Projecting fear onto those closest to you

[ColinKevin]

Is this a common cognitive distortion, to continue to feel fear despite working really hard in therapy? I'd welcome your wise words and/or successes at managing to reduce undue fear or consign it to the past where it belonged?
I am a supporter.

 

[ColinKevin]

Yeah, that's part of where everyone gets their "own special brand" of symptoms. Lots of times the same bits are affected and its always fun to find out "oh hey thats part of your PTSD". I keep saying it should be called "the hiding disorder" because of how its hides so many symptoms from people who have it. The longer I do therapy the more I go, oh hey I do have that symptom, it just got lost in the memory fog of PTSD.....

Again, your insights are so helpful. I guess when big healing is going on you can be pushed out of your window of tolerance and that must deeply, deeply uncomfortable.

I carefully curate the people I expose myself to in order to limit the amount of distress I feel. That means the bulk of my socialization happens online where I can choose to disengage at any moment && where if I have a big emotional reaction I can regulate it privately without being seen by others. I am working on being able to go outside more with my mom! I have an extreme fear of dogs so it is very hard to walk outside as people will walk their dogs && sometimes I scream and cry involuntarily.

Love the determination to move forward. Small steps create big change. Good on you!

 

[ColinKevin]

So my partner is both needing to focus on themselves during these EMDR sessions, but also fearful that there is something really, really dark lying deeply hidden . They feel like they are holding back and not fully immersing themselves for fear that whatever comes up is going to make us, the family, hate them, due to the release of the memory possibly 'making' them behave in hideous ways.
Equally they recognise that this can be a cognitive distortion. But isolation beckons to manage whatever comes up next.