One of the many snakes we saw at the Central Florida Zoo. To see more pictures of our trip to the zoo go to my shutterfly page. I’m going to stop posting zoo pictures for the time being, until we get to go again.

This leopard was particularly angry while we were at the zoo. He or she kept pacing around the enclosure it was actually really hard for me to get the picture. I got some nice video but it’s refusing to upload otherwise I would show case that too.

My husband bought me a 1 hour massage for Valentine’s Day.

He gave it to me tonight, well, the certificate anyway, because he’s suggesting I go to it after my therapy appointment on Thursday and have a munchkin free day. I’m not sure if I will or not. He’ll be exhausted because he’s going to be up early tomorrow to get us a washer and dryer and then up early Thursday to look after the munchkin because my appointment is in the morning, so that’ll be two really long days for him. Plus I’d been going to suggest that after I got back from the appointment he went and watched “Rambo 4″, which I don’t want to see, as a thank you for staying up early and watching the munchkin while I go to therapy.

I suppose we’ll talk about it tomorrow after he gets back from his own doctor’s appointment. Maybe he can go tomorrow after his appointment.

The Sanford Zoo elephants are called Maude and Mary. They were taking a break like most of the animals at the zoo seemed to be while we were there on Friday. If we’d been there on a weekend they would have been performing, but I’m actually kinda relieved that they only make the elephants work on weekends and not every day.

Am-I-Dumb.com - Intelligence Test

Every once in a while I find these quizzes and I have to take them. I started to zone out of the “State of the Union” address and this is what happens. I suppose I could amuse myself looking up random things online, like Adidas golf. Maybe I should do that…or find the Rubik’s cube that my husband hid in the kitchen somewhere. Apparently I was driving both of us batty with it…who knew?

The munchkin is really into climbing at the minute. He climbed up on his toy box several times during the course of the other day, and he would get up on the box and go, “Mama!!!” and I would come in and ask if he wanted to get down and he would say, “No!” and then as I was leaving he would put his arms out for me to pick him up. I’m trying to get him to understand the “Calling Wolf” thing but I think he’s a bit too young yet.

Well, it’s belated, but I’m going to back-date it as I have other pictures before. It’s too late to participate in the Self Portrait Sunday meme, but I’m going to post it and hopefully keep up with things for the rest of the week enough that I can participate next week.

Because of some things which have been going on not only in my personal life but with people that I know I thought this would be something useful to post. I know a lot of people who may find it useful as a reference.

http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/ncdocs/fact_shts/fs_what_is_ptsd.html
This link is linked to other helpful links including PTSD and the Family

What is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can occur after you have been through a traumatic event. A traumatic event is something horrible and scary that you see or that happens to you. During this type of event, you think that your life or others’ lives are in danger. You may feel afraid or feel that you have no control over what is happening.

Anyone who has gone through a life-threatening event can develop PTSD. These events can include:

* Combat or military exposure
* Child sexual or physical abuse
* Terrorist attacks
* Sexual or physical assault
* Serious accidents, such as a car wreck.
* Natural disasters, such as a fire, tornado, hurricane, flood, or earthquake.

After the event, you may feel scared, confused, or angry. If these feelings don’t go away or they get worse, you may have PTSD. These symptoms may disrupt your life, making it hard to continue with your daily activities.
How does PTSD develop?

All people with PTSD have lived through a traumatic event that caused them to fear for their lives, see horrible things, and feel helpless. Strong emotions caused by the event create changes in the brain that may result in PTSD.

Most people who go through a traumatic event have some symptoms at the beginning. Yet only some will develop PTSD. It isn’t clear why some people develop PTSD and others don’t. How likely you are to get PTSD depends on many things. These include:

* How intense the trauma was or how long it lasted
* If you lost someone you were close to or were hurt
* How close you were to the event
* How strong your reaction was
* How much you felt in control of events
* How much help and support you got after the event

Many people who develop PTSD get better at some time. But about 1 out of 3 people with PTSD may continue to have some symptoms. Even if you continue to have symptoms, treatment can help you cope. Your symptoms don’t have to interfere with your everyday activities, work, and relationships.
What are the symptoms of PTSD?

Symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) can be terrifying. They may disrupt your life and make it hard to continue with your daily activities. It may be hard just to get through the day.

PTSD symptoms usually start soon after the traumatic event, but they may not happen until months or years later. They also may come and go over many years. If the symptoms last longer than 4 weeks, cause you great distress, or interfere with your work or home life, you probably have PTSD.

There are four types of symptoms: reliving the event, avoidance, numbing, and feeling keyed up.

Reliving the event (also called re-experiencing symptoms):

Bad memories of the traumatic event can come back at any time. You may feel the same fear and horror you did when the event took place. You may have nightmares. You even may feel like you’re going through the event again. This is called a flashback. Sometimes there is a trigger: a sound or sight that causes you to relive the event. Triggers might include:

* Hearing a car backfire, which can bring back memories of gunfire and war for a combat veteran
* Seeing a car accident, which can remind a crash survivor of his or her own accident
* Seeing a news report of a sexual assault, which may bring back memories of assault for a woman who was raped

Avoiding situations that remind you of the event:

You may try to avoid situations or people that trigger memories of the traumatic event. You may even avoid talking or thinking about the event.

* A person who was in an earthquake may avoid watching television shows or movies in which there are earthquakes
* A person who was robbed at gunpoint while ordering at a hamburger drive-in may avoid fast-food restaurants
* Some people may keep very busy or avoid seeking help. This keeps them from having to think or talk about the event.

Feeling numb:

You may find it hard to express your feelings. This is another way to avoid memories.

* You may not have positive or loving feelings toward other people and may stay away from relationships
* You may not be interested in activities you used to enjoy
* You may forget about parts of the traumatic event or not be able to talk about them.

Feeling keyed up (also called hyperarousal):

You may be jittery, or always alert and on the lookout for danger. This is known as hyperarousal. It can cause you to:

* Suddenly become angry or irritable
* Have a hard time sleeping
* Have trouble concentrating
* Fear for your safety and always feel on guard
* Be very startled when someone surprises you

What are other common problems?

People with PTSD may also have other problems. These include:

* Drinking or drug problems
* Feelings of hopelessness, shame, or despair
* Employment problems
* Relationships problems including divorce and violence
* Physical symptoms

Can children have PTSD?

Children can have PTSD too. They may have the symptoms described above or other symptoms depending on how old they are. As children get older their symptoms are more like those of adults.

* Young children may become upset if their parents are not close by, have trouble sleeping, or suddenly have trouble with toilet training or going to the bathroom
* Children who are in the first few years of elementary school (ages 6 to 9) may act out the trauma through play, drawings, or stories. They may complain of physical problems or become more irritable or aggressive. They also may develop fears and anxiety that don’t seem to be caused by the traumatic event.

What treatments are available?

When you have PTSD, dealing with the past can be hard. Instead of telling others how you feel, you may keep your feelings bottled up. But treatment can help you get better.

There are good treatments available for PTSD. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is one type of counseling. It appears to be the most effective type of counseling for PTSD. There are different types of cognitive behavioral therapies such as cognitive therapy and exposure therapy. A similar kind of therapy called EMDR, or eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, is also used for PTSD. Medications can be effective too. A type of drug known as a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), which is also used for depression, is effective for PTSD.

Remember me talking about Akashic: Battle of Angels the comic? Well, they’re holding a contest at the moment to see if someone can add great dialogue to some of their comic panels.

Have a go!

On Friday we took the munchkin to the Central Florida Zoological Park, which is also known as “The Sanford Zoo” among locals. We were a little worried as to how the munchkin would react to all the animals, or if he would even have the patience to stay “good” during the trip as that morning we’d had a lot of problems with him acting out as he’s really getting into the terrible twos stage, even though he won’t be two until April.

We got to the zoo around noon, and stayed about three hours. We’d been intending to leave at a certain time because we were going over to a friend’s house to play “Shadowrun” but they called while we were in the petting zoo portion of the park to say they were busy buying pet supplies and then had a family get together so they wouldn’t be gaming Friday night after all.

The park was great fun. We had a nice family outing, and the munchkin even fed sheep, zebu and goats at the petting zoo. We had no really major meltdowns while we were there, just a couple of screeching matches because he was on the leash and was trying to go somewhere he shouldn’t and didn’t want to turn around and come the way he was supposed to.

He loved pointing out all the animals and giggling even if they weren’t there because he was seeing the other children who were there on a school trip pointing and laughing at the animals. We figured he would be calling everything “doggie” because that’s his favorite animals word, but the only animals that were “doggie” were the elephants, and he actually was calling the leopards and other felines “kitty” which was neat to hear.

I think his favorite portion of the exhibit was the insect zoo because there was a little girl in there who was around his age and they were both jumping up and down going, “Cool!!” at the beetles and scorpions. There are some pictures of the zoo trip on the shutterfly account I’m trying out. So, check them out if you like. I’ve also been posting some pictures of the trip on the eryssa.net picture a day blog so check those out too