by Rebekah Brown | Dec 11, 2024 | CPTSD, Guest Contributor, Holiday Stress, Holidays
~Stepping Out of the Hopelessness Wait a minute, weren’t Thanksgiving and Christmas just last week? Here they come again. Celebration doesn’t mix well with trauma. Everyone talks about the busyness of the season as a source of stress, but for survivors of childhood...
by Lee Frost | Dec 10, 2024 | ACEs, CPTSD, Guest Contributor
***TRIGGER WARNING: The following article discusses childhood trauma and could be triggering.*** I found the photo not long after being diagnosed with CPSTD. Little broken me looking into the camera with a depth of pain and sorrow that no child should have to bear....
by STAR Network | Dec 9, 2024 | CPTSD, TAR Network, Toxic Relationships, Trauma
One of the most painful tactics in covert narcissism is turning family members against you. This manipulative strategy, designed to isolate and control, often pulls loved ones into the narcissist’s web to unknowingly serve as “flying monkeys”—trusted people who,...
by Kechi Mourer | Dec 6, 2024 | CPTSD, Family Estrangement, Guest Contributor, Holidays
The holidays are an intense time of reflection for me. I used to have a big family—a big, loud, Hispanic family—we would gather for birthdays, holidays, and random Sunday dinners. My grandmother held the group together with love and community. Those days are long...
by Jennifer DiOrio | Dec 5, 2024 | CPTSD
The physical and emotional changes associated with perimenopause and menopause can be overwhelming. Struggles with falling or staying asleep, fatigue, brain fog, hot and cold flashes, mood swings, anxiety, and a loss of motivation are common [1, 2, 3]. Unfortunately,...
by Marta Luzim, MS | Dec 4, 2024 | CPTSD, Guest Contributor, Mental Health Professional, Trauma
As a survivor and forty-year practitioner of trauma recovery, I guide individuals through cathartic, intuitive writing, visual art, dreams, and embodied approaches to recover from trauma. Children are born primal and free You are meant to be innocent, organic, and...
by Jack Brody | Dec 3, 2024 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Dissociation and CPTSD, Guest Contributor
On my healing journey, I discover new things every day. When I learned I had Alexithymia, after the initial feeling of “great, another thing to contend with” because of my trauma, it actually helped me better understand what it was I was experiencing, how...
by Rebekah Brown | Dec 2, 2024 | ACEs, CPTSD, Domestic Violence, Family Disease, Guest Contributor, Sexual Abuse
***TRIGGER ALERT – The following article describes childhood trauma and could be triggering.*** I twirled around, causing the skirt of my best Sunday dress to flair out in a way that delighted my four-year-old sensibilities. It was 1966, and my black patent...
by Cyndi Bennett | Nov 29, 2024 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Occupational Mental Health & CPTSD
A Crucial Skill for Trauma Survivors in the Workplace Introduction Embarking on a career journey, especially as a trauma survivor, is a courageous adventure that demands resilience, strength, and a key understanding of emotional intelligence (EI). In this article, we...
by Jesse Donahue | Nov 28, 2024 | CPTSD, CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor
Living in the dis-worldBy Jesse Donahue 2019©Avow, to make known, to confess or admit. The most striking aspect of my life is the depth, the ever-lurking, unconscious presence of a sense of self that feels… disregarded and dissed from the realm of normality. I feel so...