The Ptsd Cup Explanation

[IamMe]

This is a great, I have never seen it before. I always tell my husband I feel like my emotional bucket is full and that anytime something small gets added to it, my emotions overflow and I can't control them, exactly like this theory! Thank you!

 

[IamMe]

I fly off the handle every day. If something is missing it just disappears and i go nuts. My parents have threaten to take me to a mental hospital...which does look inviting.

I do the EXACT same thing! When I can't find something I flip out. It drives my husband crazy, and the worst part is that because I immediately have the flip out response half the time the thing I am looking for is literally right in front of me, I just don't see it because I am already flipping out.

 

[cjf2010]

I don't fly off the handle but I cant handle certain situations. I pull back inside myself where I've built this fortress around me. I did that so no one could get in and hurt me anymore than I already had been hurt. My fortress is very hard to break down sometimes and I trust very few people, and even those I do trust I seem to need a lot of reassurance at times which makes me seem insecure(which I'm not insecure about myself, I'm more insecure about whether I should trust people or not). I need to find a way to get rid of some of those irrational insecurities. I also need to the ability to see whether things are irrational or rational.

 

[my3sons]

Many people with PTSD struggle to understand why they fly off the handle at such little things, i.e., the toilet roll is around the wrong way, someone walked in front of you, that stranger looked at you, etc etc. The reason is actually quite simple, and easier to show than often explain, why those with PTSD tend to get angry quicker, more easily, and faster than others at little stupid things.

Oh my thats me to a T! Wow thanks for the information, thats me! No wonder people call me crazy I am not, my brain just explodes!

<Posts merged.>

 

[Sunny:)]

I've thought about this a ton, thinking well, I don't do the anger thing when stressed. What I do is not attractive but it isn't anger so you'd think the whole cup explaination isn't for 'us', the ones who do not manifest this way... Let's see, you could start with Shame/guilt/self-loathing as a knee-jerk reaction- hits you BOOM as quickly as any anger I've ever seen plus as hard. .. This other crap devolves, like at the speed of light and you're done, that's IT, if you don't delberately catch that overflow, it's like trying to catch a runaway train. It could be days before the balance is back then you have to watch it alllll over again, therapy or no.

Anni, I relate so well to this. My "overflow" when I get upset is feeling ashamed and then doing self-harm- Not really dangerous things, but things like biting my nails to the quick until they hurt, or stuffing myself with food until I'm miserable. And it does take days to recover from a reaction.

Thanks for helping me not feel so alone with this.

 

[C.J]

Thank-you, the cup analogy helped me to better understand why I have been an emotional roller coaster.

 

[last chance]

I wonder just how detrimental it is to be with a partner who can never seem to understand and seems to create huge amounts of extreme stress that keeps one constantly sick. Too, I am trying to understand my own role and how it affects them in return. It seems like a perpetual loop with no way to break the cycle other than to isolate myself away from everyone. But this too, leads to only even more lonliness and depression in the long run which seems again to feed the viscous cycle. I am wondering if I am going to have to take medication, which I have a great fear of. My body and brain already seem so chemically unbalanced at times, that putting more chemicals into it to help with an imbalance seems counter intuitive.

 

[Pleiku]

H-m-m-m. I have always wondered about that. My form of anger is not to fly off the handle but to disassociate or silently try to become invisible and leave physically. The cup analogy works beautifully to help me understand why I seem to be able to take so little 'flack' from my family with each other or aimed at me. Thank you, Anthony.

Cup analogy faulty. Ever think that we're angry at REAL events happening here and now. Anger in combat veterans is not a pathology, it's a rational response to reality. Quit over analyzing.

 

[last chance]

Cup analogy faulty. Ever think that we're angry at REAL events happening here and now. Anger in combat veterans is not a pathology, it's a rational response to reality. Quit over analyzing.

If one is angry and takes steps because someone(s) is out to kill you then yes likely justified. If however someone goes on a shooting spree because the toilet paper is on backwards then well.....

 

[Natalie]

Wow, this explains it :) This could be really good to share with close ones.

 

[Shirah L. Rosenek]

Hi folks,

I'm new to this forum. I like the stress cup analogy. I have a question about the stress cup and the inability to let things go when they happen. Little things are sometimes perceived as devastating big things, and it's hard to quit brooding about them sometimes. Can the level of stress in the cup be changed by altering how you perceive your stressors?

 

[anthony]

Can the level of stress in the cup be changed by altering how you perceive your stressors?

Yes. The cup analogy is all about depicting what goes on internally. As you remove stressors from your life, however that works for you uniquely, then you lessen what is within your cup, thus your ability to cope with other aspects of life suddenly have room within you so that you don't fly off the handle at something insignificant.

It is about you learning to manage your cup by analysing your own cup uniquely, based on your life.