1

Employment / Unhelpful management

« on: June 21, 2019, 04:25:00 AM »

Am hoping this story can serve as a form of affirmation around just how far we can go in our recovery.

I had an interesting day at work (school) yesterday. I was placed in a position to look after a group of youngsters who have such immense behavioural issues, that the day was impossibly ruined before we even walked in the door to start the day.

Nothing to do with me, and despite years of experience, I had no control to begin with. It was imperative to call in support from higher up to intervene and remove the main instigator/s, as the situation was getting quite dangerous.

The first intervention was needed immediately (insane). Another one was needed later. The first person to come in dealt with those involved in the situation, and it helped. The second person (the big boss) decided to immediately put me on trial instead, gave me a dressing down in front of the class, and set me a task of reading a policy booklet right then and there.

It was a cataclysmic moment designed purely to put me under the thumb rather than to deal with the real problem. Instead of feeling humiliated, I felt such joy knowing that what I was told to do was not going to happen (by sheer impracticality), and that I do not have to put up with any targeted power plays from anyone.

Making it this far in my recovery... it's a positive feeling 

Anybody else experience wins like this?

2

RE - Re-experiencing the Past (eg Flashbacks, Triggers) / TW: Memories setting my worth

« on: April 14, 2019, 07:14:36 AM »

Tw: SA

I look around sometimes and see what I've always wanted in my life happening for others. No matter how much I tried and fought for myself, I still missed the boat. And I am also an outcast in my family. They chose my abusers over me.


So today I cannot shake the thought that the only worth I have in this world is for someone else to rape.

3

Other / Trauma and Infertility

« on: March 01, 2019, 06:52:21 AM »

TW

I don't think it is the stress now that I have worked on building up my resilience. I think it is the long time it has taken to recover while enduring and recovering from DV, combined with the recurring infections associated with previous pregnancy loss and SA.

I am now infertile. I am again angry with everyone who contributed/enabled/ignored/abandoned me with abuse.

4

General Discussion / You're Abandoned because you help

« on: February 03, 2019, 11:36:48 AM »

Hi I'm not sure how to express this. Has anyone had this happen to them?

If a close family member is in trouble, you literally drop everything to help them. Even take leave from your job and fly interstate at a moments notice when you have a fear of flying. Nobody else does anything. Ever. But you make sure you do what you can. And you've done this several times throughout your life. And they have even come to you seeking that help.

And of all people, they abuse you, and stop talking to you while getting along with the others who did a big fat nothing to help them. You're given the silent treatment, you are told off and you are outcast.

I don't get it

5

Christmas & New Years / Christmas Confidence Downer

« on: December 15, 2018, 02:24:21 AM »

Having a crisis of confidence today. I don't get invited to any parties at Christmas. It's been the general trend for the last 18 years.

I've got a 'half invite' to one in a few hours. Don't want to go into it, just want to hide in a hole.

6

Workplace Bullying/Harassment/Abuse / Return to Pre-trauma Industry

« on: November 15, 2018, 12:36:49 AM »

The beginning of my life with serious trauma coincided with the change of my professional industry. Looking back, just about all people involved with the trauma (family, friends, colleagues...) are connected with that industry in some shape or form, small and large.

This year I returned to work in the industry that I was employed in before the traumas. Not just the industry, but the same old workplaces and colleagues as well as new. Over the last several weeks, one colleague has mentioned several times that I am always cool, calm and in control whenever crisis hits. She pointed out that on the surface I do not flinch, so I thought about it and realised that there is no flinching below the surface either. Then I thought, "Hang on!? I'm the one with cptsd!" (nobody knows I have it there, it is not in any way necessary to disclose... yet)

Completely the opposite to the last six years. It's like I took a knife, and sliced everything and everyone to do with that time out. I feel no stress in what really is quite a stressful industry, and I do not think about anything or anyone in the other.

That's a weird observation I noticed in the last week. Does anybody relate? Or have any thoughts about this? I'm still just dumbfounded at how pervasively toxic the other industry was/is, and how 'normal' it must seem to those in it.

7

Emotional/Physical/Sexual Abuse/Harassment/Violence / My family love "him"

« on: August 18, 2018, 10:34:33 PM »

*TW* SA

Trying not to say the words.
I slipped out "his" name to a cousin, recalling an invalidating comment by my mother to her.
My cousin immediately replied with "I know that name. He's really good friends with (my brother's name goes here)"
I broke down. "He's my ..."

Just... help me please

8

General Discussion / Am I already 'dead'?

« on: August 17, 2018, 10:12:10 AM »

I feel dead.
Everybody else is living but I feel... nothing.
Nobody is answering their phones. Nobody is responding to anything.
Nobody is talking to me.
I was evicted from a home by one sibling one week ago. A sibling who asked me to move in with them.
A two line text told me a baby was born to another sibling yesterday. That's it.
Nobody else is returning texts.
For more than a few months i've come home, watched terrible tv, and have spoken to nobody about anything. All plans to see friends have fallen through over and over and over.
I'm never asked to do things.
I can't talk to anybody about what I want/need to talk to them about.
I was in this same spot eight years ago. Nothing has changed.
Am I breathing when I shouldn't be.
I am that person at work who shows up, barely showered most days, slaps on a mask. Is in complete isolation when the work day ends and the weekend rolls around.

Why.
Things were done to me. I didn't violate anyone, they violated me. Why am I alone.
Why am i the outcast and they're not.

9

Emotional/Physical/Sexual Abuse/Harassment/Violence / Removal of previous thread

« on: August 13, 2018, 06:15:46 AM »

A note to say that I removed a thread  in this sub-forum with *TW* at the header of the topic.
I feel it was too intense, even with the trigger warning.

10

Having an Exceptionally Difficult Day / Finally Cracked

« on: August 11, 2018, 06:21:10 AM »

It's happened.
Splitting headache, need to vomit.
I can't work with the pain, all efforts to rise above have failed.
I don't want to fight for my life any more, I see no hope and no future.
Have dragged myself out of bed for months just to drag myself out. No benefit came of it.
I feel like what little I can give is being taken advantage of. I hurt a lot.

11

Friends / The Pity Invitation

« on: August 10, 2018, 11:41:01 PM »

Anybody feel that?

I'm well and truly over that form of invite: the after thought when everything else and everyone else has already been confirmed, when you're the superfluous participant, when you're the one filling in because someone elses plans fell through. When you're there not understanding the in jokes, listening to everyone elses exploits. You are not actually one of the group. You never will be.

Just not interested any more. I'd rather be alone on my own.

12

General Discussion / *TW* I wished my trauma on my ex

« on: July 24, 2018, 04:37:15 PM »

Was in a horrid, deep EF.

My last relationship, I disclosed my trauma along with my feelings for him at the point of whether we decide to stop or move forward. I made it clear what my fragilities were, and what I was and was not not able to handle.

With that knowledge in hand, we/he went forward in progressing our relationship to the next level, where I felt safe and feel deep. I felt like I had not experienced any bad things at all, they well and truly felt like they were in the distant past. I was well and truly in love when he decided to tell me he was leading me on, and after breaking up with me he was not long into another relationship. This was exactly what I expressed that I couldn't handle.

I have of course been struggling since. My heart still broken, and have had the worst worst EF i've experienced.

All dignity aside I had to speak to him, and beg him for help. I needed him and by god I still missed that SOB. I hate that he did that. Reaching out of course got me some less than satisfying responses.

So my self hatred and begging to him turned to anger at him. It did not take long to write, but I told him he deserved to experience every traumatic event I went through. And I mean, I listed them off in graphic detail. I have never disclosed the details to anyone besides the names of the abuses, and the descriptions were nowhere near as graphic in words as they are in memories. But specifics were described.

I told him he deserved the abuse and desertion I exprienced at the fallout. He deserved to feel what it feels like having the people that did it to me being treated like gods by the masses, including by my family. I described every type of trigger, large and small, every invalidation... everything I could pour out

The pain I have been feeling, daily, for a decade, I passed on to him. I delegated the memories and agony to him. He deserved to rot in agony as I have.

Then he deserved to have someone do to him what he did to me.

He had enough knowledge at my disclosure to not move forward. So because of that, what he did with me was reprehensible. I never deserved any of my traumas, and certainly not what he did. So he deserved to feel all of it.

I can never again enter into a romantic relationship after him. I cannot date, I cannot talk to men, I cannot dream or hope, or trust that I will be safe with anyone ever. Because of him.

I do not feel guilty saying what I said. It lifted me out of the EF. The relief was immediate. I do not regret passing on the raw emotion. This was pure anger.

13

General Discussion / Question to parents with cptsd

« on: July 24, 2018, 01:09:25 PM »

*TW* sorry for the length

My traumas started with a miscarriage. My soothing coping mechanism for the trauma surrounding the miscarriage was violently destroyed by another abuser. So my passion and traumatic salve became another source of trauma.

I was abused further by other people in different ways for several years after that.

I've always wanted to be a mother, and recently decided, and have been working towards, fulfilling that goal. Whether or not that is now possible is very uncertain. But I have to try for my life's purpose. I do not have a purpose otherwise.

My support structure failed me. Self soothing is difficult, and I had a few triggers culminate into a mother of a flashback - pardon the pun - that was resolved by outwardly projecting rage at a certain person. That rage resolved the the inward 'ideas' that I had for myself. For the record, I feel much better for doing it, and I do not feel guilty, nor do I feel sorry for them. But without question, it is not a healthy way to deal.

Although the relief was tremendous.

So this naturally scares me from the perspective of motherhood. I became scared when my supports disappeared, from when my mood started wavering, and when the triggers started getting harder to deal with. I am scared about hormone fluctuations, to having faith in my strategies, to my temperament and reliability.

Had I not lost my baby, I know I would have been an excellent mother. I always looked forward to being pregnant before then and found it utterly beautifly exciting. I did not have the burden of all the traumas when I was pregnant, and I had many years of experience of working with children. There was no such thing as explosive anger, and I was a strong advocate and support to those children. I was resilient. No medications. A family friend often commented that I was the most level headed person he knew - a big thing as he was including my siblings in that assesment.

I am scared that I haven't the capability any longer. I have no husband (I have endured SA by subsequent partners), and have been very angry about the SA.

There are parents on here with cptsd I know. How do you survive parenthood, and how do you nurture your children when you have this monster to deal with?

14

Suicide Ideation/Self Harm / It's making sense

« on: July 22, 2018, 02:21:41 AM »

Not out of anger, fear, loneliness or anything that has gone wrong now.

Pure objective logic, it just feels like I'm not really meant to be anywhere in this life

15

Checking Out / I don't think I fit in here anymore

« on: June 30, 2018, 11:53:51 PM »

Dear beloved friends at OOTS,

I began to write this post in the revovery board, but as the post developed it became clear that it needed to be placed here.

My comments of late have been few and far between for a plethora of reasons. Yes i've had a couple of personal crises that are devastating, and i've checked in here for help and reassurance. You have been my allies and unwavering support. You have lifted me out of some very dark depths.

I've come to reflect on my current situation and have noticed that for the first time in over eight years, i'm finally making decisions again because I want to and not just to survive. I no longer feel broken. I feel like I have control of my life again. I count my blessings. I feel like I can be a rock to someone else again, should they need it.

I need to continue on this path.

This is a strange, but welcome sense of being. Not feeling desperation. Feeling like myself again, despite all the losses suffered. Yet they won't be the last.

I'll never consider myself free of triggers. I will be weak at times, and I am scared of how i'll cope when inevitable or unexpected tragedies will occur. But i've been reflecting on the latest setbacks, and believe my resilience has been solidifying.

I relish the successes of my friends here, and check in with my fingers crossed hoping to read some wonderful posts, ecstatic when I do. I like to share updates of successes with the view that it might hopefully inspire others to keep at their journey. The many tiny steps add up. Never give up.

But I worry that I'm inadvertantly upsetting people instead. I don't want to do that. I also feel guilty when expressing a problem. I do think, and not with any sense of negativity, that perhaps I don't fit in here any more. Perhaps I have to step away.

This feels very weird. I've never 'stepped away' before. I've always had to escape, mysteriously disappear, or be abandoned first.

I don't know what's ahead, but right now i'm not scared. I think I will always come back here periodically, but will mostly keep my voice silent.

I don't know how to sign off...