tenaya | Fits Brindle to a 'T' (Reply)

matociquala has a lj entry about fiction and PTSD. This paragraph *is* Brindle:

"Another issue I see in fictional trauma survivors is that their crazy is kind of random, and it doesn't really work like that. The walking wounded are actually kind of predictable. They're called trigger issues for a reason, and those of us who have them will pretty much reliably always react in the same way to certain kinds of stimulus--either with anxiety, confrontation, or both. The really lovely part of that is that we're sensitized, so our brains will pick out the slightest trace of whatever it is that sets us off in an otherwise innocuous conversation, and *bang,* zero to panic attack in no seconds and we're all up in your face with the pre-emptive strike."

Yeah, he bit me again when I went down to get the mail. I *think* my offense was not stopping often enough to pet him on the way there, thereby rejecting him. And when I brushed him off with the circulars, he ran a few steps ahead of me, flopped down and halfway exposed his tummy--I'm thinking it was a quasi-submissive pose. He was also eyeing the papers like I was gonna hit him with them; honestly, they were simply in my hand and when he bit me I was just reaching down to brush him off, I wasn't using them to hit him. I was wearing sweatpants so I wasn't worried he was going to draw blood. Poor, poor mixed up kitty. I don't think he'll ever be free of his issues.