I have a friend who I care very much about. She's 19.
She grew up with abusive neglectful parents who used and sold meth. During that time, when she was 12 she ended up having a boyfriend who was even more so messed up and was 18. He raped her, strangled her, and nearly drowned her to death.
Now she has PTSD from it and it's pretty bad. I've seen her jolt when she's sleeping from night terrors and watched her dissociate out of the blue in mid conversation and have her come back not knowing at all what she was saying.
She often has flashbacks and has a hard time focusing on detailed things like braiding a bracelet because it eventually leads to her worried about breathing.

The parents were eventually raided and she was sent to foster care for a bit. She now still lives with her parents again and has never told her useless parents about being raped as, how can you trust one abuser over another?
Additionally, her real father has stopped talking to her after she tried to commit suicide.

She can't get a job because of her PTSD and other anxiety issues because she's not really able to handle that, despite being on some anti anxiety and SSRI medication.

She also doesn't have insurance, can't drive and essentially has no opportunity to get help herself and her parents are too poor and useless to help. She essentially has no way out of the hell she is in unless there is someone to help her.

I would like to help her, just because she is a great friend to me and really important. It makes me sad to see her suffer so much for nothing of her fault.

I'm not sure how to help her. I don't have the money to pay for EMDR sessions so she can get treatment for her PTSD and get other therapy she will probably need.

Please think of some ideas that would allow me to help her.
I'm just brain storming, but perhaps I could possibly get some financial  help from everyone here?
Perhaps someone could buy The Vespiary painting, and we could have some paid subscriptions for this site to help raise money for her?

Also perhaps I could sell prints of the painting and other paintings to raise some money if anyone is interested?

I'm strapped for money right now. I've spent most all of it trying to start my new business and owe some one else a bit of money.

I'll eventually help her regardless but I'm impatient. Thinking about the whole situation males me sick and sad. She's had such an awful life because of her broken parents and while I don't totally have my shit together I've had such great caring parents that have allowed me to explore everything from having pet salamanders to making rocket propellant, nitrocellulose, growing psychoactive plants and creating a drug forum and exploring business ventures that sell mushroom growers. It's so sad to see someone like her blown on the steel breeze and since me and her are good friends I'd like to think there is some way I can pay my decent life forward to help her in some way. But it's bullshit there isn't even a cure for PTSD. Only treatments that lesson it and manage it.

I don't know. I want to help but I don't know how. Unless I can possibly convince her to get some treatments and pay for it.

I've looked into that. She could get help if she pressed charges against the rapist but she isn't willing to do that. I've talked to people who can help and know who can help and the best I can do is is lower the payment of the treatment to ~$50 per session when the regular price is $120

I'm still looking into other options but since she isn't willing or really able to go to court and press charges not much is able to happen.

Two clinical reviews are attached that may help in understanding various ways to assist your friend    There' a lot more articles available 

Some more relevant articles are attached, including one on evidence collection for future prosecution 

Whether any of the treatments pursued by psychiatrists are terribly useful seems to be a bit of an open question. PTSD is notoriously treatment resistant.

It's like gak for the mind!

Anyone stupid enough to recomend or try to self medicate her is a dangerous idiot and she needs to be protected from people like that .

Having suffered from PTSD of many causes - got to disagree here. MDMA can be a lifesaver - literally - so long as it's tested and known to be free of other drugs (95% pure isn't good enough when that last 5% is meth, as it's so much more potent), and only used 1-2 times in the right company.

Please try to be objective . MDMA can be a help as can psilocybin and beta blockers BUT only in certain cases . If you havent seen that girls medical records or been to a doctor with her you do not know for sure what her problems are .

Very true.  Unless you're a diagnostician/clinician by trade you really shouldn't be using her brain like a guinea pig with drugs.  Are you familiar with the CYP450 inductions and inhibitions caused by the drugs she's using?  Based on that alone, it's simply not safe.

Did not recommend psychedelics, only clean MDMA, which was declared safer than horseback riding by a scientist tasked in England with evaluating the hazards of various illegal drugs. Psychedelics can backfire, already stated this.

Think what you will, but Assyl has seen self-treatment save marriages and lives when used responsibly and sparingly (only 1-2x). Someone with bad PTSD is genuinely at risk of suicide, and the only treatment that's actually known to be effective is illegal. Talk therapy? Good luck. Abstaining can be a risk in itself.

Her medical records very well may not reveal important details relating to her PTSD anyway. People with the disorder are usually not honest with their doctors, as they cannot even be honest with themselves. It is too much for them to face, and it's all repressed in the subconscious - that's where MDMA comes in. It allows them to explore past traumas without the intense pain (and self-hatred) that usually stops them dead in their tracks.

Oprah Magazine, of all news sources (Oprah famously spread the lies about MDMA eating holes in your brain), is now touting the benefits of MDMA. The journalist even ingested it herself at the end of the article and wrote about the experience. It's being used in therapy sessions for PTSD in a number of countries, and it's being used in trials in the US for combat-related PTSD. Results have been very positive so far. So long as it's clean (and white crystals do not mean it is), the dosage selected is appropriate, the patient does not have cardiovascular health issues, and they are not taking medications that could interact with MDMA, the risk of harm is practically nonexistent. Of course, it would be ideal to use it in the presence of a mental health professional, but sadly, at least in the US today, that is hardly an option.

Vesp ...... are you sure that your friend has PTSD and only that ? = Do you know it for a fact ? Have you seen proof or at least been told directly by her doctor ...... and has she had a second opinion ?

Its a lot of money for psychotherapy plus sugestion ........ have you compared it to the effectiveness of other psychotherapy treatments and the prices ?

EDIT - Is it the doctor that has diagnosed her as having PTSD that is offering the treatment ? Whatever ..... if she hasnt had a second opinion from another doctor she should get one before you sell both your kidneys .

EDIT - I saw a documentry a few weeks ago about PTSD treatment useing psychotherapy , sugestion and beta-blockers wich was said to be very good . Info about beta-blockers and anxiety but not that treatment ---- > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sympatholytic#Beta_Blockers

Edit - Psychotherapy , sugestion and beta-blocker treatment info ---- > http://www.mentalhelp.net/poc/view_doc.php?type=doc&id=28479

@ Sedit ..... that was the stupidest post i`ve seen from you ....... so i gave you a minus point .

@ The thread ....... Sympathy for a patient is good but the wrong type of action at the wrong time can be disasterous .

There is a good reason why  we have doctors and train them for years ..... and some amateure chemists that havent got that training and experience a qualifyed doctor has should not be trying to make long distance telepathic diagnosis on patients or advise them or others to dose them with drugs .

SO to all of you .... grow the fuck up and stop adviseing people to dose themselves and / or others and try to separate your emotions , your egos and your own personal psychology from this and other situations like it  ...... and  ......... start to think and act like responsible adults . IF you dont you are a danger to yourselves , the comunity and others .

Its no wonder that some of you have had or get trouble with the pigs if you " think " , talk and act like some people here have .



SO girls ...... the acid test that will show if i`m right or wrong is ....... if i get more minus points .........


AMEN