Avoidance Symptoms

[wolfie205]

What does avoidance feel like? How do you know when you have avoidance symptoms? I feel like the thoughts aren't affecting me as much now and I don't know if it's because therapy is actually working or I'm just avoiding everything. I still get anxiety attacks every now and then, mostly mild ones. I still haven't identified my triggers so most of it feels random and unpredictable. I can actually cope with everyday stuff now. The anxiety has gotten better and though it hasn't gone away, I can actually cope with it. Its weird though, having to just freeze and sit through the anxiety. I don't even know what to do. How do you recognise your ptsd symptoms and how do you cope with it?

 

[EvenStrongerNow]

Some of my avoidance symptoms are googling to find something wrong with me instead of feeling feelings, forcing myself to think of other things when memories surface, avoiding reminders of the trauma (people, places, things), withdrawing or distancing from people, ...stuff like that.

I am in the process of recognizing my symptoms. Right now, the only way I cope is to continue most of them until I learn a healthier way of coping, which is why I'm planning to switch to CBT.

Just wanted you to know you're not alone. I know what it feels like to experience unpredictability in triggers.

 

[Leah123]

The way out of PTSD and avoidance is through: I think if you have not identified your triggers, you are not through avoidance yet, but are still avoiding a lot. I hardly know I'm avoiding my trauma, because that is the whole point. If anything, I perceive it as a rapid fire impulse to look away from something, turn something off, not think about something. When I stop avoiding, by listening to the songs that remind me, seeing the objects, visiting the places, and most noticably, talking directly about the issue to my therapist or elsewhere, I become extremely uncomfortable. Sometimes I can't eat or sleep. I feel incredibly anxious, crazy, upset, etc. It's quite a disturbing process, but a true relief as I work through each little bit of trauma and reclaim the many things I avoided because they might remind me of the trauma. I hardly realized how much I had given up, given away, in my quest to avoid thinking of the worst parts of it.

Best to you as you work to heal from your trauma and get through the avoidance, one of the hardest parts in my experience. I am glad you're already feeling some relief. Therapy has also been helpful for me, there is a lot of progress to be made, even without being all the way through avoiding things for sure!