do you feel unusually traumatized by things?

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Do you feel excessively traumatized by things that you think probably should not have traumatized you? I have sometimes had experiences which left me feeling completely traumatized, while I think a "normal" person would not have felt so traumatized.

For instance, just going out to a store, if I have an encounter with someone (even if they were not harsh) can leave me shaken and freaked out for days. I'll dread ever having to return to the place.

Also sometimes while driving, say if I get into very thick traffic and I feel like the cars are too near or too many.... I'll suddenly feel terror/ assaulted and I just want to escape and never return.

I have felt traumatized by dr and dentist appointments, times when I was working, experiences in school, I could go on and on. But in describing these situations to a "normal" person, I don't think they would understand what was so traumatizing about it.

I think a large part of it is sensory overload and not being able to handle human contact. For instance today I went to see a house and there was a strong smell of oil throughout it. The realtor made me very uncomfortable. I still feel dizzy and freaked out by the experience, hours later.

And sometimes I wonder if maybe I'm just a big ninny .

I don't know for sure.

your post reminds me very much of what i was like this when i was younger. luckily my fear of normal situations like going into a shop, social interaction have lessened. though i still don't have a lot of stamina for these situations and i still have to plan a shopping trip meticulously. i have to know exactly what i want and which places i will try to look for them, how long it is likely to take. often i don't get what i came out for because the item is not exactly how i'd expected and i cannot think on my feet as i feel harassed.

i still get stressed by medical appointments and then i cannot take in the information they tell me. wish i could take a buddy or have someone take minutes.

i also need to factor in recovery time.

i am glad that i do not drive. actually there is little need to, living in london. roads are scary!

i don't think you are a big ninny. you sound like you do okay. don't beat yourself up.

I am a big ninny too.

I dread socializing in advance, then I feel overworked and overwhelmed whilst there, and then worry ovefr what I did and did not do and may have missed.

I am in business for myself. I do a good job. But being with clients always results in a later meltdown. When I present my bill I always feel as though I should apologize.

Drs. and traffic are okay, unless the traffic is stupid. Then I get all honked off.

I used to be alot like this (still am, except my tolerance for situations has grown a great deal.) I cope by trying to consciously block out as much stimuli as possible; like if I am in a store, I try and not to read every display sign like I normally do, or to notice what every person is doing all the time.

I'm not so much bothered by shopping, although I do hate the bright lights and crowds, especially the asses who block my view of the shelves or don't move their carts out of my way in the aisle, but I do not drive (even riding in a car is nerve-wracking for me), and I HATE doctor and dentist visits, so much so, I haven't seen a dentist in twenty years (good thing I have teeth like iron), and only see a doctor when I'm absolutely deathly ill, like when I've had pneumonia or strep throat.

It was horrible for me when I was pregnant because I had to see the doctors all the time -- really ruined my experience because other than seeing the doctor, I loved being pregnant. Needless to say, I've never gone to the gyno just for a "well visit." The only way I'd ever go back there again is if, god forbid, a bowling ball suddenly sprouted in my uterus.

I canceled an appointment the other day for my first ever complete physical at my primary doctor because I've had WAY too much interaction with doctors recently, what with my shrink visits, and the referral visit beforehand, and my kids' pediatrician visits (yes, I even hate going to the doc when it's not for me ).

It just feels like a violation to me. Takes me days to recover from the feeling, too...

I can relate to the experience of being traumatized by small things, even for years afterward. If one such experience comes up, I start to cringe and twitch and feel in complete agony.

This doesn't sound like me at all. If something bothers me, it might be for ten minutes or just a few seconds. If it's something really bad, it might be a couple of days, but that is exceptionally rare.

Yes. If I'm in a situation where I may get hurt, I just get scared to death and either freak out or freeze up. Here are two examples from eighth grade.

Our class was doing this one thing on a fieldtrip where we had to lift someone up about four or five feet and pull them through this "web" (strings randomly tied between two trees) and have them not tough the web. Anyway, when it was my turn to go and when they lifted me up, I just started freaking out. The person in charge of the activity just screamed like crazy to me and called me a bunch of rude names, like "over-grown baby" among others.

Also around that time (and in the same class), we were taking a hike through the school's woods. The activity we were supposed to do was that we had to partner up, one person had to be blindfolded, and the other person had to give directions to get them through with no harm. And guess who had to be blindfolded? Me. And since my hearing isn't always the best and I rely on sight more than anything, it was pretty frightening. Especially since I was scared to death of getting hurt or dirty (I had on a really nice outfit that day). So anyway, apparently I just started swaying all over and I eventually passed out from fright. That's how scared I was.

I feel like that a lot. Ordinary situations like having to return something at a store (shopping itself is okay, it's interacting with the staff beyond paying for my stuff that bothers me) makes me extremely anxious beforehand (sometimes I can't work up the courage to actually do it) and leaves me feeling shaken, especially if I got flustered and did/ said something stupid.

When I was a kid one of my teachers (who was a total as*hole) rang my Mother because I used to panic and get upset over small things. I'm still like this, but I've improved in school.

Last year, on april, my family and I were invited to a weeding. I don't like this kind of events, because I have to use an elegant dress and make-up (I hate it ), all people go to dancing and talking while this is not funny for me, I hate social interaciton, and almost all people pretend to be something they aren't.

At the weeding party, after dinner I felt overwhelmed with my senses overcharged, then a girl brought us the guest book, my parents signed it up, and it was my turn. My father said "You won't sign, don't write anything". But I signed it up, and my father was annoying me and he told me I was stupid. Then I said "Why?", and he said "Just shut up!". Then I had a meltdown and I began to cry. My family was angry with me.

Now, I'm traumatized with weedings, I feel maybe this scene could happen again in the future.

Yes. I can relate to the experience. For me it's like missing a shield or a layer of 'skin' that NTs have and I don't. Stimuli come in too strong and I can't block the sensations the way others do. So I get overwhelmed/overloaded and crash if I don't get away. Getting too stressed out makes it much worse. Then I regress. Swearing. Petulant. Childish.

I wear dark glasses when it's too bright or busy. I wear headphones in noisy places. I avoid fast visual field movement as I get sick easy. I live in a cooler climate because I sweat excessively (embarassing believe me). I take smaller doses of medication because the effects are exaggerated in my system. Confrontations with others cause my stomach to churn for hours so I try to avoid them. Elaine Aron wrote a book called 'Highly Sensitive People' that fits me to some degree. In our culture, being a sensitive male is a rough road. I try not to talk about it. I love cats too. I try not to talk about that too much either.

Definitely. I try to leave the house sometimes, and just can't handle it.

I'm like that also, Apatura, although I think I have the tendency to process my 'trauma' as guilt, or at the very least some feeling of having screwed something up. Even if, as is usually the case, nothing was screwed up. So like if I run into an aquaintance out of the blue somewhere and have a pleasant but short conversation, 90% of the time I'll feel really awkward and/or embarassed afterward, even if it was a completely natural conversation.