Confused about isolation

[joeylittle]

Isolation isn't one of the requisite symptoms of ptsd, so yeah, you can have ptsd and not isolate. Sorry!

I am finding excuses or distractions so that I can be alone

This is an example of how isolation is the manifestation of avoidance, which is a requisite PTSD symptom, in the DSM 5 (I don't have the wherewithal to check the ICD at the moment). Though you are correct, @Ragdoll Circus, in that 'isolating oneself' is not a criteria unto itself.

A number of different symptoms can be expressed through isolation. It's hard sometimes to get at the root cause, the thing that is driving the sufferer to isolate.

 

[LuckiLee]

My guy comes home from work and goes straight to the backyard to fish for a few minutes or a couple of hours.

It's a form of therapy for him. I wouldn't call it isolation but more like meditation.

Whatever keeps the stress cup from overflowing! :)

 

[Someday-maybe]

I have to isolate multiple times during the day. I can barely stand it and will absolutely have effects if I don't. I am 'exquisitely triggered' per my therapist by my H (he is borderline personality/narcissist and I actually became disabled somatizing my Anxiety into pain for the last 20+ years w/PTSD, and a bunch of other stuff) so I have to get away from him. I am trying to work up the guts to tell him I need him to move into the other bedroom 'for awhile' to get away from him and the pressure/hypervigilence I feel around him. Sleep sucks and I am on a journey trying to fix all this crap as much as I can but it is hard to put yourself first for the first times of your life. Isolation to me is like taking your shoes off at the end of a hot day - ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh. If someone felt the need for isolation, I would hope those around them would cooperate and help the person. It's not like we want this. (Asking this about the bedrooms would be a terrible request except for a long history I won't go into. I actually have every right in the world to ask.)

Isolation must mean and be many things to different people then - a way to alleviate what we live with, peace, escape, healing, or like some members here...a bad sign for them. Isolation is the only time I am at peace (ish :).