[JamesG]

Hi all.

I developed C-PTSD after 6 years dealing with an ill parent, sefending myself and her from a NPD brother while I did it and an alcoholic partner. Oh and a lot of work, huge steaming piles of self employment. It was a very sustained period of stress that only lifted when my mother died and I left my partner. Inheritance battles (predictably) have kept the thing ongoing since mum died 18 months ago and it's been a huge period of upheaval, which is fine untul now, when the symptoms of C-PTSD seem to be hellbent on derailing my future. My head is just so bruised that I am finding concentration next to impossible and work takes twice the effort just to hold the line. I'm in a new and wonderful relationship and my career as a writer is poised to go up a gear and yet my head is a total wipe out. Someone tell me this can be beaten. I'm exhausted and frankly, a bit frightened it is going to stay. The numbness was a survival tactic but it just has to stop or itv will ruin my life.Tactics, I need tactics. I was on prozac but coming down off that has been a nightmare. I want non medicinal ideas. What has worked for you folks?

[Three Roses]

First of all, welcome to the forum! If this is your real name, I'd suggest changing it - this can be done by going into your profile and changing what name is displayed to others when you post.

Yes, this most certainly can be beaten! Since the damage has been done to us, it can be undone by us.

Some of us have benefited tremendously from having an effective therapist. Medication is also an option, although it doesn't fix anything but at least can be helpful while we are trying to find solutions that work for us.

Take a look at the book section we have (http://outofthefog.net/C-PTSD/Books.html). Two that I've read and found very helpful are "The Body Keeps The Score", and Pete Walker's "CPTSD: From Surviving To Thriving". Walker also has a website with a lot of helpful info (http://pete-walker.com). Both books are full of information about how to combat the most bothersome symptoms of CPTSD.

Some holistic approaches are yoga, acupressure, and meditation. These are just a few that some of us have found helpful; I'm sure others will comment on what they've found to be most beneficial.

There is also a channel on YouTube by Richard Gannon, who also goes by "The Spartan Life Coach". His videos vary in length and are always helpful, amusing, and full of really great insight and validation.

Check back with us and let us know how you're doing! We really do care about each other here.

[JamesG]

hi. It's not my real name. One symptom of dealing with a malicious narcissist is that you soon learn to give very little away on social media, which of course, also renders it pretty much pointless. So It goes.

I find this stage in many ways the most difficult, in part because I can kind of taste life without all this garbage and yet the frustration from how I am holding myself back is mindboggling. I feel quite resolved on the realities of the narcissists I have been dealing with, I suspect it's pushing out and trusting new people that is now the challenge. I weathered some pretty extreme behaviour over a prolonged period and was outnumbered by 4 to one most of the time (my four horsemen!) I've always felt that the saddest victim of narcissism is sentimentality, they make you eject it like a lizard discarding its tail. Getting that lightheartedness back into your life is the challenge. Had it been a short sharp event I'd have been fine I think, but it's so attritional isn't it? So many of us are strong, but too strong and far too able to endure things beyond the endurable.

Big hello and love to you all on this board who have experienced the same or worse. C-PTSD is a very private, grinding thing to endure. But once beaten, it gives huge strength and understanding I think. I see that very much as being the case for a writer like myself. I write comedy tho, and am not that keen on visiting this stuff as material just yet, despite the fact that narcissists can be hugely funny given the distance. I'd recommend 2 - 3 hundred miles. For now it's a dark old story and I am hungry for normality and progression.

Meanwhile.. has anyone ever heard this? Spot on.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UIzkN64NGg