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How to tell someone new you have CPTSD?

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How do you tell someone new you have CPTSD for 23 years?
I don't want to have to go into why I have it.

It makes me sad someone else did this to me and its a burden I carry, a secret I have to hide.
But if you can't accept my PTSD you will never be close to me.

So what choice do I have but to take a chance you won't reject me.
I don't want to be alone forever.

How have you dealt with it?
 
Pretty badly I reckon ;)

I've tended to want to be open n up front about it after having kept it secret for decades. But I appear to have frightened everyone away so yeah.

I think if you can say it in as normal and conversational a tone as you would something like. Being left handed then prolly people will have no problem with it at all?

Have you tried telling new people?
 
It really depends on many factors. Who? What is your expectation after you share?
IMHO, you may need to become comfortable you have this and then pick and choose discriminately and boundried.
When you share this type of information, then you will invite others to be asking about it. Trust and safety must be there with the person
 
Thank you.
I think I mean in an online dating sense.
I don't really want to go on a first date then have to tell them.
I would rather be rejected before like this is me if you don't like it that's ok, NEXT!

Also in REAL life when a male friend is becoming a little bit more special.
I don't want to ruin it before it's even started.
But I can't hide the symptoms of CPTSD.
I'm gonna scream if someone walks up behind me and I haven't seen them.
I can't go to fireworks or things like that as I would be jumping every second.
It impacts your life in every way.
 
I think it's ok to tell someone you have cPTSD even before you date them. I think it's in the way you tell them. I would not go into much detail. I'd just say something like "By the way, I have cPTSD, and it causes me issues sometimes." That's all. I wouldn't say why you have it or what issues it causes you until you get a little closer.

If the person decides not to date you because of it, good riddance anyway.

Just my two cents. YMMV.
 
Do you typically expect to get information about their personal medical issues straight up? Me personally I reserve that sort of stuff till I've figured out if they're worth disclosing information that personal.

With people I have disclosed to, I tell them I have ptsd. Complex ptsd is just one sub-type of ptsd, but it's sharing a level of information that most people wouldn't know what to do with.

Think it would be a very individual thing.
 
I just told my bf about my cptsd just a week ago! We've been dating for 11 months. I wasn't exactly trying to hide it. He and I have both shared our childhood stuff and he has known that some pretty crappy things went down. But he was asking me how I handle stress (he gets headaches and I never do, so he asked me how my stress manifests). So I told him my relationship to stress was complicated because of my ptsd. He joked that would he find me standing over him with a knife? But when he saw that I was feeling hesitant, he told me that I couldn't scare him off, and he just asked a few questions about it. It felt risky, but I've built a lot of trust up for this man for a while, so maybe not so risky. And boy, does it feel good to reveal aspects of yourself and be embraced. It helps to build love and trust.

My last bf had cptsd and told me so within a few months of knowing him. And I was totally cool with it obviously because I understood it. But as it turns out, he wasn't interested in therapy, so it just didn't work in the end.

I think the label sounds somewhat dramatic though, so I might wait to reveal that label until the romantic partner got to know me better. But so many do have bad childhoods that I think they'll get it.
 
IDK. If we were intimate I suppose. Even then, only if were in my own best interests because in my opinion, until and unless you start talking about getting married? It's just for fun.

If it's serious? Then it's serious and I'd start thinking about it.
 
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