Have you ever experienced what I call “dating PTSD”? Are you wondering what my whacky brain has come up with now, or do you totally get the direction I am heading in?

PTSD is an acronym for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Individuals who suffer from major traumatic incidences often develop PTSD, and sometimes, the traumatic memories can be triggered when situations occur where the individual is reminded of the past traumatic event. In reality, the mere fact of living in a city like Los Angeles likely has multiple instances of PTSD flashbacks on a daily basis, as life can be difficult in this city. But, for this story’s sake, I am only going to reference dating PTSD, because I believe that single people everywhere are ALL suffering from a form of dating PTSD on some level.

Let’s face it: If you are still single, and you are actively looking for a partner to spend your life with, you likely have had to kiss your share of frogs. Kissing frogs has become an accepted rite of passage in modern life, making dating numerous potential partners in an effort to find true love, socially acceptable.   It is kind of like the universe is giving you permission to kiss as many frogs as you need to in order to find your handsome prince. Because let’s face it—everyone, at the end of the day, still wants to end up living in their own version of a fairytale-destined-to-be-together romance of a relationship, where chivalry and passion will keep you in love when the going gets tough.

The only problem with this scenario is sometimes, some of the frogs we end up kissing, leave us with massive scars and wounds and traumatic emotional injuries that I believe result in dating PTSD. Sometimes when these distressing wounds from past relationships reappear or are even gently triggered, we run from a person and a potential relationship before we even give the person a fair shake.

I am betting you are all thinking now, hmm, maybe she does have a point here. I can only use my personal examples of my very own dating PTSD and point them out to you, which will hopefully make you ponder your own life and reconsider the way you are looking at a potential contender.

Okay, at first you are excited that a younger, hot guy is besotted with you. Just when you decide that you might kiss this young tadpole and let him hang out with you on your lily pad, you suddenly have a flashback to when you dabbled your little-webbed toes into this pond before. Suddenly, you remember your past ‘younger cute guy’, who wondered what the small dimple in your thigh was, so you explained that regardless of how much you exercise, you have a f