Recent content by laurelheorot

Ahhh the old literate twin...I have one of them! Often, I'll look at journal entries and go "hmm...that appears to be my handwriting...I did that? Don't believe you. Go away. Someone obviously hijacked my body because I couldn't even identify what a tree was on that day." I agree, it is...

Oh, wow @shimmerz. That is really enlightening and makes a lot of sense - thank you! I look forward to learning the language so I can understand the song!

Yes, this happens to me all the time. I find that it becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling prophecy: writing or reading can be the most helpful tools for me to overcome my symptoms, but often literacy is the first thing to go when I am under increased stress. It's so frustrating! If it makes you...

Yes, this is exactly it! It's as though I feel like I can't see very far ahead. I'm quite good at dealing moment-to-moment, but when I try and think of what emotions lay more broadly or persistently under the surface, things get quite foggy. It's as though my brain starts shutting down and says...

One of my supporters (my aunty) and I developed a system early on in my PTSD where instead of me verbalising what's going on, I just give her my Subjective Units of Distress (SUDS) number. We then have "action plans" for certain SUDS levels. For example, if my SUDS gets above 80, I go to her...

This happens to me, too! The world literally looks duller, like someone has put a strange grey-ish tint over all the colours. I agree with this too. I have a list of "happy things" on my wall and in my wallet that I pull out when I feel especially depressed, so that I don't have to spend...

I hadn't seen body memories like that before. But you're right - like other trauma responses, they tell us something. Thanks for getting me to think differently about that! I get them daily, and I hate them. I feel like things are in my mouth and often can't eat because of it, feel like there...

My relationship with therapy is a long and complicated one... When my parents divorced all of us kids (four of us, I am the oldest) were thrown into family/child psychologist's office, and made to do things like draw pictures and play with puzzles so the T could analyse our behaviour, rather...

I am so glad that you managed to talk to your T about your flashback. And also, as others have mentioned, that you have an extra level of support around you. Go you! I hope you are really proud of yourself and have found some time for things you enjoy :)

It sounds like you are doing a great job and making some great progress; I hope you have taken a few moments to congratulate yourself about it. Congratulations :) Since you are able to write things down, and from what you say it seems like it's a way you process some things, perhaps you could...

I don't know how helpful this is, but when I was faced with the challenge of "do I tell work I have PTSD?", I opted to tell them I had serious depression. As a 'diagnosis', Depression seems to me to be far more socially accepted than PTSD, which meant that I could take a few days off work here...

My triggers are often so 'of the moment' that it takes me days/weeks/months after an "indicent" (full-body hallucination, serious flashback, panic attack in public) to work out what triggered me. It can be anything from a single word or seeing something I regard as phallic (a banana, an...

Hello. I'm new here, too - so, welcome to us! I'm glad you found your way here - you are not alone. I'm sorry that you have had a less-than-wonderful experience with therapy so far. Finding the right therapist can be a long, painful and incredibly frustrating process, but trust me when I say...