Every time I get on the freeway my enhanced hyper-vigilance is rewarded. I am super aware of cars changing lanes, speed demons racing up from behind and near misses that keeps my hyper-vigilance on alert. It is exhausting being super aware all the time of every person around. I didn’t know it was unusual. I…
A minor annoying experience suddenly goes haywire with emotions that are over-the-top extreme flashback. I am no longer a confident adult but a cringing terrified/angry/helpless child. I know logically that the event did not warrant the level of emotion that washed over me like tsunami. Several of these stood out in my memory. When I…
Stopping or cutting off emotions. Dissociation/cutting off emotions is like freezing frogs….as soon as you thaw them they are hopping all over just the same. Why do I know this? I used dissociation to obliterate anger and other negative emotions. Sadly it did the same thing to love and happiness…only the emotions didn’t go away,…
Lonely in a crowd. Seeing everyone else chat and interact and feeling like I live in a glass bubble. The feeling of being different, out of step, longing to feel included…how can I see anything good in feeling so isolated and alone? I started my own group that included others. I did it, we had…
Shame came up fairly early in my counseling. I was given a book about shame and tried to explain that there was shame and toxic shame only there isn’t a different name for toxic shame so there is shame that is good for you and shame that is bad for you but no wait maybe…
Every once in a while I come across a statement that is so cloaked in psycho babble that it hardly makes sense. This is one of those time. Continuing with the best practices: https://www.blueknot.org.au/Workers-Practitioners/For-Health-Professionals/Resources-for-Health-Professionals/Best-Practice-Guidelines Understand and attune to the prevalence and varied forms of dissociative responses, the differences between hyper and hypoarousal, and the need to…
I noticed that any time I write about the big bad ugly symptoms of PTSD or CPTSD very few people like my post. I kind of agree that I don’t like it either but it is part of what I live with every day. I do not get days off for good behavior. I also…
I am going through a list of best practices for therapist with CPTSD/PTSD clients. I am stuck on number 5. https://www.blueknot.org.au/Workers-Practitioners/For-Health-Professionals/Resources-for-Health-Professionals/Best-Practice-Guidelines It is cloaked in Psycho-babble terms but boils down to the therapist needs to kindly tell the client they are brain damaged….awesome. There is no easy way to put this. Really. I thought for days. …
One of the powerful things taught to me by my first counselor that my ‘symptoms’ of PTSD were actually life adaptions that worked for me at the time of trauma. Of course, the issue was that they were maladaptive for living a more settled life. In the list of best practices, one of the concepts…
I was once asked by a counselor what aspects of my life were impacted by PTSD. Simple answer, “All of it.” There is not one part of my life left untouched by PTSD, or some people are calling multiple event trauma Complex PTSD. I struggled with understanding how deeply I am affected. I was raised…
PTSD - Accepting, Coping, Thriving 