Will healing get easier?

[FelipeV]

I have been improving my mental health for more than a year now, on April last year I started taking antidepressants and on august was when I first realized I had C-PTSD. On January I finished taking antidepressants, hoping that It would be the end of this journey only to find myself having flashbacks again.

I’m currently working on it, and I’m not gonna lie, it’s hard as f*ck. I want the benefits of healing but I find it really hard to do the healing. This is the only place I know where people have experience with this, so, will this get easier over time?

 

[Rose White]

Yes it will. But it isn’t easy. It’s damn hard work. And everyone’s timeline is different. Something I’ve noticed is that it’s super common for survivors to feel like they’re not doing enough, that they’ve failed, that they’re doing it wrong, that they are broken/corrupt at their core, that it works for others but not them, that they’ve made zero progress… etc. And for those beliefs to arise repeatedly in different forms throughout recovery. Regression is normal, especially before a breakthrough. You can do it, just keep doing the work.

 

[Weemie]

The short answer? Yes. The more skills you learn to engage with your traumatic material, the easier it will be to work with.

 

[arfie]

it has gotten easier for me. i still have episodes but they don't surprise me enough to knock me off balance the ways they did early into my recovery. i still need my therapy tools/regimen, but finding them is not the challenge it was when i could barely admit i needed them.

 

[Freddyt]

The short answer? Yes. The more skills you learn to engage with your traumatic material, the easier it will be to work with.

100% right. Surprises are the hardest thing to deal with as you move on. But with good tools, you can cope reasonably well.

 

[LittleBlackCat]

Healing requires fastidious dedication, something I didn’t realise at all. I genuinely believed some therapy, learning coping techniques and a few lifestyle adjustments would fix me. It didn’t. They are tools to help you on your journey. I used to quietly scoff when health professionals would say ‘The more effort you put in, the more you will get out of it!’ but it’s true. I thought healing would be done in 12 weeks of therapy but when you have Complex ptsd it can take a long time. I try to see it more of a journey of self-discovery, learning to live fully in the present and learning to let go of things that no longer serve me than get too pessimistic over it, but of course I still have upsetting times, it’s part of being human so don’t be too hard on yourself either Learning to form new, long lasting relationships with like-minded people is personally important for me too. I’m not extroverted by any means, but pushing myself out my comfort zone from time to time is rewarding.

 

[Freddyt]

I thought healing would be done in 12 weeks of therapy but when you have Complex ptsd it can take a long time.

That was a hard moment in therapy. When it went from just PTSD to Complex. By that point I understood the difference and it was a bit difficult in a way.

Learning to live with PTSD is the best way to make life easier. Managing your every day and learning that its all give and take is key. Learning to stop flooding, to control thinking, and how to use things like hyper-vigilance rather than have them use you makes even the people around you say "wow you are doing better". When you know inside the reality is, if they saw you tomorrow, they might take that back.....