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Hi Just Jane,

I use a weighted blanket and it really does help. I bought it in spring and found it made me have more restful sleep. I've not used it during the summer as it's been too hot, but it'll be back on my bed as soon as the weather is cooler!

Hi,

I recently discovered OOTS and have been lurking a bit on the forum after reading through the site. I am still processing finding out that C-PTSD exists and that I am a survivor of it and just wanted to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone involved in OOTS.   

I have been putting off writing an introduction because of what I'm sure a lot of people will understand - the fear of being judged and not being able to explain myself properly. But here goes. I am in my late 20's and have experienced what I now know to be C-PTSD since I was 15. It has effected my life in so many ways: I find it hard to maintain friendships, have a history of panic and eating disorders and take medication for depression and OCD. The longest I have managed to keep a job for is a few months and quite a few times I haven't made it past training/ the first day and I have 3 attempts at further education under my belt.

Things changed last year when learned about recovery and found an amazing community of people and support in my local area. I completed courses on self-care and self-management, developed my own WRAP plan and completed training in peer support. I feel like I've found the missing piece of the puzzle by discovering this site (if that makes sense) and can move further into recovery now I have a name to my experience.

I'm going through a relapse at the moment - but won't go into detail right now - and have been filling in the Symptom Tracker Form and plan to take it to an upcoming appointment with a psychiatrist at my local CMHT (community mental health team) to discuss.

Thanks again



x

Welcome  I'm a lurker and new joiner too! Your post really got me thinking about self management, it hadn't occurred to me that courses like that exist so I'm going to investigate. What's a wrap plan?

It sounds like you have a solid foundation set, I think the symptom tracker is a great idea.

Thank you Blueberry, that's so helpful! 

Yes, ACoA sounds pretty similar to the ones you mentioned, I'm going to try out a few more meetings and see how it goes.

Thank you for the SMART info, I've never heard of it and there's one really near to me! I'll check it out 

I'm looking for an in person support group for CPTSD and haven't had much success to date. I feel like connecting in person really helps me. I attended a group last year via Meetup for a while but it closed down after a couple of months.

Today I went to an AcoA meeting ( Adult Children of Alcoholics/Dysfuntional Families) https://adultchildren.org/ I was physically and emotionally abused by my parents, they weren't alcoholics but I wanted to try it out to see if it would be relevant. I'm not a natural '12 step person' as I'm not religious, but I went a lot to an eating disorder recovery one about 5 years ago which did help. Anyway, I wondered if anyone has any experience of ACA or anything else like it that might be useful?

It can feel pretty lonely going through this alone, and I've found that in person groups can be really useful in grounding me. I'm not sure on the ACA group, but will try out a few meetings to see how it goes.

Hi,

I started to go low contact with with toxic family members a few months back. I didn't realise there was a term for it, or that it was a thing at the time of doing it, what drove me was my need to protect and preserve my recovery. One of my family members specialises in guilt trips and martyrdom and has tried to to make me feel bad for distancibg myself... but I feel a lot better. For almost 20 years, I felt stuck in a cycle of being the fixer, appeaser and parent, and am in a way grateful for an event two years ago that triggered flashbacks and hyper vigiliance that wasn't so bad all I'm could do was sleep, work and eat. I I was exhausted and had reached my absolute limit.

Following that, it took a couple of years of counselling and EMDR to get to the point of wanting to take care of me first.

It's not always easy being LC, it can feel quite 'grey' for me, being a 'black or white' person. But NC isn't a an option as I want to maintain contact as two of my siblings have children.

I'd be interested to hear how others find LC?

Hi and a very warm welcome to OOTS Londongal!     Glad you took the risk to post, I know from personal experience just how difficult that can be.     FWIW that's why the forum is open to guests; so that people who feel vulnerable (as most of us with CPTSD do), can take their time, read and hopefully develop enough of a sense of safety/comfort to post.

Anyway, glad you are here and I hope you do find posting helpful. It can take a bit to settle in so please take your time 

Thank you so much Kizzie! I've learnt a lot during my lurking months  and hope to be able to bring something positive to this amazing community.

Welcome to the forum! Congrats on having the courage to join up after lurking for a while 

Thank you Blueberry 

Hi fire faerie,

I'm new here too and wanted to say welcome.

I'd like to second that the suggestions in Pete Walkers book are incredibly helpful. If you don't have the book, you can find pdf extracts on Google.

Best wishes 

Hi,

I'm new to the forum. I'm 39,and was diagnosed with CPTSD 2 years ago. Needless to say, it's affected all of my adult life, and some of my childhood. Being diagnosed was a relief in a way - I assumed that I was broken in some way, and addiction, hospitalisation, medication and failed relationships and friendships underlined the feeling.

I've been in EMDR for just over a year, it's helped a lot, but I'm still pretty much constantly hyper vigilant, and EF and disassociation can creep up on me when I'm not being 'mindful'.

My Mother was physically and emotionally abusive, I was the scapegoat, and it started when I was around 6. My Dad was an enabler, and abusive in similar ways.

I wanted to thank everyone here for making such a helpful and supportive community. I've been lurking here for about a year, and it's helped me feel a lot less alone.

On morning like this, especially rainy Monday, I find it impossible to face life. Anyone else go through this? It's something I have to just ride out like a wave. Forced action will not happen - I would only further resist. I saw a video on YT Surviving to Thriving & she suggests a breathing technique & acupressure points to normalize my amygdala from chronic hypervigilance. I guess I need to accept that this is where I'm at right now, and not be angry at myself. The temptation is for the Inner Critic to really let me have it for all of my avoidance behaviors. Note to self: It's NOT YOUR FAULT. THIS TOO SHALL PASS.

Hi Se7,

I'm new to the board, but have been reading for a while and I wondered if you found acupressure helped? I've been having EMDR sessions for the past year but am still hyper vigilant, it's tiring and frustrating 😕