Anyone have signs of recovery?

[Lex Icon]

I have had 2 excellent psychologists that helped me. It's important to find someone other than those close to you to talk to. One was very good at helping me identify what was happening - e.g. being super alert, wanting to save or please people. Recognizing these things helped to build better relationships with my work colleagues and my friends. I have conversations in my head - oh, you just want to please because something has frightened you. Then I say - you're okay, you're safe, you can say what you need to.

 

[TruthSeeker]

I have had 2 excellent psychologists that helped me. It's important to find someone other than those close to you to talk to. One was very good at helping me identify what was happening - e.g. being super alert, wanting to save or please people. Recognizing these things helped to build better relationships with my work colleagues and my friends. I have conversations in my head - oh, you just want to please because something has frightened you. Then I say - you're okay, you're safe, you can say what you need to.

I do that too, the head conversation thing......when something goes well, a part of me says, "Good job!," the part cheering me on....is kinda weird-but it is very reinforcing and makes me feel good.....

 

[HannahD]

For me’self...

- getting hypervig back to vigilance... yes, it means being much more situationally award than most people, but it also means there’s a whole amazing world to really revel in down to my fingertips / and a point in surrounding myself with things I want to be paying attention to.

- using a sudden spike of adrenaline in something fun or useful, before it spins up into fear/rage

- putting insomnia to use / having a fuller life, rather than a miserable sleep deprived one of laying down doing nothing trying to sleep / fighting sleep / trying to sleep / fighting sleep. How many people want just a few more hours in a day? Well I’ve GOT that! :sneaky: 7 hours might be my best sleep, but if I’ve got 3 hours to kill before I’ll be able to sleep this fall, because it’s going to be a struggle to get even 4 hours? An hour at the gym, an hour pampering myself in hot baths & styled hair, an hour reading about fascinating topics with a cup of tea or chatting up friends in different time zones? = Insomnia jags are things to look forward to, rather than to dread.

- exquisite stress management = a fun, varied, full life; healthy, balanced, secure, & secured (by safety nets to catch me as I start to dip). Full of passion & purpose.

Having a really badass life, I’ve come to learn, is less about being a symptomatic, than responding to & managing symptoms before they can fully express. Maybe the best example I can thing of is being in the ocean? Either floating over or duck diving under a wave so the raw power of it just passes me by as I continue onto where I’m heading, or catching a wave and riding it... instead of being knocked down by the wave, tumbled ass over teakettle, drug bleeding across the coral, and half drowned.

Regarding insomnia or non-restorative sleep, I have treatment resistant bipolar+C-PTSD. Without 5 or 6 hours of sleep, every night, I'm not functional and I don't function all that well, anyway. When I have two or three bad nights, I become unstable and frighteningly close to the edge. I can't re-frame my sleep deprivation into something positive. Every psychiatrist I've seen, including my current doctor, keeps trying to find something that will give me fairly consistent sleep.

 

[Digz]

I find 'healed' and 'recovery' interesting terms. Actually, I think part of my real recovery was coming to the realisation that I would never be totally 'healed' or completely 'recover'. I used to think when I first started therapy many moons ago that if I just worked really hard, eventually I'd be cured. It took me a couple of years to realise this wasn't the case, it wasn't about cure but lessening the effects, developing better coping skills and reframing ingrained thought patterns. I had the emergence of memories of a second trauma about two years into dealing with the first lot and although not as horrific as the first, I definitely sprang back a lot faster. I think having laid that ground work around thoughts, skills and awareness leads to better coping. After about 8 to 9 years of therapy, off and on in the last years, I no longer see one as I am healed to the point where I think I'm going to get (my dissociation does interfere with some of therapy). I experience triggers most days but some have small impact and then there are normally a few times during the year where it hits harder and I need all my strategies. Sometimes I will have to have a day off work to reset, sometimes I use medication to reset the stress quicker... but the impact is far far less than it once was. And independently I continue to do what I've learnt, slowly chipping away at poor thinking patterns or avoidances.
So I guess, my perspective is to keep working at it slowly and celebrate how far you've come but don't aim for the ultimate 'recovered' because it could be like looking for a unicorn. I think perhaps what 'recovered' looks like is different for different people.

 

[TruthSeeker]

Regarding insomnia or non-restorative sleep, I have treatment resistant bipolar+C-PTSD. Without 5 or 6 hours of sleep, every night, I'm not functional and I don't function all that well, anyway. When I have two or three bad nights, I become unstable and frighteningly close to the edge. I can't re-frame my sleep deprivation into something positive. Every psychiatrist I've seen, including my current doctor, keeps trying to find something that will give me fairly consistent sleep.

I find 'healed' and 'recovery' interesting terms. Actually, I think part of my real recovery was coming to the realisation that I would never be totally 'healed' or completely 'recover'. I used to think when I first started therapy many moons ago that if I just worked really hard, eventually I'd be cured. It took me a couple of years to realise this wasn't the case, it wasn't about cure but lessening the effects, developing better coping skills and reframing ingrained thought patterns. I had the emergence of memories of a second trauma about two years into dealing with the first lot and although not as horrific as the first, I definitely sprang back a lot faster. I think having laid that ground work around thoughts, skills and awareness leads to better coping. After about 8 to 9 years of therapy, off and on in the last years, I no longer see one as I am healed to the point where I think I'm going to get (my dissociation does interfere with some of therapy). I experience triggers most days but some have small impact and then there are normally a few times during the year where it hits harder and I need all my strategies. Sometimes I will have to have a day off work to reset, sometimes I use medication to reset the stress quicker... but the impact is far far less than it once was. And independently I continue to do what I've learnt, slowly chipping away at poor thinking patterns or avoidances.
So I guess, my perspective is to keep working at it slowly and celebrate how far you've come but don't aim for the ultimate 'recovered' because it could be like looking for a unicorn. I think perhaps what 'recovered' looks like is different for different people.

Yeah, being healed-been there with that thinking......."fix me syndrome"....if I'm broken, time to get fixed. But since there was no baseline for what was normal, that was kinda ridiculous......so the journey thing.....everyone on Earth is on a journey...some more aware than others.....some thinking they need to improve in areas....other's thinking they are perfect but screwed up. So, since we are always changing, there is no endpoint...no A+ personality......no end to our personal metamorphosis.....but getting basic coping skills working well and living a kind contented life....a good goal.

 

[frogthroat]

It's taken about 2 years with a year and a half of it being in therapy. I think once you've gotten enough professional help to not obsess over trauma much of it is removing it from your identity and figuring out who you are. Recovery is definitely possible though but it's a process.
I don't hardly have flashbacks anymore but every once in awhile I get blasted by one out of nowhere. I just use the tools the therapist taught me now. Sometimes it takes a little while for symptoms to recede. I just went off Lexapro after being on it for 8 months and I've been fine.
You're still going to have bad days. I still have a ton of issues with intimacy. It's not perfect but I'm generally happy and know I'm in control of my life now.

 

[VioletButterfly]

Just a word of thanks to the OP for starting this thread and to everyone who responded. I've been in a valley, and your shared experiences have provided a bit of needed perspective and put the word "maybe" back into my thought vocabulary.