Three years ago this month I joined the HealthyPlace blogging team by creating this blog. I did so because I wanted to write about symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and what it takes to heal. This was a personal mission: I am a PTSD survivor who struggled for almost 30 years before launching a healing rampage that led me to freedom. And now, while I'm sad to do it, I must say goodbye to Trauma! A PTSD Blog.

Hi, I’m Dan Hays, and I’m honored to be joining the HealthyPlace team as a writer for Trauma! A PTSD Blog. I'm a posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) survivor and author.

In writing and speaking about psychological trauma, I am most often reacting to an ongoing perception that few people really "get it" - about many aspects of this whole class of mental disorders. This multidimensional misunderstanding is seen in many ways:

When I was thirteen, I survived an illness so rare none of my New York City doctors had ever seen a case. An allergic reaction to a medication brought on a case of Toxic Epidermal Necrolysis Syndrome, which turned me into a full-body burn patient almost overnight. By the time I was released from the hospital, I had lost 100% of my epidermis.