PTSD is not something you get over. It is when soldiers get tired of hearing their own shots fire Into a purple horizon of nothingness. It is when assault victims are scared of becoming a statistic And their brokenness is suffocating It is when fear compels the mind to change And it willingly obliges. PTSD is when the darkness of human nature becomes evident It is when it's stronghold is suddenly More prominent than the beauty in the world It's brash fingers create a vacuum That ***** the sanity from your mind Until you wake up in the middle of the night screaming "Don't shoot me!" "Don't **** her!" You see him and now he is with your little sister Taking her into his Jeep While you stand there, watching ******* because you can do nothing about it. This has not happened And probably never will But you are crippled by paralyzing bouts of anxiety and guilt and fear From which your mind cannot console you You can no longer hide the loss That this event, this person, this illness Has placed strategically within you. It is when you will do anything to get these memories to stop playing on repeat An endless loop maybe ended by alcohol Check Cutting Check. Promiscuity Check Anything that will eliminate cycle of not knowing Of reliving If only for a short time Even pretending you believe in God Because it makes it seem like there is a reason for this confusion But then you begin to question why God would do this to his child So you digress into darkness once again Left feeling unsure. PTSD is when you stop repressing memories And they come back so forcefully that they knock you to the ground Leaving you bruised and ****** Leaving you lost. PTSD is different from other sicknesses Because you do not feel sick You feel there Like you are in his bed again And his room smells like mushrooms That is actually a field of grenades Waiting to explode throughout your small body You remember the tone of his words Slipping from his lips as though they are snakes Strangling me, leaving breath unable to escape This is not sick As you feel no symptoms But an altered state of consciousness You do not even realize you are disconnecting as it happens But this is Hell This is war You are broken And the worst part about it Is that you must understand your triggers Your dissociations Before you can get better.