Triggered By Therapy & Confused As To How It Can Help

[EricaP]

I have been seeing a psychologist for several years for multiple issues. Difficulty dealing with multiple stresses in life. My husband has a degenerative condition which has progressed more rapidly than we expected over the last few years He became blind We had to move as our old home was no longer appropriate for us. I now have to do all the tasks we previously shared and recently stopped work because I couldn't cope with work and everything else I needed to do. Now as soon as anything else goes wrong I don't have the resilience to cope even when it is relatively minor.
I was referred to a psychiatrist to find suitable antidepressants. Medication from my normal doctor caused too many side effects. I am still unable to take medications and too scared to try any new ones. Sorry I am rambling.
The psychiatrist asked me to get the psychologist to start exposure therapy for PTSD as he believed the PTSD from a disaster experienced as a child was still having a big impact. It was not treated at the time and I just forced myself to cope as best as I could as a child/teenager. Several years ago a similar disaster occured near us with lots of reports on the news, all the hospitals in the state including where I worked were put on an emergency program to enable them to deal with all the injured survivors and we had burning embers & sparks landing on our property from the fires near us so there was no way I could ignore what was happening. I received some support from my doctor & psychologist at the time to help me cope during the crisis but then let things lapse rather than keep remembering. Unfortunately I can ignore it during the winter when it is safe but not in the summer when there are reminders of the potential danger.
starting exposure therapy meant discussing in detail the initial trauma and trying to identify the triggers in order to start the program. This has really stirred things up. and I wonder if it is worth it. The more you talk about it the more you remember and other things become linked. There was a huge amount of losses in my life in the years following the trauma as we moved to a place I didn't like. I lost my friends, became emotionally bullied at school which had a negative impat on my self esteem & confidence which has a huge impact now decades later, Rather than getting on well with my mother and siblings as before the fire we no longer got on and had lots of fights & arguments. My father became ill a few years later and that also caused stress in our lives It did improve once he was diagnosed and treated My mum also became physically disabled several years later and ended up in a wheelchair. These illnesses were not related to the fire but occurred after.
I guess the problem is will therapy for PTSD help or is my problems more related to everything else which has happened and if so will spending time on the PTSD just prevent me having time to deal with more important issues.
Sorry this post is long and rambling It is hard to explain the whole situation when I am still confused about it

 

[hodge]

I think exposure therapy would ultimately be beneficial. It's definitely not fun during the process and the whole purpose is to stir things up so you can try to resolve them. I think that as long as you keep trying to stuff things back, they will just stay there to come up unbidden to haunt you. I know it's hard. I've been through it, with multiple traumas in my life. I wish you the best.

 

[Justmehere]

Exposure therapy triggers people on purpose to desensitize them to the trigger. I have found it helpful for some things. Generally, someone should already be in a fairly good place with a lot of coping skills like mindfulness and grounding on board, because they will get triggered.

Exposure therapy isn't for everyone and if it's too intense or otherwise just not for you, there are a number of other therapies that can treat trauma.

Every form of trauma therapy that deals with processing the actual trauma will almost always make symptoms worse before they get better, a lot better. It's important to hang on through the process of stirring things up, and it's also important to pace such work, and do it at the right time.

It may be too soon to jump into exposure therapy work right now. Most good trauma therapists will make sure someone has good coping skills on board before doing work with the trauma itself.

I hope you talk to the psychologist about your questions and concern and how much you are struggling. They should be able to help slow things down or adjust what kind of work is being done in therapy so that you are not just struggling more and more.

 

[MCCS]

My counsellor told me that being triggered more often/having more flashbacks is my body's way of telling me I'm ready to deal with the trauma. She said it's a good thing and I will feel worse before things start to improve.

 

[ms spock]

With everything happening with your husband I don't think it is wise - I am not a trained professional though - just a lay opinion - but it seems to me with you being so overwhelmed by daily life - well that might work out so well in the end.

 

[Friday]

Usually? It makes things a helluva lot worse for awhile. Then it gets better.

Until it's treated, though? Fingers in every damn pie. Stresses bring on symptoms, symptoms bring on more stresses, and it's a damn swimming up current, while trying to keep your head above water, freaking exhausting.

So until it's treated? Your husbands illness will link to your dad's illness, which will link to the fire. Too much stress with people, will link to too much stress with your siblings, which will link to the fire. And over, and over, and over. Every single damn thing your brain can find a pattern with? Will shriek at you that now is then.

But the problem is the "worse" part. No matter how bad things are right now? They can always get worse. So there's a bit of a timing issue. Needing to get your life to a well enough place that it can weather taking a hard hit.

 

[barefoot]

I haven't experienced exposure therapy myself but I guess all therapy that focuses on processing trauma will really stir things up and will likely make you feel worse before you feel better.

With any of this work, it's important to get grounding skills and establish safety first otherwise I think it could get very overwhelming very quickly. Deliberately getting triggered... I guess getting retraumatised is a very real possibility. So, starting from a place of stability would be important, I think.

Sounds like you have a lot going on and that things are difficult at the moment, so I'd talk things through more with your therapist so that you're both clear about how you're doing at the moment, what you can realistically expect from the process and what you have in place to manage the process.