Some Needed Perspective on a Heavy Topic?

I used to have PTSD flashbacks from childhood bullying which made me nearly agoraphobic. Trying a combat system (Judo) made it worse. There are intermittent moments of helplessness and aggression in combat systems which triggered me hard, and gave me lingering thoughts about revenge on my training partners.

I had to stick with Aikido for a long time, because it deprogrammed my brain from these infinite panic loops. It is a very clever system in that respect. Without Aikido I wouldn't have been able to start BJJ.

If you notice that BJJ is making your PTSD worse, you may need to shift to a soft system until you can get rid of it.

Yeah yeah, Aikido is considered ineffective - but if the training keeps re-triggering you and growing your PTSD, the PTSD is more of a threat to your life than a physical attacker at this time. It is an invisible enemy in your head which can eventually kill you. Aikido is the one thing I found which gets rid of 90% of it.

/r/bjj Thread