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Overcoming Emotional Detachment

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Mosaic

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Ok so I haven't posted in ages but my entire experience with my PTSD has changed and now I'm stuck.
I used to be mainly hypervigilent, anxious etc, I got a lot of flashbacks and intrusive thoughts.
I was handling it all ok but my nights barrier was sex. When I knew my boyfriend was in the mood or was wanting sex it would make so anxious. He was incredibly understanding, we were having sex maybe once in 6 weeks at one point, and although he didn't guilt trip me I did feel very guilty about it and if I ever did get in the mood I'd feel so dirty afterwards.
I decided to just shut everything out and try having sex more often which has been working but now I can't feel anything at all in relation to my trauma.
It feels like I've shut the window so I can't hear it but I can still feel its presence standing outside.
I had trouble connecting with my trauma in the past when I was having therapy and my T told me to write down my trauma and read it over and over. I couldn't use the "R" word it was a huge trigger but it worked and helped me get the emotion out when I'd read it back.

Recently I've really been noticing the numbness, I had a bad dream the other night where 3 men kidnapped me and attacked me while I screamed and kicked, it was very vivid and I felt scared but when I woke up I could feel the knot of emotion in my stomach but couldn't get any of it out.

I wrote my trauma down like my T told me the day before this dream which I think is what triggered it, even used the "R" word but I couldn't connect it was like reading someone else's story and when I was writing it, it felt like trying to remember an old dream, like watching the memory through clouds and not being able to focus the picture.

I also have been feeling totally zoned out like 90% of the time, just like I'm doing everything in auto pilot.

Any advice pleaseeee? At first it was nice not to feel anything but now this knot in my stomach is getting bigger and I feel like I'm headed towards a melt down when it all comes out.
 
Is your therapist helping you with tools to get grounded? Being zoned out and on auto-pilot, and not being connected to emotions is a way your brain is trying to protect you from pain. Numbness tends to lead to later flooding, so your thought that you might later melt down fits the numb-flood cycle.

Using grounding techniques can be a way to come out of that cycle with fewer bumps in the road as you come out of it.
 
@Justmehere i probably should've mentioned I'm not currently seeing my therapist. I finished my sessions months ago and was told if want to come back I can but have to go back on a waiting list.
Any tips on grounding?
 
The tried and true old go-to, Breathing. When I am numb, I don't breathe. Well apparently I do, but I mean the good cleansing relaxing breaths...
That is my pattern, shut down, flood, and then for weeks do this loud gasping for breath I'm not aware I am breathing shallow, until I let out one of those groaning breaths... Kinda freaks people out in the grocery store... but there it is... I call it 'grief breathing'.... deep , full on lungs full of air, then out... When I become aware I am doing it... or people just stare at me... THEN I do relaxing breathing....
I try to keep it simple and not go into a lot of ritual and so forth... but hopefully you can find something like that that helps you. The rituals are very calming for some, it only irritates me... Hope this helps some. Hope you feel better soon... It is a hard thing we do to our self... but it's not right or wrong.... it's us with PTSD.
 
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