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Feb 27th - Here's a new video "Trauma: It's More Complex Than You Think" - a presentation by trauma researcher, clinician and psychology professor Dr. Colette Smart from the University of Victoria in British Columbia, Canada.

Link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuKHO0vHEa0

Hey Seeking to Survive, a lot of new members feel as you do so not to worry.

There are a lot of guidelines in place to ensure members treat each other with respect, tolerance and kindness. They came about because early on there were a lot of trolls who joined just to make trouble, and also members who did not quite know how to behave toward others (which makes sense give trouble with relationships is one of the symptoms of CPTSD). The first threatened this community and the latter disrupted it, thus the guidelines. You need not fear putting a foot wrong or needing to write perfect posts though. If something crosses the line I will edit your post and send you an email explaining why.

As for the size of the forum, it is large and takes a while to feel your way around, but as it is for survivors of complex trauma with complex PTSD, the sub-forums are meant to capture the complexities of what we live with. If you go slowly as others have suggested I think you'll feel comfortable fairly quickly.

Hi and a warm welcome to Out of the Storm BlueJayWay    And well done you for the recovery work you've been doing! I hope being here will help you get further along. 

Hey NK, I hear you on the revulsion to your NM in particular. As I was reading your post I remembered a poster who said she would actually feel sick around her NM and that light went off as it often does here. I felt the same but also realized I felt quite guilty, as though I couldn't bear to clearly see her as she was. That was the moment, however, that I felt those feelings rise to the surface. I could see how broken, cruel and manipulative she was and that was hard because she was my M.

It wasn't something I wanted to feel about her but looking back I think feeling sick being near her helped me to be able to step away from her. Prior to that I had been very enmeshed and afraid of pulling back. I guess what I'm saying is that perhaps the revulsion means you are seeing her as she is and that is so hard to do when it's your own M. And maybe the revulsion will help you shield yourself so she doesn't poison you and/or your life? It is one of those very difficult things in recovery--feeling those things about our parents that are so hard to acknowledge. We do hunger for our parents love and when we finally realize we've never had that and never will have it, it's profoundly sad and even a bit frightening, or so I found.

As always, just my thoughts of course but I wish you well in figuring this out with your T   

Hi and a warm welcome to Out of the Storm Doug    Great to hear you had some good therapy and you've gotten to a point where you can work on your CPTSD symptoms. That's some good recovery you've accomplished!

I'm glad you found us and I hope OOTS will be of help to you. Many of us find we feel like we belong here unlike often feeling a bit alien or different around non-survivors as you've said you do.

I suspect/hope as you read and post you'll be able to focus in on the symptoms you still struggle with. It is difficult as you say but having others in your corner can really help.

 


 

Are you able to afford a therapist Erik? That might be a good place to start if you want to move forward in recovery. You may also find being here helpful as members understand what you going through and it can be a bit of release talking with us. One section a lot of members post in is the journals section here - https://www.cptsd.org/forum/index.php?board=61.0.

Hi Erik - Sorry to hear you are feeling so numb and exhausted right now, CPTSD and recovery can take so much out of us.  Are you in therapy at the moment?  If so, you might want to speak to you therapist about how you're feeling.

If not, I found what helped me (and please know we're all different so these may not be right for you), was to take what I like to call "trauma breaks." I would put down the books about trauma, read and post less here, take naps, try and do some fun things which could include just binge watching a good TV show if that's all you're up for, take short walks in the fresh air, or go for a ride in the car.

I hope this is helpful! 

Hi and a warm welcome to Out of the Storm Seeking to Survive 

I'm sorry to hear you are feeling so isolated. I think it's good that you are reaching out here because even though we are anonymous and virtual, I find there's a feeling of being connected to a large community. I like that members here really understand what it feels like to struggle with CPTSD and share their own experiences and suggestions about what worked or did not for them. And there is a lot of caring support which it sounds like you really need right now.  

Tks for posting these Dolly and BB!

Very interesting! I think if we're touch deprived we need that feeling of being held and soothed rather then being "worked on" as you say. I'm glad to hear you went for the CST therapy after your experience with the Korean massage. It's lovely that you were able to feel grief and comfort at the same time.

I had something similar happen when I had cancer some years back. I made the decision to have my hair shaved which was recommended by a woman's cancer group I attended. I was scared and upset understandably, but I came to see why it was a good thing to do. They made the whole thing into a kind of ritual of being cared for and held in my grief. Once my head was shaved, they gently washed my scalp and then gave me a long, soft head massage in a room with soft light and music. It was absolutely wonderful. As you experienced, it somehow balanced the grief, sadness and fear I was feeling. They gave me a lock of hair as I was leaving and suggested I burn it. My H and I did so in our fire pit and it was like sending my cancer out to the universe.

Our stories do make me sad I must say. It highlights just how much we needed caring touch and holding when we were children and I can't help think how much better off life would have been if we had had that. I also can't help thinking about those who were sexually/physically abused and became touch adverse. It would be so much harder to break down those walls and try some healthy physical touch. CPTSD is a beast.

Yes, I've also worried and felt guilty about what my trauma has done and does to my H and S.

(Note: response edited 24 Feb.)

Tks Dolly. For everyone's information Here's a link to Ingrid Clayton's book - https://www.amazon.ca/Fawning-Need-Please-Makes-Ourselves-ebook/dp/B0DPYJPL9R and one of the videos (not sure if it's the one NK posted) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yY7-njK7kiM. 

I had not heard of her work before but from the sample provided at the link she does a good job of explaining what fawning is, why we do it, and most important of all, how to step away from it. 

Books like hers and the many others we tend to read are good, great in fact at putting things into words things we feel or know but aren't quite able to bring to the surface and articulate. As the saying goes though, "If you can name it, you can tame it."

Just my thoughts Pelican but it might be an idea to see your GP as there could be something physical going on, especially given you have a regular fitness routine. You may need some lab work to see what if anything is going on.

I will say that the stress of CPTSD often does have the effect of draining us of energy so you may want to bring this up with them although they may not know about complex trauma. If such is the case there is a download here you could give to them. Sadly, sometimes we have to educate our healthcare professionals about trauma as it is not taught regularly in university medicine programs just yet.

Hey Layla, yes Wobbly has not been back on the forum since they posted unfortunately. I did want to say, however, to you and other members that oftentimes when someone posts to an old thread it sparks some good discussion around the topic. Plus, it helps you as the new poster to think through an issue yourself sometimes.

So I say even if a thread is old go ahead and post   

[she was making me invisible in the process]

It is difficult Big Blue, or at least it was for me. I pretty much had to stop myself each time for a long while and figure out if I was other referencing. If I did not feel like I/my needs were being taken into account, either by me or the other person I would make a real effort to pull back inside my body and end the one-sided dialogue ASAP.

When my NM was alive she would talk right over top of me (and I let her because if I didn't she would do the hurt thing) until one day I could see very clearly she was making me invisible in the process and it really hurt every time she did it). I just up and calmly and firmly said something to the effect of "Wait a minute please, I didn't finish what I was saying" and it stopped her cold. The next time she did it I out and out told her she needed to stop talking over top of me, that it was rude and made me feel bad. She was very much taken aback but she finally learned I had boundaries, that I was not just a set of ears put on this earth to listen to her prattle on and on.

A bit of a chuckle - my H is awesome at dealing with people who hog the stage. We had a neighbour some time back who would talk endlessly and had me caught one day. My H just started up the lawnmower near where we were talking and that gave me an out. Can't talk over that!