by Kate K | Apr 21, 2022 | CPTSD, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Guest Contributor, Healing from Toxic Shame, Healing Self-Shame, Mindfulness, Self-Acceptance
A decade ago, I had a counselor refer to CPTSD as a “psychiatric injury” as opposed to a “mental illness”. Something about that delineation really helped me understand the reality of what was going on. It wasn’t “me” that was the problem, the problem was “what...
by Rebekah Brown | Apr 20, 2022 | Abandonment and CPTSD, ACEs, Attachment Trauma, Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD and Narcissistic Abuse, Depression, Guest Contributor, Trauma
My mother died this morning. I knew the time was near but didn’t quite believe it would actually happen. She had lived for so long and did so much damage—I had grown accustomed to her shadow. I thought she would live forever. Institutionalized for over twenty-five...
by Catherine | Apr 19, 2022 | Brain Chemistry, CPTSD, Guest Contributor
In this article, I am going to talk about the link between emotional abuse in childhood and cognitive deficits that last into adulthood. I will also talk a bit about how these deficits occur through changes in the brain that happen as a result of the abuse and their...
by Shirley Davis | Apr 18, 2022 | Childhood Sexual Abuse
Trigger Warning The following piece deals with incest and is not suitable for all readers. So far in this series on incest, we have covered how society looks at incest and how it is unacceptable, even in today’s society. We have also visited how incest is...
by Victoria Hardy | Apr 15, 2022 | CPTSD and Narcissistic Abuse
It’s been a tough week for me. I found out about my brother’s illness and the surgery to remove a kidney from a third party on social media, and then my favorite chicken, my pet, died. I was trying to write this article, but those events sure took my focus away....
by Dani Caaway | Apr 14, 2022 | CPTSD, Guest Contributor, Narcissistic Personality Disorder
Last January 2021, I was diagnosed with CPTSD–a month after I experienced my first CPTSD episode caused by my parents a week before Christmas. Since then, my life has never been the same. It did not occur to me that I had been living with the condition for 29...
by Shravani Bojja | Apr 13, 2022 | Attachment Trauma, Guest Contributor
Attachment Styles and How they Can Affect Our Adult Life All throughout my life till the time I was diagnosed with PTSD, I never realized that the emotions and feelings I associated myself with had a name. Looking and sifting through them as an adult with a...
by Elizabeth Bowman | Apr 12, 2022 | CPTSD and PTSD, Guest Contributor, Sexual Abuse
Healing after complex trauma is not linear. It is not a smooth path with clear milestones every so often to let you know you are making progress. Healing after complex trauma looks different for all of us. After over 16 years since my exploitation and drug addiction,...
by Shirley Davis | Apr 11, 2022 | Attachment Trauma, Childhood Sexual Abuse
Trigger Warning The following piece deals with incest and is not suitable for all readers. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Incest is a topic that most people would rather avoid....
by Robyn Brickel | Apr 7, 2022 | Anxiety, Complex PTSD Healing, COVID-19, CPTSD, CPTSD and OCD, Guest Contributor, Triggers
As we approach two long years of experiencing the global trauma of COVID, we are hoping things are winding down to allow for more manageable challenges. Yet many are experiencing symptoms familiar to those experienced by survivors of any long-term or chronic...
