News Helplessness And Ptsd

[shimmerz]

I found an article out there on the www that I thought I might share. I know that people struggle with helplessness sometimes in PTSD and I, personally, have a radical idea that helplessness has much to do with the freeze response. Nothing better than being helpless to keep us immobilized.

Anyway, this article talks about helplessness being a state that our original wounding may have been a very authentic feeling of. That it is a state to be worked through, a mirage, so to speak. I am wondering if any of you have thoughts on this.

I can relate to the article talking about be uber independent and then BAM - fall into super hopeless/helplessness. I despised myself during this stage and my self loathing actually froze me even moreso. The relevant info is a few paragraphs in for anyone who is interested.

http://www.afterpsychotherapy.com/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/

 

[Tanishq]

PTSD throws you into isolation first, so you lose the confidence of talking/socializing with people. That way you might suppress yourself and then feel helplessness.

I feel like this all the time, I don't know who to talk with.

 

[Hope4Now]

Thanks for sharing this, @shimmerz!

I, personally, have a radical idea that helplessness has much to do with the freeze response. Nothing better than being helpless to keep us immobilized.

I don't think this is radical at all. I think it's absolutely spot on. And I think it happens at the intersect of physical and emotional.

I can feel helpless at either level, often both. When I feel physically helpless, such as being stuck in an enclosed space like an elevator or something like that...I have a freeze response and I kind of dissociate to get through...the physical "helplessness" links to emotional "helplessness" (as in what the hell should I do to stop feeling this way???) and I respond by kind of going away...freezing. It makes no logical sense, it's not traumatic, but somehow it zings the neurological pathways that relate to being physically trapped and unable to meet my needs...so I learned to just "go away" and have no needs. Of course it's all more complicated than that, but that seems to be the crux of it. After the PTSD stuff came into my consciousness...I realize that the panicked responses I have to so many things are not actually about those things. They're psychophysical reactions to things from the past.

In this case, the infant finds its own [DLMURL="http://www.afterpsychotherapy.com/neediness"]neediness[/DLMURL] unbearable and develops defenses against the awareness of it. Instead of isolating one traumatic experience from normal mental processes as in post traumatic stress disorder, it segregates an entire aspect of its emotional experience — that of being needy and depending upon other people. Instead of displaying ptsd symptoms, it may develop a particular set of defenses that evolve into a character type.

Ah, yes. Makes complete sense to me. Me? An embodied self with needs? No way :wideeyed:. That's completely unacceptable. And having to depend on another person? :wideeyed::wideeyed::wideeyed::wideeyed:. A lot of my psychotherapy seems to be focused on this stuff :wtf::wtf::banghead::arghh;:yuck::confused:.

I can relate to the article talking about be uber independent and then BAM - fall into super hopeless/helplessness. I despised myself during this stage and my self loathing actually froze me even moreso.

Ugh. So sorry. I think I'm caught in the midst of this still.

Thanks for posting this!

 

[Friday]

It doesn't resonate with me... But maybe it's a different trauma thing. Shrug. Or personality thing.

 

[Tanishq]

personality thing.

how this could be possibility? Different trauma I understand, but not the later one. :confused: :sorry:

 

[Friday]

how this could be possibility? Different trauma I understand, but not the later one. :confused: :sorry:

You know how some people (usually) want a giant crushing hug? And others (usually) don't want to be touched? Or how some people want to be joked with, or rough handling... And others want validation, or gentle handling?

They're all equally "right". Just different personalities responding in different ways. What makes the feel good? Is different. Just because someone has had the same trauma as me, doesn't mean we have the same personality. We see things differently, or are hit differently, or respond differently.

My helplessness isn't tied to freezing. It's tied to anger, and impotence, and action. The last thing I do when I'm helpless is freeze. Similarly, I freeze in an entirely different set of circumstances. Is that because of the type of trauma? Personality? Both? I don't know.

 

[Tanishq]

@FridayJones Thanks for explanation, Thoroughly understood now.

Sounds trauma is tricky thing to understand. Your helplessness reminds me of complex trauma. I wish you, may you one day breakthrough this complication.

 

[shimmerz]

My helplessness isn't tied to freezing. It's tied to anger, and impotence, and action. The last thing I do when I'm helpless is freeze.

I think this speaks more to developmental trauma. A time when one could not fight or flee. I appreciate your bringing this up Friday. I think the later in development the trauma happens, the more likely to respond like you do.

 

[shimmerz]

Is that because of the type of trauma? Personality? Both?

I think the type of trauma affects the personality (especially in Complex where the personality has not yet formed). So yes, I think both. I think people without developmental trauma may have a difficult time understanding how people with the freeze response can fall into helplessness originally and that it is an authentic part of the freeze response.

Edited to add: Babies don't have the ability to fight or flight so it changes how they learn to react to things imho

 

[sun seeker]

I am wondering if any of you have thoughts on this.

Only an agreement: yup, this is where I am, in the shame of feeling frozen and helpless. The article described it better than I could have.

 

[Ronin]

Edited to add: Babies don't have the ability to fight or flight so it changes how they learn to react to things imho

I don't know about that. There's looks that can totally stare you to death, and there's looking down, and there's looking down for a stone one'd so have used, if only their body were (bigger / better aiming / not with that particular adult). Basically saying fight x flight is as much mental / emotional as it is physical, at times. Valid either way.

 

[Born to Run]

have a radical idea that helplessness has much to do with the freeze response. Nothing better than being helpless to keep us immobilized.

I think that helplessness and the freeze response are two different matters. Helplessness in trauma is often called learned helplessness, and it is a conditioned psychological response. The freeze response is a non-conditioned, but an automatic bodily response, when fight/flight are not an option. Freeze is part of our survival mechanism and helplessness is not. Freeze is actually a state with the intention to feel nothing, and is how I experience freeze. Helplessness is not so much a state, but rather a learned emotion, that could lead to similar feelings of immobilisation. Survival however, is not at stake. In the 'shut down' phase of helplessness there is still a feeling present, a feeling like whatever I do, I will not succeed, so I will stop doing anything and immobilise. However, it is not a real freeze response as the underlying process is entirely different.