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Insight or excuses for isolation?

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UnKnown-Self

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Loneliness is difficult to put it mildly. So is being around people when one like myself has PTSD.
I have been working on the pause before reacting and it helps, except when I don't pause. Then I am irrational, paranoid and a drama tornado. I am the child who was trapped with no way out except I have a voice and it is lashing out at situations that don't warrant the kind of reaction it's getting.
It is said that we as a species need interaction with others but what if we are consistently drawn to the wrong others?
Simplicity helps. Keeping my life as simple as possible. Loneliness because I choose to keep a wide boundary is better than loneliness from having to pull away when things get toxic. I just can't trust. No only others but mostly myself.
 
You have come a long way in your insight to this!
You are taking care of you..aware of Needing to work on self regulation.
That has been a hard one for me too.
Hard to figure out what is healthy exposure. In situations that are not threatning so we can practice.
We are drawn to the same o same o because we don't trust our own judgement.
The pradox here is..we can't learn to trust ourself without exposure. Sucks doesn't it !
You have made a lot of progress on this. Baby steps. You really will learn to trust yourself. You are wise and insightful. That is going to take you to places of freedom.
Gentle hugs !
 
Were you looking for a response? I need you to clarify what you are looking for in this thread so I can properly respond to you.
 
Were you looking for a response? I need you to clarify what you are looking for in this thread so I can p...
I was reflecting in the post as my way to see if anyone could relate. If they could relate in what way? Learning to cope is and perhaps always will be a large part of my journey. I wonder, does anyone else feel this?
Those moments when the realization that I ask questions is such around about way needs to be more direct.
The realization my desperation to be believed make me appear unbelievable.

I am home with the flu and rambling
 
I cherish solitude, also know that from most people it is foolish to expect respect, caring, or...

Yes! I'm exactly the same. If they can't be present. If they are dismissive of my suffering. If they make it about them. If the minimise my suffering. If they're insincere or trite. That's the end of the relationship or where all the walls come down and I know that friendship or relationship will never progress. As a result I don't have many friends. Only one. And she lives on the other side of the world. And as awesome as she is she doesn't always get it. Not even most of the time. But it's her sincerity and heart that matters.
 
Well planned isolation is one of my most effective and cherished therapeutic tools. I purposely schedule my alone times often. I used to be a social flutterby and was always smack dab in the middle of the action. But those were the days of also immersing myself in massive amounts of alcohol and other random substances, so I was mostly numbed out through much of it. I simply can't go back to those kinds of places and faces with any level of sustained comfort.

I also feel the rewarding benefits of being surrounded by energies packed with heartfelt nurturing and genuine growth when immersed in a scene that really jives with my flow, challenges me, enlightens me, and some how enriches my life. I deeply appreciate those rare moments and often wish for more. They rarely come looking for me, though, I have to actively seek them out and then actively participate. But once I get there, I often learn of other appealing and/or healing opportunities.

A lot of really good opportunities pass me by on days I'm just not up for it. I can even plan something ahead of time but then not be up for it when the day arrives. I struggle with being around many things that most think is just a normal and natural part of life, however, looking much deeper I've discovered very little, if any, of it is truly natural, kind of like those false marketing labels we get bombed with daily. I had to learn to be okay with what I felt like was letting myself down in those moments. Not every single opportunity has to be acted upon, but I felt like I had to make up for lost time some how.

Silence and solitude soothe me like no other, except for breath. I don't totally shut others out, but I have to be super selective in how I go about socializing. I try to pick community events and places I know I would really dig and could easily navigate by myself. The scents and sustenance in unknown places are my trickiest hurdles.

Family functions are the things I attend the least, not that we have many, but I already know how incredibly unpleasant it will be to almost all of my senses and how hard it will be to recover, so I no longer force myself to be exposed to those energies.

The most difficult part I find is trying to feel satisfied in my own mind that it makes good sense to others who have no clue. I think I've finally reached the point where I'm okay in offering a brief explanation, if needed, with a prompt to do more of their own research rather than exhausting all of my energies trying to explain to many who will likely never understand, nor will they likely ever wish to, unless they live it.
 
I've started doing this myself. Referring family to this site. Do you have specific sources you suggest to...

I mention this site, too, and suggest reading Bessel van der Kolk's "The Body Keeps Score", or Peter Levine's, "Waking the Tiger", along with references on highly sensitive people by Elaine Aron as it relates strongly to my issues. You tube has many good videos, too, but I didn't save all the titles of ones I've watched, unfortunately.

I also often suggest a purposeful planned field trip of sorts to, or suggest volunteering in some capacity at, the local domestic and sexual abuse shelter, the local verteran's affairs offices or VA hospitals, their local homeless shelters and tent communities, their local psych ward at the hospital, and/or their closest neighbor that they'd never believe in a million years was struggling with something so significant and life altering, etc. to share space with and speak directly with others for some more in depth experience and discussions.

Those who don't become too uncomfortable to continue the discussion tend to dive right in and take on the chance to learn more, while several others remain way too uncomfortable to even think of diving any deeper. Meanwhile, I have to be sure to keep on top of polishing and practicing my own abilities to more healthily sift through the ongoing willful ignorance of others, regardless of their reasoning.
 
acceptamce and knowing your triggers and limitations is key to living with PTSD - I am a huge avoider and though my life is simple and somewhat isolated it is calm . I call it my cottonwool lifestyle - no one questions that a preterm baby needs a particular environment and I think we need to create our own selfcare lifestyles - so for me that is little novelty, interaction with known people and places and swimming regularly. I have been accused of having a disability mentality but that was the insurers pet psych who could give a shit about my wellbeing
 
I think we need to create our own selfcare lifestyles
I can only agree with this. But of course as long as it is not bad for someone. The trouble is that the people (especially people like us) tend to fall to self-deception and therefore it can be tricky.

acceptamce and knowing your triggers and limitations is key to living with PTSD
With that I agree too. But despite the fact that I'm aware of my problems, trigers, I have learned how to cope with them (and I am still learning), I still wanna live solitude life, I happened to be hermit, but I try not to be misanthrope. Loneliness used to trouble me, or actually scare me in past. Or more accurately I didn't know in past what is wrong with me, and I was swamped by depression (I attempted to suicide), and I used to struggled with all those ACOA and c-ptsd symptoms including feeling that I am too different from other people. And I still feel that way that I am too different, that I don't fit in anywhere, not even here. But I guess that I can find here many people with very same feeling. It was like social phobia. I was very confused.

Then I have become more sociable because I had to (job and other reasons). I learn to be more sociable despite of that I am introvert (INFJ in MBTI test). When I have a good day I can be more talkative than usual on a certain level. But I realized that most people suck. There I said it. Most of them see my weakness and otherness and they not just don't understand but they use it for whatever reason, mostly for boosting their ego or some relieve from their frustration, etc. Many times I hate most of them because of that. I realize that "hate" is such a strong word and as well that there are also good people, or let's say more reasonable, more sensitive or wiser people, and even they can have a bad day, and me too. I am no exeption. I mean who is really good or bad. This kind of simplification sounds a bit childish. And I know that all depends on my attitude and ability to be aware of my trigers, limitations, and be able to accept myself, increase and practice self-love and then I will be able to accept other people more and be more relaxed, became stronger version of me, and so on, and so on.... But I can not help myself. What I hate is that tendency to just let out their negative emotions without thinking. They just do it ! Just like that. And because I can be easy target they like to do it. I try to be polite but then I am also "drama tornado". I am aware that the "me and them" divide is not god at all.
But even without this tendency they still tiring me, just by the reason that most of the people are so fu..ing chirply and chatty and everybody wants something, whatever, you name it. For instance after hours at work I feel literally drained. Their are like bees. In our society there is lack of self-reflection. I try to be aware of my hypervigilance and all symptoms as possible, but from an objective perspective people still suck and this society, any society, is not for me. I stuck somewhere on the border between socialization and solitude life.

People can be so tiring. And I find that I need solitude and silence like a fish needs water, unfortunately I live in the big city full of people. I am not even sure if it is mostly because of my childhood trauma, or because of strong introversion. Perhaps both, or perhaps I was born that way. I have only one friend and that's it. We see each other once in a while and that is enough for me. Ex girlfriend hated about me the fact that I didn't need to be with her so much although I loved her. But funny thing is that I have no interest for women. Not even sex. Yes I still can have normal physiological reactions and I am hetero and women are sexy as hell, I still look at them, and so on, but I have no desire to be with some. I find this idea boring almost anoying. That is something I find as interesting.
 
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