why do i feel like i cant be away from home for longer than an hour?

[hope4us]

I have c-ptsd from prolonged domestic violence. whenever i leave my house to go anywhere, i always feel like i need to get back after an hour or so. it doesnt make a difference who is with me, or where i am. even when im with people that dont make me nervous, i have friends that i trust, i know they wouldnt screw me over or intentionally hurt me in any way, but even when im with them its like i just need to go home. whenever i hang out with anyone i always want to hang out at my house, i dont like being at anyone elses house for longer than 30 minutes. some people say that its because im anxious, but it still happens even when im in situations where i know im safe and no ones going to harm me, so thats why i dont understand why i always feel like i need to go home. it doesnt make sense to me. i get out and at least go to the store every day, but i cant stay gone long at all. and it takes me forever to leave too. i use to be able to just grab a few things and walk out the door within 5 minutes, but now its a process whenever i leave, it takes about 30 minutes even if im just going a few miles down the road. anyone feel the same way? any idea why i always feel like this?

 

[Friday]

During the domestic violence, what used to happen when you were away from home for longer than an hour?

A few ideas to get you started looking at why this might be an issue, if as you say, nothing you’re out doing is the issue (like getting overwhelmed)...

- Did you have to call/text at regular intervals to let them know where you were?
- Did you have to explain/justify any time spent alone/away from home
- Did you get in trouble if you were gone too long, or couldn’t justify to their satisfaction what you were doing, where, and with whom?
- Did you only leave for more than an hour after a fight? Or only when it was lovely? Or was leaving in any other way tied to their mood & the state of your relationship?
- etc.

 

[jenkins]

Do you feel your home is your safety zone? That might be why you want to stay there. I don't have a "safety zone" since we moved more than I liked when I was a kid. I have my own, what I call, "safety proxies", things that make me feel safe. When I was very little, I had a teddy bear, now I carry a pocket knife.

Sometimes people aren't ready to let out the real powerful emotions, so they have these feelings that they can't quite understand, because not all the feelings have come to the surface of consciousness yet.