I was married for 17 years to an abusive alcoholic, I wanted to leave for years and finally got the courage 2 years ago to do it, my question is why am I still having nightmares about him, I feel anxious every time I go out, I need to have my car doors locked all the time. I seem to be ok at work but on the weekends you cant get me out of my apartment.
Hi, I can understand what you must have gone through in your marriage. You took a brave decision to come out of it. You're having the current set of symptoms in form of nightmares and anxiety can be suggestive of a past traumatic stress disorder> it usually happens in response to severe amount of trauma, and you seemingly have gone through a lot. I would suggest that you should seek a psychiatric consultation regarding your current situation. Treatment with medications like Escitalopram will help. In addition, you can consider cognitive behavior therapy which will help you get over the bad memories and become more relaxed. I do hope that you are able to leave back all these soon and have a great life ahead. Best wishes.