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I Was Totally Honest Today

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intothelight

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I decided to jump of a cliff, per se, and be totally honest. No hiding, no pretending, no defense, just out there, being vulnerable. It started on this forum with being honest with myself. Today I was honest with my husband. Scary, but liberating. I need to keep doing this. There really is something to the statement "truth sets us free".
 
I'm glad you did it. I hope it went well. I know it can be really scary, but you've gotta try- right?
 
Good for you ITL. Guess what? I did the same Friday, last night and today. I took my T at her word Friday that I have been emotionally abusive to my husband and told him. We have had several very difficult conversations about our mutual abuse since then. I feel hope for our relationship for the first time in a very long while. I know my honesty was as liberating for my husband as it was for me. It feels so good to admit my part and not hide behind blaming him for everything. :)
 
Good for you Iam!!! It is so tough, but it is so good. My husband and I had an awesome conversation today. Left me a little rattled, but that is OK. I think I was mostly shocked by the fact that I let myself be vulnerable and did not get hurt. Always waiting for that other shoe to drop.

I am proud of you!
Debbie
 
I am verbally and emotionally abusive with my carer because of PTSD. I didn't think I would ever be like this. I have always been the door mat in the past. I now tell them in the middle of one of my wounded attacks that I know I'm doing it and I'm working hard in my therapy to stop. They just say that they understand and it's OK. But I want to be able to say what I mean and mean what I say some day. I want to be in the present and if I am angry in the present, state it with clarity and without being mean. I hope I can.
 
It's a good lead to follow, too, Deb. I keep doing this 'thing' of dropping what feels like little tidbits about myself to my husband-stuff I personally feel is SO awful he'll just stagger under the knowledge and be too obligated by sheer niceness to let me know how awful it is. Because I suck so what if he leaves- at least emotionally.I know he's too nice to leave with a suitcase. Fear/guilt/shame. I've never been able to figure out why he can't see all this anyway-almost think it's lucky he hasn't. In the real world where everyone else lives there probably isn't much of anything but try telling that to the mirror. Liberating. Oh Lord I need to get out of jail, here.

Like I said, it's a good lead to follow.
 
Anni,

Honesty is just plain tough, and the fear of rejection is so hard to overcome. When you feel "unlovable" at the very core, it is so hard to explain to someone. Its like having a part of you that is dammed up. Love flows outward, put it cannot flow inward. The dam creates a big pool that lays just out of reach. But it is just that love that needs to flow back in and cover these old wounds.

So much of this PTSD is the fear/guilt/shame/lack of self worth and the behaviors and emotions associated with them. I think this is what my T has been trying to tell me. I need to deal with these issues and resolve them before we can even address the traumas. To effectively address and resolve trauma issues I have to feel "safe", and that means in my own skin. If one cannot own they are of value, then re-hashing what has been done will only reinforce the emotional baggage, and not clear it out.

Lack of words to describe it, but hopefully the meaning comes across. This will continue, here, with my husband, with my T and those that are important in my life. But mostly, the honesty will be with myself. That image in the mirror has to change!
 
Well that brought me to tears for the morning, it was so incredibly, absolutely EXACT and awakened the hope- a spark, that this is possible. Gosh I feel his love towards me, which is absolute and unwavering and do not, NOT feel it to be at all deserved. As in at all, Debbie. I do not meet my own eyes in the mirror. Oh, will look there, to make sure I'm in order so I'll fly under the radar when leaving the house ( although how I think I'm unobtrusive carrying that dam crop everywhere needs to be explained ). In point of fact will make sure i look better than good, since 'looks' to me are a tool I use so others have nothing (else) to dislike me for, as convoluted as that sounds. Compliments become deflected, not out of false humility, pooh-poohing them like 'Gosh guys, tell me more', but out of being horrified by them. TK was funny. She said something terribly kind about me, I tried to turn it around and deflect it and she just sort of stood her ground, the good, no-nonsense, kind person she is. She's also very, very bright and sees through things with great astuteness. Only a good, good friend would do that, as you have and Iams made a big point of doing.

It's a tough, tough thing, this self-worth. I used to think avoidance was the biggest hurdle but you're correct. Nothing is going to budge until one can meet one's eyes in the mirror in genuine recognition and acceptance, at least. It's probably why I can't budge the avoidance crap. I do not hold on to it out of some wierd hypochondria, either- it's being possesed of a core which isn't one. Knowing this intellectually yes, is now my responsibility to do something about. How. I do not know. I can't get to the T through not being able to drive at the moment but not being quite an idiot think there's a certain amount of work I should be able to accomplish myself. Honesty-nakedness is an awfully, awfully good place to start.

Thanks Debbie. As in for Real.
 
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Honesty-nakedness is an awfully, awfully good place to start.

GAH ANNI! That is EXACTLY what I was thinking this morning as I lie in bed. I feel TOTALLY naked. As if every belief I had has been stripped from me. What I thought was "good" in me isn't, supposedly it is just a deflection. What I thought was "bad" in me isn't either, it is a lie. My compassion for people is just compulsion, not true empathy. Up is down and down is up and everything I thought I was is turned inside out. I hope this makes some sense as I don't know how else to put it. I was thinking that this state of nakedness is actually good and that it has taken a looong time to get here.

I know that I do truly love people. People of all ages, races, socio-ecnomic standing and educational background. It doesn't matter to me. I remembered that I used to have a belief that all people have an intristic value. I think that I must have believed it of myself too. I believed that we all want to be loved and accepted for who we are and that there is good in everyone if we just look deep enough (in some people it's just buried so deep you need a backhoe to get to it.)

So, being stripped of all preconceived ideas of others and oneself is a starting point. A place where we can start to rebuild ourselves, our values and yes our self esteem.

It's funny my parents were dichonomous in what they taught me. On the one hand they instilled in me that I was a good person who made mistakes. On the other hand they instilled the belief that I was worthless and stupid. So I am divided, part of me believes one and another part believes the other. How can this be?

Therapy has MADE me delve into the negative beliefs and because of this that part of me seemed to have taken over. Can I now shed that illicit image of myself just by virtue of having acknowledge that it is there?

After all we were naked when we were born and got clothed with all sorts of stuff, good and bad. Now that I am (and you say you are) stripped of all supposition and naked again, maybe we can rebuild oursleves into what God wants us to be?
 
Anni,
So much of this PTSD is the fear/guilt/shame/lack of self worth and the behaviors and emotions associated with them. I think this is what my T has been trying to tell me. I need to deal with these issues and resolve them before we can even address the traumas. To effectively address and resolve trauma issues I have to feel "safe", and that means in my own skin. If one cannot own they are of value, then re-hashing what has been done will only reinforce the emotional baggage, and not clear it out.

ITL, my T is telling me the same thing. I have to not only feel safe, but also BE in a safe environment before we can address the traumas. Oh boy did that FRUSTRATE me to no end when she told me that last Friday. I just want to jump in and get it over with! I know she is right. The fact that I don't feel safe and that there are present issues have to do with my past but, I must put them to right before it is safe to deal with the past. The past is hard enough to deal with let alone if there are present day triggers that throw us into a spiral downward.

It's funny that I would get frustrated about having to create a "safe" homebase considering that is what brought me into therapy in the first place LOL! I stepped in, ended up doing all this work on the past so that I can work on the present before doing the real hard work of putting the past to rest. "Who's on first? No, Who's on Second, What's on first." It's all soooo confusing!
 
Iam,

I think that Anni, you, and I are at the same place right now. Being "naked" is like a re-birth.

So, being stripped of all preconceived ideas of others and oneself is a starting point. A place where we can start to rebuild ourselves, our values and yes our self esteem.

This is an excellent thought and we do need to learn to see ourselves through the eyes of those that love us, not the abusers eyes. Unfortunately, those are the eyes I see looking back at me in the mirror, and that has to change.

My compassion for people is just compulsion, not true empathy.

Iam, this one bothered me. I don't see that at all, and I hope it wasn't anything any one told you. Compassion is not a compulsion, it is there or it is not. Now checking the tires, the wallet, making sure we have the phone number for roadside service, double checking the gas, and the fluid levels, before we drive two block to the store, (in case the car breaks down); now that is compulsion. Oh and in Anni's case, making sure the riding crop is with. ;)

(((hugs)))
Debbie
 
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