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Snowwhite, you are doing a brave and important thing going to therapy. It does seem like you and your therapist might want to slow down a little if the between-session time is so difficult. As Dr.Patti suggested, there are internal resources your therapist can help you build up that will make...

Way to go! Congratulations!

Thanks for your thoughts, everyone. There is nothing about him or his life in the TV pilot, please note. The situations in it are all made up, and the experience of going through EMDR is from my own experience. The purpose behind the pilot is to spread information about trauma, PTSD, and...

Supporter here. I've been in a relationship now for five years with a wonderful man who suffers from CPTSD from childhood abuse and from his combat experiences. He is an active alcoholic and although he is aware of EMDR and the possibility of therapy, he's not in a place where he wants to take...

In the past few days, my bf said some things he's never, ever said before. I am really happy about this. Last Thursday, during an exchange that was pretty typical (he was teasing me about me being "evil," which to him is a joke), he used the word THERAPY. He was saying what he'd need to handle...

Yes, you can!

Jemini, I am sorry you're having such a tough time. Some of us are lucky and have families who are supportive. It seems to me that that is far from a majority, though. Plenty of people have family members who harm us, to one degree or another. I hope there is room in your life for just a...

Hashi, thank you so much for sharing your experience. It sounds like it was a difficult road, but I hope that your experience will illuminate the path for others.

I hope it is at least a little bit reassuring to hear that, at least from where I sit, you are doing everything right. Yeah, things suck a lot. Give yourself a million points for being about to turn in your thesis. Give yourself another million for the self-care you are doing. Give yourself...

Jemini, how are you doing? Do you have resources at hand for learning about coping strategies?

That does sound like some trauma release to me. Yes, this is a healing process. Yes, animals do it. Humans do it, but sometimes we are uncomfortable with it and block it. You can read more about it in the books of Peter Levine. Waking the Tiger was his first book about this; In An Unspoken...

I am pretty goal and solution oriented (I'm a supporter). I like Francine Shapiro's latest book, Getting Past Your Past. She talks about coping techniques in some of the early chapters, and she also talks a lot about EMDR, which is a treatment used by many sufferers. Peter Levine's Healing...

Great job laying out your situation. If I were you, I would NOT even be friends with this guy, though. He did not respect your boundaries. It took way too much effort on your part for him to get close to getting a clue. He is pushy and wants to go way, way too fast. He has not picked up ANY...

That is very wise. I hate not being able to do things that I used to do without thinking twice about it.

In therapy, you should learn coping strategies for when you're in a rough spot. And if the therapy you're doing is EMDR, Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing, and you've got a good, experienced therapist who also helps with somatic stuff, then yes, it is possible to get to something...

Chiming in to say you did the right thing, and I really hope his therapist eventually called you back. If he was still experiencing that level of anger AFTER therapy was done, it didn't do all it should have.

When I experienced secondary trauma symptoms, I went straight to a therapist with an EMDR certification. CBT is helpful for some, but sometimes you can't just talk yourself out of having triggers. EMDR addresses the underlying trauma and the way trauma rewires the brain. You and your fellow...

Gee, sorry it's all about me. I am SO VERY VERY VERY TIRED of being blamed for things I did not do, and then having shitty consequences ensue, like you freaking out and ruining what started out to be really a rather nice day. f*ck you very much.

How do you ask for support? You ask. It's OK to ask for exactly what you need. There's a terrific blog called Captain Awkward that talks about this sort of thing a lot. You can ask a friend or loved one for a hug. You can say, I need to vent but I'm not looking for advice. You can say, I am...

Yeah, I know you were pretty depressed, but those few days last week that you were broken up with F, the Other Woman, I was more relaxed than I have been in months. Months. I spent six out of eight nights with you, being supportive while you were sad, and then you get into a snit Tuesday...

I've got a good relationship. It is possible. My spouse and I are both very smart people. (He's a scientist with a Ph.D.) We're also very independent. When we came together, we were already complete people who knew ourselves pretty well. We just really like each other, we find each other...

gizmo, I am so glad you are feeling happiness. And I am so glad that you reached this place in your healing path, through all the past crap and difficulties and challenges and setbacks. You deserve happiness.

A very happy anniversary to you, and here's to many beautiful years to come!

Turning off emotions is a self-protective measure. It's not automatically a bad thing and might be needed in the moment. Have you asked your therapist about this issue? If it were me, I might actually welcome some respite from the difficult emotions while I had to, for example, be with the...

I agree that depression may play a big role in her sense of helplessness. If she tended to end up with abusive boyfriends, she may have some negative stuff in her self-image that encourages that. I can also say based on my own brief experience with PTSD symptoms that it was very tough to...