Newbie

[Back2Basics]

I'm 35 years old and since the age of 17 have spent 18 years in acute CPTSD symptoms. 

After misdiagnosis with MDD & GAD, I never really made any progress but since a kind therapist told me that I likely was suffering from CPTSD I have been able to make progress as now I have a starting point. One which I can build from.

"Know thyself and all else shall be revealed"

I hope to contribute and to learn.

Kind Regards

Back2Basics

[Tee]

  welcome back 2 basics!

[Snowdrop]

Hello, Back2Basics! Pleased to meet you. 

[Blueberry]

Welcome to the forum

[woodsgnome]

  Welcome in from the storm, Back2Basics.

Love your name -- this is all about recovering the basics to life's promise after wandering lost through so much of the misery we were plunged into. Hope you'll feel free to read, comment, reflect, and contribute to the wealth of material this site provides as you seek to find a way forward.

[Jazzy]

Welcome to the site Back2Basics! Its great that you're now able to make some progress on your healing journey. Feel free to look around and join in when you feel comfortable.

[Not Alone]

Welcome. 

[Scout]

Hey B2B! I'm new here, too. It already helps to have a place to say some of the stuff I can't tell anyone IRL. Congrats for taking the step.

[Kizzie]

Hi and a warm welcome to OOTS B2B 

[Back2Basics]

I was pleasantly surprised to see that members had responded. Thank you

I have found that youtube has some really good resources, especially in the way of audiobooks from seminal writers about CPTSD and also some informational lectures that help prime a sufferer on how modern frameworks for DTD and CPTSD show they are now considered very treatable conditions. Which is amazing for all sufferers.

This is in contrast to 1992 when my mother was diagnosed with severe CPTSD but back then it was understood as being untreatable. So she raised my brother and I, with her symptoms always at full effect.

I didn't realise these experiences were unconventional until I entered into the real world as an independent young adult. My gosh, what a rude awakening that was. Up until then I thought my childhood experiences were just normal. Now I realise that I had lived the first 21 years marinating in denial and dillusion whilst being shaped in the image of trauma.

I find it sad that it becomes a relay race, where parent passes to child a baton of sheer melancholy. Leaving child utterly unprepared for anything but a life of strained survival.

[Kizzie]

a life of strained survival

Such a perfect description of what life is like on a daily basis for so many of us sadly. Hopefully none of us will have to live like this for the whole of our lives as CPTSD becomes more widely recognized and better treatments are developed. Are you working with a therapist B2B?

[Back2Basics]

Has anybody tried the TRE therapy?

[Back2Basics]

a life of strained survival

Such a perfect description of what life is like on a daily basis for so many of us sadly. Hopefully none of us will have to live like this for the whole of our lives as CPTSD becomes more widely recognized and better treatments are developed. Are you working with a therapist B2B?

Hi Kizzie,

I am currently undergoing 12 EMDR sessions with 4 remaining.

So I am now on the lookout for a well experienced CPTSD specialist to continue my treatment long term. I would like them to have a collection of therapeutic tools so that they can use different approaches to help me. I have a feeling one size doesn't fit all with these sort of things.

[woodsgnome]

Hi Back2Basics. Just a brief observation based on my own experience with therapy.

For 20 years I was in and out with formal therapy, mainly due to a string of therapists who for one reason or another seemed either unfamiliar with or unwilling to take on the wider scope of issues that affect the cptsd survivor.

If these didn't neatly fit into their specialty, they were at a loss about what to do. Mostly they were as stuck in their one-size-fits-all mentality as I was mired in my own stuff.

It wasn't 'til about 3 years ago I ran across someone who turned out to actually practice what she preached; in that she doesn't view therapy as some grand cure that she magically delivers. Her view is that the client-therapist relationship is one where the T draws on their background in working with their clients. Skeptical at first, I soon found out she does exactly that, not always focused on one specific approach, but aiming at something that truly seems to be working.

So kudos  on intending to cast a wide net if you choose to move past the emdr sessions. The caveat seems to be that the well-versed trauma-informed therapist,, not given to just one approach, seem rarer than one might suspect.

[Kizzie]

So I am now on the lookout for a well experienced CPTSD specialist to continue my treatment long term. I would like them to have a collection of therapeutic tools so that they can use different approaches to help me. I have a feeling one size doesn't fit all with these sort of things.

I agree B2B, from all I have learned we do need multiple strategies so that the impact of the trauma on our bodies, minds and spirits is addressed.  I'd love to think that holistic approach will be the norm in the future 

t wasn't 'til about 3 years ago I ran across someone who turned out to actually practice what she preached; in that she doesn't view therapy as some grand cure that she magically delivers. Her view is that the client-therapist relationship is one where the T draws on their background in working with their clients. Skeptical at first, I soon found out she does exactly that, not always focused on one specific approach, but aiming at something that truly seems to be working.

I want T's like this for all of us