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Deleted member 47099
I've had 2 "little t" traumatic incidents that happened 4 years ago and 6 months ago really mess with my PTSD again and am currently in maximum possible avoidance mode.
I need to start doing exposure therapy again. Cos just trying to "force" myself to keep doing daily tasks is absolutely not working. I put off tasks for as long as humanly possible, then rush through them feeling miserable and then go back to avoiding everything asap.
So given that forcing myself isn't working, I need to do the therapeutic bit of exposure therapy.
I did exposure therapy with a T once, right at the beginning of my therapy journey. I wasn't diagnosed with PTSD yet, he wasn't a trauma T and I was told to "just try" exposure therapy.
It was an unmitigated disaster and I was acutely suicidal by the end of it. The therapist didn't realise that with PTSD you can just expose yourself to situations you find painful or traumatic and just dissociate completely, and experience zero "exposure effect" in terms of lowering stress levels over time. Those rules that you can only feel panic for so and so many minutes and then it starts abating... Those rules were made for normal people who don't have dissociative super-powers honed by years of childhood trauma.
At the time, I ended up walking away from it with the opinion that "exposure therapy is a nightmare and doesn't work". But years later, I realised what had happened and that exposure therapy for PTSD needs to be approached differently, with dissociation in mind.
I'll talk to my T about this when I see him next (in about 4 weeks) but I need to start doing some DIY practical exposure therapy at home re simple crap like "doing the dishes" and "not hiding in bed half the day".
I'm going to do a quick refresher course on exposure therapy and read up on the essentials to make sure I'm not approaching it wrong...
I'd be interested to hear people's advice/ tips re how to make exposure therapy work with PTSD tho. Any advice on how to get best results and avoid common pitfalls?
Thanks!
I need to start doing exposure therapy again. Cos just trying to "force" myself to keep doing daily tasks is absolutely not working. I put off tasks for as long as humanly possible, then rush through them feeling miserable and then go back to avoiding everything asap.
So given that forcing myself isn't working, I need to do the therapeutic bit of exposure therapy.
I did exposure therapy with a T once, right at the beginning of my therapy journey. I wasn't diagnosed with PTSD yet, he wasn't a trauma T and I was told to "just try" exposure therapy.
It was an unmitigated disaster and I was acutely suicidal by the end of it. The therapist didn't realise that with PTSD you can just expose yourself to situations you find painful or traumatic and just dissociate completely, and experience zero "exposure effect" in terms of lowering stress levels over time. Those rules that you can only feel panic for so and so many minutes and then it starts abating... Those rules were made for normal people who don't have dissociative super-powers honed by years of childhood trauma.
At the time, I ended up walking away from it with the opinion that "exposure therapy is a nightmare and doesn't work". But years later, I realised what had happened and that exposure therapy for PTSD needs to be approached differently, with dissociation in mind.
I'll talk to my T about this when I see him next (in about 4 weeks) but I need to start doing some DIY practical exposure therapy at home re simple crap like "doing the dishes" and "not hiding in bed half the day".
I'm going to do a quick refresher course on exposure therapy and read up on the essentials to make sure I'm not approaching it wrong...
I'd be interested to hear people's advice/ tips re how to make exposure therapy work with PTSD tho. Any advice on how to get best results and avoid common pitfalls?
Thanks!