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Hi, I haven't been here for a very long time. I check in and read occasionally, and respond very occasionally to a post or two.

But I have managed to trigger myself and am feeling very strange and unsettled. My thoughts and feelings are not lining up and am feeling control and certainty beginning to slip.

I think I am strong enough to hold on and not spiral out, but also, after everything can never be certain.

I don't know what else to say but thank you for reading. You're the only people I know who truly get this.

C

*TW - loss of pregnancy*

Just got triggered and am struggling.

Head not clear to go into any comprehensible detail, but my quest for motherhood has been dealt yet another blow.

Long story short, after a long journey of survival to return to a good place... And then pursue my dream of motherhood... Well

My years of trauma began when I lost a baby. A suprise but much wanted and much loved baby that was never to be. After about 8 years of fighting for my survival I finally got to a place where I could pursue motherhood again on my own.

Too late, I am now infertile. Spent a lot of time and money on treatment which needed to be done to gain some sort of closure.

Best alternative is to pursue being a foster mum, and I was looking forward to that. There is a massive shortage of foster parents for children in need.

I have been knocked back because I have suffered too much trauma, and it is considered a huge risk to my mental health. I have been triggered by this and am utterly devastated.

I am too damaged. We've come full circle with the fight to get back to where I wanted to be, and because of that fight i'm now too damaged to do what I ultimately fought to live for.

That's my little emotional crutch now, and I have to sit with that latest blow.

Just lonely.

10 years of being alone. Still going backwards.

I just don't know.

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?

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.

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.

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

*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

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.

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.

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.

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.

*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?

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

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...

Anybody else find the word "hack" triggering?

Hi all,

I have been keeping myself exceptionally busy of late. Despite the rough patches, there have been some massive improvements compared to the last decade. In short, things are moving, the machine has got oil and the gears are working together lately.

So I wanted to check in with my friends here How are you all? Seen any good movies or exhibitions lately?

C

Okay, this is clearly more than just a difficult day. Thought it best to start a new thread.

Can't stop feeling the pain, and i'm starting to get sick from it.

Hello!

I have been receiving email updates of replies to topics I have participated in, for a few weeks now, and to my personal address. I have unchecked every sort of button in in my account settings, and in topic threads, yet I am still receiving these unwanted updates.

I'm worried that I will not receive wanted updates on topics within this forum now, yet continue to receive unwanted updates to my personal email. How can I stop this please?

Contessa

Apologies, I do not intend to gloat or seek any pats on the back for this. I just want to share that how far we can go with our recovery can actually be pretty darn good.

Today has an event occuring right now that should be triggering (well for me it would have), but it's not and I don't care. I have other things to think about that interest me more, and i've been working on those with great enthusiasm. Wow, pretty cool hey? No self soothing, mindfulness exercise, crying or anger. I just don't care.

   
(Housework being one of them)