Comments on: What I’ve Learned About Trauma Survivors in My Quest to Demystify CPTSD https://cptsdfoundation.org/2025/04/02/what-ive-learned-about-trauma-survivors-in-my-quest-to-demystify-cptsd/ The Foundation for Post-Traumatic Healing and Complex Trauma Research Thu, 12 Feb 2026 15:44:49 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Natalie Rose https://cptsdfoundation.org/2025/04/02/what-ive-learned-about-trauma-survivors-in-my-quest-to-demystify-cptsd/#comment-44180 Wed, 05 Nov 2025 16:52:40 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=987499975#comment-44180 In reply to Musa.

Hi Musa,

Thank you so much for taking the time to write a comment and express your heart for the person in your life who is struggling with Complex PTSD. I really admire your willingness to do this for her; I wish more people in my life had done the same for me and let go of their preconceived notions about what was truly going on with me. I wish you the best in your efforts to help her, and I hope that as I continue to share my story, it will provide you with a better understanding of CPTSD.

Sincerely,
Natalie

]]> By: Musa https://cptsdfoundation.org/2025/04/02/what-ive-learned-about-trauma-survivors-in-my-quest-to-demystify-cptsd/#comment-44070 Mon, 03 Nov 2025 14:10:47 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=987499975#comment-44070 Thank you for openly sharing yourself and your experience. I am just someone ordinary, but I have recently came to care enough about someone who is a cptsd survivor. I am just seeking to understand her situation better and self-educate. Reading what you wrote helps , though no two person’s experience is the same. Wish me luck.

]]> By: Natalie Rose https://cptsdfoundation.org/2025/04/02/what-ive-learned-about-trauma-survivors-in-my-quest-to-demystify-cptsd/#comment-33289 Mon, 14 Apr 2025 11:30:27 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=987499975#comment-33289 In reply to Kari.

Kari, I am truly sorry to hear about what you’ve experienced in your life and how these emotions still affect you, even decades later. I understand the feeling of presenting oneself to the world in an overextended, “happy-go-lucky” way. I, too, didn’t want to appear weak to others, but suppressing the pain only intensified my internal struggles. I am very proud of you for taking steps to overcome these challenges and for recognizing the progress you’ve made so far.

I also wish that resources like these had been available to you decades ago to avoid years of believing that you were sick or that there was something wrong with you. But I’m glad they are available to you now. You are working hard to overcome your struggles. Don’t give up because it is possible to get to the other side! I wish you peace, comfort, and joy as you continue to find the strength within yourself to heal.

]]> By: Kari https://cptsdfoundation.org/2025/04/02/what-ive-learned-about-trauma-survivors-in-my-quest-to-demystify-cptsd/#comment-33202 Tue, 08 Apr 2025 14:09:07 +0000 https://cptsdfoundation.org/?p=987499975#comment-33202 You are a stranger to me, yet your words impact me, especially “I believe you.” Nobody believed me. The one person I had in my life–until he was driven out by lies, deceit and manipulation (on my mother’s part)–stopped believing in me, which left me all alone with nobody to turn to, cry to, hear my pleas, or rescue me. I needed rescuing out of the extremely toxic, dangerous and life-depleting ‘family’ system.
I adopted a sanguine, devil-may-care, happy-go-lucky, “everything is awesome” attitude, which I now recognize as a trauma response. In reality, there was a part of me that was always crying, always in grief, always screaming in pain. I only began listening to and accepting those ‘exiled parts’ of myself recently (at ages 52-55). I told the Girl Who is Always Crying that it was okay, I will do the crying from now on; she no longer has to. It has made a huge difference; speaking to, accepting, loving and allowing those exiled parts of my personality to feel, to speak and to forgive.
Forgiving myself was a major healing point; I still carry the weight of pain for what happened to my precious dog (that I was forced into taking to the vet for euthanizing at the threat of being kicked out), but I have stopped hating myself. I stopped being on the edge of breaking into explosive rages at the slightest inconvenience. I do cry a lot more; which I hadn’t done in any real way for decades.
As therapy goes, I find too many counselors are focused on ‘cognitive’ theory – what I can do right now when I feel a certain way today…but we Survivors have to ‘go back to the past’ in order to heal when we have CPSTD. I’m so glad we have names for what I experienced back then – in the 70s and 80s, where it was just accepted that you had to beat your children into submission and if they ‘acted up’ it was because they were (I was) a spoiled, ungrateful brat. No, I was none of those things. I was trying to survive in an environment where my life was in danger daily.
One of the most healing phrases I’ve ever read: I wasn’t sick; I was injured. We weren’t sick. We were injured.

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