Comments on: The Difficult Road to Intimacy: Living with Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/04/26/the-difficult-road-to-intimacy-living-with-complex-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/ The Foundation for Post-Traumatic Healing and Complex Trauma Research Mon, 09 Feb 2026 12:02:15 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Nancy Doran https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/04/26/the-difficult-road-to-intimacy-living-with-complex-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/#comment-49166 Mon, 09 Feb 2026 12:02:15 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=2013#comment-49166 I’m very grateful for this insightful and helpful article. It’s spot on. Thank you!

]]> By: Kristy Burton https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/04/26/the-difficult-road-to-intimacy-living-with-complex-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/#comment-43610 Fri, 24 Oct 2025 14:25:02 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=2013#comment-43610 In reply to A.b.

Thank you for this well written and insightful information.

]]> By: Rita Newell https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/04/26/the-difficult-road-to-intimacy-living-with-complex-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/#comment-42616 Thu, 02 Oct 2025 20:28:24 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=2013#comment-42616 In reply to Carmen.

Carmen, I am 70 as well. I was sexually abused by my father for years, and mentally, emotionally, spiritually, and physically abused by my mother, with the abuse from my mother starting in infancy. We are not too old to get our true identity back and to become who we were meant to be. They do not have the right to define us for the rest of our lives by what they did to us.

]]> By: Rita Newell https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/04/26/the-difficult-road-to-intimacy-living-with-complex-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/#comment-42615 Thu, 02 Oct 2025 20:21:38 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=2013#comment-42615 In reply to Sigmond Freud.

I found this piece highly informative and realized for the 1st time that I’m dealing with CPTSD, and not PTSD, as I endured years of abuse in many forms from infancy until the age of 15. I started running away at age 10 and they kept taking me back to my abusers. And then we would move. And then they would start again. I’ve had lots of healing but still have serious trust issues and am hypervigilant when riding as a passenger with any male drivers. It’s exhausting! I’m 70 years old and still trying to resolve these issues. Reading your article gave me new strategies for tackling my symptoms. Could you please email me this article or send me a link to my email address? I’ve tried saving it multiple ways but it just keeps saving the webpage. I need the article for my husband. It will help both of us. As he drove me into work this morning, I spent most of the 25 minutes in a panic though he has not gotten us in an accident in 45 years of marriage. Again, please email me article or link.

]]> By: Carmen https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/04/26/the-difficult-road-to-intimacy-living-with-complex-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/#comment-34093 Mon, 19 May 2025 00:31:18 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=2013#comment-34093 This has been very triggering for me and I am here to learn as much as I can. I am a 70 year old survivor w childhood CPtsd with disassociation. Years Sexually assaulted by my mother’s boyfriend, mentally and physically abused by her. I am barely scratching the surface of my traumas. Thanks for this article. Keep as is.
CLR

]]> By: Chris https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/04/26/the-difficult-road-to-intimacy-living-with-complex-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/#comment-29313 Mon, 11 Nov 2024 12:59:29 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=2013#comment-29313 For me it’s like iron armor, a wall between me and the human world. No one can get in and I cannot get out. I lived like this for 54 years. My marriage is a contract much like a financial one, there is no love, no intimacy, no trust and my partner seems fine with it. We never talk about intimate things, or feeling and thoughts, I cannot take emotions, they make me turn cruel beyond measure, I dont want to hurt, so I stay silent. The only good thing in my life is my child, I managed to cut the cycle of abuse and gave him all the love, respect, closeness, warmth and recognition I never had. He is healthy, both physically and mentally , he has a healthy relationship with a lovely healthy girl. For me, I guess there is no hope once you spend 54 years living in a parallel world you cannot return. So I just stay where I am, I’m used to it, I stay silent, I don’t hurt those close to me (son and partner) the rest are free to play with and destroy, that’s how I keep my inner sadist in check.

]]> By: Lizet https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/04/26/the-difficult-road-to-intimacy-living-with-complex-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/#comment-27141 Mon, 19 Aug 2024 20:44:36 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=2013#comment-27141 I am more the ‘shut-down’ type. But it feels like there’s always someone on your radar, picking you out. Come across those rescuers to emotional abuse you again to gaslit you, not accept your dreams and goals, crosses boundaries. And because of overlapping with narcissistic abuse, your nervous system is triggered in that same PTSD again, i shut down, until i no longer can take the beat and do ‘reactive abuse aka self defense.

Although i known the sign, it is always a hard line and wound deep inside you.

]]> By: David https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/04/26/the-difficult-road-to-intimacy-living-with-complex-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/#comment-25074 Tue, 16 Apr 2024 22:34:15 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=2013#comment-25074 In reply to Chloe Sharratt.

This is a very accurate read. Thank you so much from the bottom of my heart. Anyone with CPTSD and is still struggling please research these three therapy methods . TRTP, EMDR and TMS. Amazing methods that have made me feel like I am now over the worst my symptoms. 41 years old and finally feeling better. Good luck

]]> By: Tina https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/04/26/the-difficult-road-to-intimacy-living-with-complex-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/#comment-20819 Wed, 27 Sep 2023 13:04:39 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=2013#comment-20819 Although highly triggering it making me incredibly sad for my future. I learned more in this one article that I have known my whole life which is now 60. The last few years have been a nonstop cycle of triggers for both PTSD, and C- PTSD. Which came first the chicken or the egg? I seem to have gotten worse instead of better which is lead to losing family, friends, long-term isolation and violent marriage… Yes, a narcissist, alcoholic gambler drugs in the past, chronic lying cheating… And no self-worth to pick myself up And start a life somewhere else beings I have no income . At my age and the cost of living and rent… There’s nothing out there that would pay me to survive on my own… However, in spite of the doom and gloom… The article was incredibly insightful for some thing I’ve never been able to put a finger on, I have been told over and over that I do not heart of love… Now I know it’s true.

]]> By: Dave Somerton https://cptsdfoundation.org/2019/04/26/the-difficult-road-to-intimacy-living-with-complex-post-traumatic-stress-disorder/#comment-20284 Fri, 08 Sep 2023 09:33:10 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=2013#comment-20284 In reply to Sigmond Freud.

While I’m aware this is an old article, I chose to leave a comment as I am very surprised by the use of the wordings –
“choosing not to get involved in an intimate partner relationship.”
And “to choose to live in terror of forming intimate relationships,” – as a survivor of C-PTSD, I can guarantee you there is no feeling of choice in the matter, because of the intensely confusing and paralysing fear and anxiety experienced even when in a loving, intimate relationship and to label it as such is intensely shaming and invalidating for someone beginning to understand the impact C-PTSD has on their life.

Furthermore, the labelling of survivors as ‘unfortunate people,’ gives an air of belittlement and is not what I would hope to read on a website dedicated to supporting survivors of C-PTSD.

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