CLOSED NOW - Request from Public Radio for Participants

[Kizzie]

Hi All:

I had a request from North Carolina University Public Radio for some participants for a podcast they are putting together about Complex PTSD.  It's a great way to spread the word and you can do so anonymously, just include that you are a member of OOTS please.  The instructions are below - seems fairly painless! Recording should be no more than 3 minutes long please.

If you have any questions you can email me at l.herod@yahoo.ca or the producer Paige at pmiranda@unc.edu:

Instructions from Paige the producer

Voice memos can be completely anonymous, folks can use a pseudonym. 

The details are below, but please let me know if I can clarify things further.

Here are the two prompts we have:

1) When did you realize that you had complex PTSD or experienced complex trauma? 
2) What has been one thing that has helped you the most in your healing journey?

To record, we have a virtual mailbox called Speakpipe, and here's the link: https://www.speakpipe.com/msg/s/254474/352/mq2z90ht9cqqbsil

There's an orange "Play" button that has the prompts again and instructions, and then there's an orange "Reply" button to share your response.

We would love to collect all voice memos by next Wednesday, Oct. 18th if possible.

Thank you again for your interest and please let me know if you or any OOTS members have additional questions. 

Warmly,

Paige

[Armee]

Thanks,Kizzie! I submitted a recording for consideration, with a shoutout to OOTS forums.


Here's what I read from...came in just under 3min tho I speak fast by nature.

----

Hi, thanks so much for putting together a story on complex trauma. My name is -----. (I used my nickname but not my fullname)

I don't know if I'm supposed to say what happened but I'll say it in a brief nutshell, knowing that you can edit it out as needed. I never met my dad after he tried to stab my mom while she was pregnant with me, taking the car and money when he left. He ended up in jail for other things off and on. Meanwhile my mom was severely mentally ill, and eventually became openly suicidal for years, and because she was a single parent, I made it my job as a kid to be on suicide watch. It was extraordinarily traumatic. There was also some physical violence and mild sexual assaults, but the ultimate impact of growing up this way is that I was really unable to look out for myself, and I ended up being  gangraped at 19 when I was a nanny in a foreign country.

Despite all this, I didn't realize I was traumatized until I was in my early 40s. It was kind of something that was always there and so I didn't recognize it. It turns out I have pretty severe PTSD - the full gamut of symptoms: nightmares, flashbacks, dissociation, amnesia, lack of trust, hypervigilance, horrible thoughts about my self, anxiety about people I love dieing, and on and on.

I tried to sweep everything under the rug in a way for the first 20 years of my adult life, believing that no one actually died so it wasn't that bad, and that it was over and I could just move on and leave it in the past. It worked for awhile, in a way, but now that I am mostly healed I see how I was and I would never go back to that way of being again.

I will say The symptoms did eventually get so bad that I had to step away from a great career a couple years ago. But I'm still in a much better place than ever before.

The one thing that has helped me most in my healing journey? It makes me feel pretty sad to say: its Having the financial resources to pay for the amount of private therapy needed to heal. It takes so long to really heal complex trauma. It takes every tool in the box and a skilled, experienced therapist. Where I live this runs $250 per hour. This has cost me out of pocket more than $100,000 over 5 years, and I still have PTSD even though my symptoms are so much better.  A free resource for anyone though - and one that has really been an incredbile tool for healing for me - are the forums on the Out of the Storm Website - at cPTSD.org.

I'm in a good place, now. There's definitely hope, but society really has to do more to provide treatment to victims of complex and especially childhood trauma.

[Kizzie]

Tks so much Armee! 

Hope others will follow your lead and participate so we can spread the word about Relational Trauma and Complex PTSD 

[NarcKiddo]

This is what I sent. Length was around 2 minutes.

I'm a woman in my 50s. I've known "something" was wrong since my mid 40s, but had no idea what. I haven't been formally diagnosed with Complex PTSD but I have known for about 18 months that I probably have it, or at least large elements of it, and that I experienced complex trauma as a child and teenager. This has resulted in life long emotional problems and addiction issues.

The most important element of my healing journey has been other people who can understand my issues. My therapist is trauma informed and has confirmed that I , objectively, suffered abuse. This was important because I believed my childhood was normal and my parents loved me. I did not experience, or witness, obvious sexual abuse or domestic violence when growing up. I still believe my parents loved me to the fullest of their capacity, but my childhood was far from normal and my emotional needs were not met. I am a member of the Out of the Storm forum for Complex PTSD sufferers. Fellow members have been a huge support to me and I like to think I have been able to be a support to some of them.

Another hugely important element of my healing journey has been regular physical exercise. Reactions to trauma frequently trigger the amygdala brain region and provoke the fight, flight or freeze response. Exercise provides a safe outlet for the stress surges and also helps with sleep, which is another thing that is often disrupted by stress.

I am really happy to hear that North Carolina University Public Radio is making a podcast about Complex PTSD. The nature of complex trauma means it is often hidden and goes unrecognised. That needs to change.

[Armee]

Awesome, NK!

So glad people are out there raising awareness.

I'll edit my post below to add what I said too. Having written my story to submit for consideration for the book really helped being able to tell my story succinctly.

[Saluki]

Hey well done for contributing 🙂🙂🙂

I'm so uncomfortable with the sound of my voice I think I'm going to skip out of this one. I'm so much more comfortable writing than speaking. Anyone know when it will be broadcast and if it's an online radio that anyone anywhere can listen to or is it more a local thing? I'm permanently paranoid about my voice being recognised. I've had the idea for a long time now that it would be great if a call in show for survivors of relational trauma existed. But I'm way too CPTSD'd to be able to cope with facilitating such a thing. So this sounds very interesting.

[Armee]

 

Your story deserves to be told and heard. AND I completely understand not wanting to record it.

If you want to, I would be more than willing to record it for you.

[NarcKiddo]

Yes, I would also be willing to record a piece for somebody else. I used a slight accent and different intonation from my usual when I did mine.

[Juls_77]

Hi Kizzie, I have sent you a voice reply however completely forgot to shoutout OOTS.

Still, I hope my contribution is useful but understandable if not. I imagine you will receive a good number of messages.

Thankyou
Julie

[Kizzie]

Tks to those who participated, very much appreciated! 

[NarcKiddo]

Will they let you/us know when the podcast is made and how we can listen to it?

Thank you so much for continuing to look in on us at this difficult time for you, Kizzie. 

[NarcKiddo]

Kizzie has asked me to let you all know that the podcast/radio show will be available on 17th November. See text from Paige at the radio station below:

Embodied has a radio show and a podcast and both will be available for listening November 17th at wunc.org and on whichever podcast platform you prefer! I will be sure to send out the links when we get closer to the time so that all of the folks at OOTS can tune in.

[Saluki]

Thank you for your kindness. I completely forgot I had even written that reply 😕 I've had a brainfog like mustard so not checked in until now. I'm going to have to set myself a reminder to listen in when it becomes available else I will forget all about it! 

[Kizzie]

For those who participated in the North Carolina Public Radio podcast about Complex Trauma, the show will be available starting stream Friday Nov 17th at 1 PM EST -  https://www.wunc.org/show/embodied-radio-show.  There is no need to listen at that time as it will be available at any time.