by Heidi Fischer | Apr 27, 2022 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Dissociation and CPTSD, Guest Contributor, Mindfulness, Self Care, Symptoms of CPTSD, Trauma
I have lived most of my life thinking that deep breathing (and all its cousins) were something people had, collectively agreed to B.S. about. Not because they were being malicious, but due to some sort of worldwide agreed-upon fiction. Matching your breath to...
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 | Mar 10, 2022 | Abandonment and CPTSD, Anxiety, Attachment Trauma, Building Resilience in Healing, Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Emotional Wellness
I stood in the hallway and stared at the black and white tiled floors. On the other side of the emergency room doors, my mother’s screeches were louder than the PA system. “Let me go! I don’t want to be here. It’s their fault!” Screaming at the top of her...
by Erin R. Burke | Feb 1, 2022 | Complex PTSD Healing, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Feeling Good Enough, Guest Contributor, Hope, Post Traumatic Growth
At 66, when I look back over my early life, I see the typical manifestations of trauma. I began to “forget” the abuse—dissociate—well before the age of 5. I experienced my first depression at 12. By 14 I had developed an eating disorder, alternating...
by Benjamin Holthaus | Dec 22, 2021 | Attachment Trauma, CPTSD Research, CPTSD Survivor Stories
Almost a year ago, I was invited to guest write in this forum, after releasing my book. For almost a year I have had this page bookmarked. I’ve seen it every day, but the intense fear of ridicule, judgment, and frankly feeling of irrelevance has stopped me from...
by Susan Morris | Nov 24, 2021 | Abandonment and CPTSD, ACEs, Anxiety, CPTSD Survivor Stories, Holiday Stress, Hope, Self Care, Surviving the Holidays
If you’ve lived through a traumatic childhood or domestic violence situation, you may not know what it feels like to feel jolly. Some of us feel a sense of dread the closer it gets to the holidays as the holidays approach. The trauma triggers are different for...