. My face was hurting badly and tears were flowing from my eyes. The police that went with me told me to remain strong and that everything would be okay. I couldn’t believe him as I was traumatized about what happened to me not even 20 minutes ago. We finally approached the hospital and I quickly got into the Doctor’s office. Luckily after I got checked by the Doctor, the injuries that I had were minor and he said that I would heal up in about a month. My sister came to check if I was okay and took me back home that following morning after I left the hospital. She decided to take care of me until I got better and make sure I was in good hands. A couple days after I left the hospital, it became hard for me to stop thinking about what happened to me that night. I didn’t have much of an appetite, I couldn’t watch horror movies anymore like I used to, I even began to scream at night as I would have flashbacks of that night and was frightened that the scene could possibly happen again. I wouldn’t leave the house for weeks because I was afraid that something could possibly happen to me again. My sister noticed the difference in me and began to worry about me. She later told our mother about how I’ve been acting after the robbery and my mother suggested that I should go see a psychologist to talk to. At first I wasn’t willing to do it. I didn’t like strangers listening to my problems that I faced. So I told my sister no and that I’ll be fine. But of course that didn’t stop her from getting me help. She then instead asked the psychologist to come to our house to talk to me. I was furious at my sister at first but then I came to realization that I was not okay and that I needed help.
I sat down with the psychologist and we talked for hours. I talked to her about how the robbery really made me feel inside and how I was afraid to walk to my car again. The psychologist explained to me that I was suffering through Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I heard of this illness frequently but I never took the time to figure out what it really meant. I was amazed how she really explained what Post Traumatic Stress Disorder really meant and how she broke it down to me. I knew that it would be a slow process to overcome PTSD but I promised my psychologist that I would face my fears and overcome this obstacle. As months went by, my psychologist and I continued to meet up and she was proud of how I was progressing and getting better with my PTSD. I was getting out the house and doing things that would help ease my mind. I went out to take walks, I would ride my bike, and I would even meditate at times. It felt good to be out and enjoy nature at its finest. I could tell that my mind was slowly progressing and that the negative thoughts of what happened that night were behind me. Eventually as time went on, I had a complete healthy mind and was finally happy again with my life. After about a year after my incident, I could officially say that have overcame my PTSD disorder.
I was happy that I was able to overcome Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. If it wasn’t for my psychologist, my mother, and most definitely my sister forcing me to talk to my psychologist, I wouldn’t be in the position that I am in today. I can now say that I am a new man and that my experience has made me a much better person today. Now my goal in life is to help those who may have suffer through PTSD and help them understand that it’s rough in the beginning but eventually everything will get better as time passes by. I would advise anybody who is suffering from PTSD or any type of mental disorder to please seek help. It is important that you talk to someone and allow your problems to be heard. It gets difficult to explain yourself to somebody, but I promise everyone if you don’t open up then the problems will only continue to grow instead of going away.
This post originally appeared on the mental health blog, treat yo brain.
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