If you could go back to when you started therapy, what one piece of advice would you give yourself?

[Freddyt]

For myself - it would be that when I get to where I'm overloaded - it will bleed into tomorrow, and when that happens, stop until the PTSD Cup is as empy as it can get before doing more.

...it would have saved me a lot of bad days.

 

[whiteraven]

Mine would probably be, "don't."

 

[Weemie]

Seek a forensic psychologist first.

 

[enough]

remember who pays and who earns.

 

[Rose White]

It takes as long as it takes, and some people just take a long time.

 

[Charbella]

I’m with @whiteraven, mine would be Don’t.

 

[Tinyflame]

Very good question! Not exactly the same situation (which I am glad for because no one pushed me), but I could come up with about 101 things! But they could all be summarized if I were to say to myself: Don't give up on others, yourself, or God.

 

[emily1890]

try not to be disappointed if it takes a while to find the right therapist.

I can remember how I felt when they told me sorry, but you're too damaged to work with. I wasn't prepared for that at all, I just thought you'd find a therapist ta-da, problem solved.

but 9 therapists later and I don't feel much better...

 

[Teasel]

You will have a lot of close to useless therapy. Save your money. You get somewhere with psychologists at least. For the most part therapists do you more harm than good.

 

[No More]

There are a lot of really really shit useless therapists out there. Like a lot. Dump 20 if you have to. No therapy is better than bad therapy.

Or as @whiteraven said, just don’t

 

[alchemy11]

try not to be disappointed if it takes a while to find the right therapist.

I can remember how I felt when they told me sorry, but you're too damaged to work with. I wasn't prepared for that at all, I just thought you'd find a therapist ta-da, problem solved.

but 9 therapists later and I don't feel much better...

OMG same for me... I was told by several therapists that my trauma is too intense, that they can't help me. Then the ones that did agree to work with me... one questioned me about my rapist and I really didn't wanna talk about him, because I had kind of just gotten over the flashbacks back then and she kept pushing me to try to remember his name and then in the next session she was like 'LOOK! I think I found him for you!" and showed me a photo of him on her cellphone and yes, it was him and I spiralled back into full-blown PTSD for a while until I pulled myself back out. You gotta wonder. Here's what helped me in the end: EFT, reiki, somatic practice, sound healing, and mental reprogramming/ hypnotherapy (a few sessions, but that was way after I had already gotten a lot better). Anyways. I am so sorry that this happened to you, it's so crazy when we come across people who tell us that we're too damaged, just because they grew up sheltered. It's ok to feel like you can't help someone, but don't tell them there's something unfixable wrong with them, just because YOU don't know how to help them.

Hm. I would say to myself: talk therapy will never heal your PTSD, so as long as you don't expect it to fix you, cool. Make sure you do things that involve healing your body and subconscious mind, because THAT's where the trauma is stored. Your conscious mind - the thing that you use in talk therapy mainly... is just the gate keeper and yes you can force yourself to remember the assault and then talk about it but that is not going to heal it. So as long as you're clear on that and you know why you're seeking talk therapy, go ahead and do it...

 

[emily1890]

I think therapists are right though. I am too damaged to get any useful experience.