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Thank you so much!
I started the search for a good prescriber today and am in the process of recruiting more skilled people to my "team". Acknowledging success is something I'm maybe not very good at, but I will practice

Recently my threshold for anxiety is much lower than usual. Most days I wake up with my skin crawling with unease and have to run for the bathroom (sorry if that is too much information) .

My therapist and I have found out that this has two primary reasons:

1) The last 5 years (!) have been extra stressful (crisis in marriage, death of a parent, hospitalized with huge pneumonia, and merger (hostile takeover) at work. Because of this, my hyper vigilance is in the driver's seat.

2) Pain is now a trigger for me. This is new. Depression and anxiety have been expressing themselves as muscle pain all my life. Now, when these pains intensify, it triggers anxiety, and I'm in a downward spiral.

Have any of you experienced pain as a trigger? Do you have any coping strategies or tips for befriending the pain to remove the trigger? My physical therapist doesn't have a clue...

Thank you, Hope!
I wonder if you (or someone else) can tell me where to go on this forum to learn about what kinds of treatments people have tried and what they feel they have gained through them (or not).

Dear all,

I suffer from CPTSD after growing up in a family where my mother and father were both alcoholics. So both my other living adult relatives, a grandmother and an uncle. Even though they were all high functioning alcoholics who kept their jobs and kept up appearances -- at least while I was a kid -- I felt very unsafe growing up. It didn't help that both my parents were drinking to self medicate their mental health issues. There is more my story: I was bullied at school, and when I did find friends as a teenager, they were not the best of friends and I spent a lot of weekends drunk out of my mind around people who didn't have my best interests at heart.

That is a long time ago now. I will turn 50 this summer. Yet I work every day to help me feel safe and whole. I have been in therapy for 15 years, and thanks to that I am able to keep my job in spite of periods with a crush of symptoms. After my father passed away 6 years ago and my mother 3 years ago, a lot of old stuff was reactualized, and I feel so vulnerable.

That is a short summary of the sad part. The good part is that I have a wonderful husband, a good job, financial security and a handful of trusted friends. And now I have found you! I lm looking forward to learning from you and to hang out in a group where what I am coping with is not un-normal.