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i'm having pretty good luck w/ the anxiety at bedtime - i continue to do my eye movements and telling myself i can rest, i can relax, i can sleep, i am enough, i've done enough (this one often goes to thoughts of D1, which has been one of the toughest), i am enough.  unfortunately, last nite i was up most of the nite cuz i couldn't get rid of unwanted thoughts about the past.  that sucked.

but wimbledon/the championships has been great - very interesting.

hey, bach, and then there are the things our mothers didn't teach us were important, like taking care of ourselves, respecting our boundaries, and knowing we are enough.  you are enough, what you've accomplished is enough, what you want is enough. 

i wonder if that 'inner child' who you think might be your M could be just her voice, her expectations of you, her 'shoulds' she's laid on you.

we've gotten so much neg. from our supposed caretakers, and so little pos., i think it's really difficult at times to flip that switch.  sometimes we can know to dig the neg. out, but find it hard to know what to replace it with.  i'm with you.  love and hugs

glad you're feeling better, hope.  i understand how emotional peoples' stories can be for us, books/movies, cuz i've shed my share of tears throughout my life becuz of them.  i also understand the feeling of not wanting to continue reading/watching something cuz it cuts too close to the bone.  there have been several books i've had to stop reading, several movies i've had to stop watching for the same reason.  too emotional in the wrong way.

once again, your progress with everything you're tackling is amazing.  keep up the good work!  love and hugs

yeah, it sounds like a lot    NK.  dang. i do hope he gets an air tag (i just looked it up, sounds like it would be perfect for this situation).  seems like you've been living w/in no sense of safety, which, in my mind, completely warrants that 'tantrum' - a lot of feelings associated w/ feeling unsafe. EF sounds just about right for the situation as well.  and then you had to be the responsible one, do a search and find the keys in order to restore a sense of safety, take care of it all yourself.  there's a lot there to process.

i do hope he gets one and it eases this problem.

and, congratulations on your therapy progress.  the fact that you can now manage some things you weren't able to before is wonderful.  keep up the good work, ok?  love and hugs

yep, got the chapbook in on time, so that's a big bunch of stress off my shoulders.  i know nothing will come of it, but you know what?  i frickin' did it!  so i have no regrets for not giving it a shot. let the chips fall where they may.

editing is going well also.  and now wimbledon for 2 weeks, so i'm doing ok.

probably, blueberry.  that was monstrous of them to do that to you, by the way.  i'm so very sorry you had to experience that from them.  you didn't deserve it, still don't.  i'm hoping for more lovely conversations to come your way.  love and hugs

maybe those lovely conversations kind of blew your circuits, blueberry.  things might have simply been too much 'good' for you and you're needing some time to process, allow the good feelings from them to sink in, and finally be ok with them.  just a thought.

at any rate, i hope you can accept that what your system needs right now is gentleness and kindness - sending love and a hug filled with both your way.

hey, NK, i truly relate to not having feelings about things that happened in childhood, and having to cope with them now as they begin coming up.  i'm right there with you - c-ptsd sucks!  i've often found it overwhelming, too, to have these feelings pop up and don't always know what to do with them.  from my experience, as i kept going w/ them, they became easier in time to cope with.

i'm glad you realized that therapy can still be helpful.  c-ptsd has such a stunning array of ways to get to us, and i've found having help and support extremely important as i kept finding more.  best to you!  love and hugs

glad you're able to see that, blueberry.  i concur wholeheartedly!  sounds like a lovely little encounter.  love and hugs

sending you a hug of comfort and care, bach 

i remember being told many times from 12-steppers to 'let go and let God', and i would say that it wasn't me hanging onto anything, cuz the 'stuff' was hanging onto me.  i do believe that's how this works.  it's not necessarily anything we are ABLE to let go of, try as we might.  this stuff has a hold on us thru neural networks or whatever so the 'letting go' thing just isn't our reality.

i do believe, however, this, too, shall pass, as i've heard many times here on the forum, and have experienced that many times as well.  i just hope you can take care of yourself as best you can while you go thru this part of the c-ptsd beast, and hang on till you come out the other side.  love and hugs

blueberry, hope you enjoy the conference.  heart intelligence, indeed.  i've long held onto the brain/body connection.  it just makes a lot of sense to me.  love and hugs

bach, she sounds a lot like my D1, with whom i've been estranged for over a decade.  no, your brother doesn't deserve such vitriol, abuse, negativity from her.  i wish he could extricate himself from her.  so very sorry this is going on, honestly.  it's just awful.  and i feel bad for you that you have to watch all this awfulness happening to your brother.  thanks for sharing.  it helped revive my own importance in staying away from such people, even if they're related to me.  i hope there's a way for this to be helped for his sake.  love and hugs

i'm proud of you, too, blueberry, if that's appropriate.  you took care of the situation just the way you needed it to be taken care of, and you had what sounds like some lovely people to take care of you, who listened to you and helped in a meaningful way.  so glad your eft tapping can help you in certain circumstances and certain ways.  wonderful that you were able to discover that for yourself.  well done all around!  and, yeah, you deserve a rest.  love and hugs

SO, i think the biggest strength of the c-ptsd beast is its ability to cause us to believe it's us who are the failures, the uglies, the shameful, the horribles, when, in fact, all those neg. labels belong to those who caused such thinking and beliefs within ourselves.  as you said, and something i've always believed, babies have none of those neg. thoughts about themselves, but have had them heaped upon them by others.  and it's with others that those neg. thoughts/feelings/beliefs belong.

so glad you found us.  this place has been life-saving for me.  love and hugs

hey, bach, could she be showing signs of dementia/alzheimer's or something to that effect?  it sounds very paranoid to me.  not that i'm trying to find an excuse, but it sounds like a trip to a doctor might be in order.  such behavior is intolerable and it's awful that your brother is going thru this and that you have to watch it happen.  so very sorry it's happening.  still, no excuse for her treating him like this.  love and hugs