Treating Anxiety vrs Complex Trauma

Does anyone "deserve" that? Who says?

Fallen? Was it ever different? As a society we just have not learned enough about human nature and how to manage it, using more knowledge about how it works. Progress on that front can be extremely slow, as you may have noticed. Does not mean that nothing progresses.

I compare the development of knowledge of human psychology to that of the physical sciences. Before they got to the stage they are now, very similar things took place in our understanding of the physical world. Vast confusion and major controversies. Now understanding of human psychology needs comparable development. It can happen. It seems to be happening. In fits and starts. Very slowly.

We are working on it here.

I thought lashing out at oneself was just a way to prevent the surprise that takes place when someone else does it. To anticipate so that when it happens it won't be so shocking...

CPTSD happens as a result of an extended period of trauma, where the person's system is overwhelmed and cannot find a way to rebound. Typically in childhood, where coping mechanisms are not well developed. It is an inevitable part of childhood, not the child's "fault". Children are not adults. You cannot correctly expect them to be (as my mother, of course, did).

I wouldn't read too much into that article, it has some useful points and was eye opening in some respects, but is also making a number of assumptions and claims I am not sure I would agree with or are supportable by the evidence myself (eg all CPTSD depression is 'reactive' on a biochemical level). It's trying to draw too clearcut a distinction between 'mental illness' and 'psychiatric injury' when I think in reality it is hard to draw a line between the two and as the article itself says many people with CPTSD will have been given mental illness diagnoses at some point even if it is arguably erroneous so they certainly will have a mental illness history. I have a long history of depression and GAD, OCD and various other mental health symptoms; the diagnosis of CPTSD helps tie them all together in a way that makes sense in the context of my personal history, and accounts for other symptoms like diminished future and startle reflex that I couldn't make sense of before. Personally I think a lot of things that get classed as mental illness are the result of trauma in various forms and don't buy into the heavily reductionist pseudo scientific theories medical model psychiatrists espouse. It's also important not to confuse symptoms with 'disease entities' - psychiatry tends to conflate them far too readily.

So, then I probably do have CPTSD. I did thirteen years straight, from age 20 to 33, after spending 3 years fighting in court. So yeah...most of my formative years. But then...maybe I should just suffer in silence and accept it because I put myself there, right?

*sigh*

There are no easy answers.

You probably had some help getting there...

True.

So you were 17 when you comited this crime?

Thanks for sharing the link

I was actually 16, almost 17, but the DA and the detective fudged numbers to get me into adult court, the judge knew my mother's ex-friend and didn't recuse herself, and I had a public pretender who didn't care that there was a huge conflict of interest with the pre-sentence investigation...eh. The list goes on and on but I did what I did, so I guess PTSD/CPTSD/Whatever Else for the rest of my life is part of the sentence.

I really feel like that abrogates any claim/right to therapy and treatment, too, and that really just seems to encourage thoughts about very lethal forms of self-destruction and how those thoughts are justified.

Ha, what do I have to worry about from other people when nothing anyone can do to me can compare to the things I do to myself? All a part of the Pattern...

I'll see myself out of the thread, don't worry.

(((Michael))), there is no reason for you to not share here and you deserve to heal just like everyone else struggling does. Don't give into the negative messages you say to yourself either. 16 years old is VERY young and extremely naive and prone to making bad choices because of being so young yet.

Thank you for sharing this. I have been diagnosed with GAD as well, but I'm learning that I actually have c-ptsd. I look forward to reading this article.

I think this article does a better job of explaining the relationship between CPTSD and mental health symptoms:

https://themighty.com/2017/08/life-i...disorder-ptsd/

Perfect explanation. All the symptoms are me 100%. Some have toned down with years of therapy but so many remain and most likely always will.

Yeah me too

This is what I experience and it can get SO PAINFUL that it immobilizes me to laying on my sofa trying to use the TV to distract me and hoping that laying and resting will reduce how painful it is for me. When I have too many days in a row I give in and take a Klonopin as that will significantly reduce the pain however it's a depressant so I have to be careful as it can increase my feeling depressed.

Yeah this is one reason I do Yoga and Relational embodied therapy - in different ways they both work on my armouring.

I'm so sorry to hear that! I don't experience body armoring pain, but I'm finally understanding my own body armoring. I thought I just tended to hold my stress in my shoulders/neck area...well I'll say! I've had issues there for years. I'm learning it's okay to take care of myself so massage here I come lol.

That's one thing I haven't done yet, although I have considered it I'm very uneasy with being touched, particularly for prolonged periods, in certain places, and by someone I don't know.

I read the article on The Mighty. It made more sense to me.

The Mighty article is the most simplified description of me that I have found so far.

I relate very strongly with each symptom except for the loss of faith. That is the only thing that has held me together.

Thank you for posting it here. I also sent it to my counselor.

I don't know about the hypervigilance, but I remember hating school because I hated being around other people I didn't know and worried way too much about what others think of me. There was also a lot of other stuff going on at the time, too...

As for loss of faith, yeah, been there, done that. It turned into a full-fledged phobia of death and dying. How do you overcome something like that with exposure therapy? Go Flatliners? There's literally no cure for such a phobia, and there's nothing someone can say to alieviate the reality of the situation. That in turn, turned into an obsession and that in turn has lead down some rather odd (and dark) paths.

When it first happened, I just sort of gave up everything and sank itnto a sort of stupor. I would wake up, stare at the wall all day, and then go to sleep. I remember almost nothing from those six weeks other than someone occasionally knocking at the door, which I would ignore. I lost 22 pounds from not eating at all. It was only because I was nearly force-fed and dragged out of my house by people I knew to get me to snap out of it that I did, and for weeks after, I remember feelling the pull of that stuporous sort of limbo, calling me back. And I would often catch myself sort of drifting down into it again every so often.

Feels like those times are coming back because it's really just getting to be too much.

Wow, that is really interesting. I never thought I'd make it to 18. Then never though I'd make it to 30...and now I'm approaching 40, I feel a little more certain it will happen, but still not sure. Definitely feel certain 50 won't happen. But I have done a lot of work and feel I can start make some future plans.

Thanks for this info, OE.

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