Woman Uses Second Life Creativity to Recover from PTSD

In this powerful machinima, SLer Anjelikka Kowalski explains how using Second Life, admiring the creativity within it, and learning how to create herself, has helped her recover from post-traumatic stress disorder:

PTSD is usually associated with soldiers returning from war, but in Anjelikka's case, she was a secondary victim to war's tragic aftermath:

"It was due to a terrible incident that included my husband at the time," she explains to me. "He went to Iraq numerous times and every time he came back, he changed. Four years ago, he came back from Iraq on a two week vacation, and he got so violent and tried to kill me, I ended up with a broken nose.

"Needless to say I am lucky to be alive since this could have ended bad. But I suffered badly from PTSD because of fear he would return."

She tells me all this in a rush, and I ask if she's comfortable discussing such deeply personal real life details for a blog post.

"Feel free to do so," she says. "It took me all these years to finally being able to say I suffered through this. Second Life helped me in so many ways I was able to escape, make new friends, and create beautiful things. It was really therapy for me and I was able to find peace."

And if you check out her Second Life blog, you'll notice there's a twist to that point:

She's going to meet someone in real life that she met in Second Life.

"Well, eventually we will meet," she says. "Here is another little twist to this. I had an Sl relationship with a guy for 3 years but after it broke up, he became a stalker. Now I am happy to say I am in a great new relationship, and in order to get the stalker off our backs, I needed to say we are meeting in RL. It brought back a few anxieties of PTSD for a few weeks, but I am dealing with this and my partner is a great help.

"Funny how sometimes you do not figure people out... I have a degree in Human Development and when it comes to my heart, I forget what I learned. But it is all good. Second Life has given me so many friends from all over the world. I am truly blessed with the kind people around me."

Follow Anjelikka Kowalski's SL/RL story on her blog.

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Comments

[Anjelikka Kowalski]

Thank you so much for posting this great article. Already many others have contacted me and told me about their struggles of PTSD and anxieties and how Second Life has helped them heal.
Sincerely,
Anjelikka