Bees and PTSD

Bees and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

I'm going to do the whole Googling thing as well, but any sites or other info would be cool.


Personal experiences with PTSD -- if anyone is comfortable enough with sharing their experiences, I'd be really grateful.

Being stung by a bee doesn't count as a profound personal experience, but any random information is great.

There's the whole thing with colony collapse disorder in bees. It's only recently appeared, no-one really knows what causes it, and it's a pretty serious threat to bee-kind.

Also, bees, as well as wasps, can get drunk on the alcohol in rotting fruit. My Dad used to live in a house with a lot of fruit trees, and would frequently have his feet stung by them.

I have PTSD, but I am going to need some specific questions ^.^

Right now you're leaving it pretty broad.

PM me please? If you have questions I have no issues answering but I'd prefer to do it in private ^^

PTSD is an interesting thing. I don't think a person always knows when they are suffering it, it takes time to acknowledge it. There again, it might be different for someone who suffers it majorly. I've only been on the receiving end of minor PTSD.

From my experience, it's not something tangible but every now and then, it gets too much again and the slightest thing can trigger a memory or even just tears. It's a lot like being heavily stressed. Sometimes the feeling comes in a bout of emotion, anger or fear or pain. And other times it's the opposite, a void of emotion. Some might refer to it as being 'numbing' but I've always thought of it more as an involuntary step back away from what the mind knows can destroy it. It's a moment of almost serenity except that you know it's wrong to be feeling that and it's not write to be calm and objectionable. It's not right to be able to think the whole event through without feeling anything but neutral and slightly sick. Nauseous.

It happens infrequently and occurs less and less the further from the event you move but it can be caused by minor things. One place it has never invaded is my dreams but I'm a lucid dreamer and usually fully in control so I wouldn't expect it to.

People who have gone through a traumatic situation (i.e., a war, a fire, seeing someone die, rape, abuse) sometimes have things in life that trigger memories of these things. It sends them into panic attacks, hyperventilating, hysteria, anger, or sometimes they just freeze and can't do anything - can't move, can't think, can't run. Usually it's a little thing that sets them off - something someone says, or a smell, or a color - anything that reminds them of that point in time.

This mostly only refers to really serious PTSD - it might be different in milder cases. Marc, the narrator of Firebrand, has pretty bad PTSD, so I did a lot of research (a.k.a. picking my psychologist-mother's brain) when writing about her.