CPTSD treatment so you can start a newer, healthier chapter in life.
Are You Struggling With CPTSD Symptoms?
Everything Feels Bad
With CPTSD, everything feels familiar in a bad way because it reminds you of past trauma. Every conflict might feel like the ones you watched growing up. Every look might feel like the harsh criticism you’ve endured before. Every relationship might feel hurtful, painful, scary, or complicated. Standing up for yourself, taking care of yourself, and putting yourself first can all feel bad and wrong.
Disconnected & Alone
Complex PTSD often comes with feeling like you’re the worst - just a bad, disgusting, unlovable person. (It’s not true, but it feels so true) You might feel abandoned a lot by friends, family, and partners or struggle with wanting people closer and feeling panicked when you sense them pulling away. Being around people might be really triggering though, which can lead you to isolate yourself.
Harsh Inner Critic
CPTSD often includes a merciless inner critic. You might blow up at yourself for minor mistakes or threaten yourself with failure before you’ve even begun. You might feel so ashamed it’s hard to face people which can lead to feeling judged even when no one is actually judging you. Anger toward yourself for all your perceived flaws and imperfections can even turn into suicidal thoughts and self-harm.
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The Crisis Lifeline offers free, confidential support 24/7. You do NOT have to be actively suicidal to reach out for help. If it’s 2am and you just need someone to sit with you while you cry or just listen and not say the wrong thing - give them a call. Just let them know you need someone to talk to.
Top 5 Myths of CPTSD
Most people with CPTSD come up with the same strategies to try and manage it. Here’s a breakdown of some of the most common tactics, (along with explanations for why these don’t work long-term).
If you’ve been relying on these rules for managing your CPTSD symptoms you might have noticed that you get short-term relief. However, you may have also noticed that over the long-term your symptoms have only gotten worse. You may be feeling more wound up, more worthless, or having more severe suicidal thoughts than you did before.
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There’s a strong desire to find someone to lead us when we’re feeling lost, scared, weak, and incapable. The downside to this tactic as an adult is that it can lead to ending up in relationships with people who want to control, criticize, and blame you. In other words, it can and often does lead us into codependent relationships that can be re-traumatizing.
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Dissociation is a natural and necessary human survival response and one that is often triggered in traumatic situations where we feel unable to escape. It allows us to mentally go away from our body and the present situation without actually moving an inch. “out of body” experiences and daydreaming are common forms of dissociation.
With CPTSD however, “going away” can become a habit that you turn to anytime you feel upset or overwhelmed. Using this tactic as an escape hatch can keep you stuck in a cycle of trauma, unable to heal.
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While this may work short-term to numb the pain, adding drugs or alcohol on top of feelings of anxiety, depression, and abandonment almost guarantees you’ll stay feeling miserable. The chemistry here doesn’t work in your favor and unfortunately you’re likely to reach a point where no amount will give you relief from the emotional pain you’ve been trying to escape.
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It’s sort of genius. If problems were dogs, you just have to keep running fast enough that they never catch you, right?
If you’ve tried this, however, you probably know from experience that it’s exhausting. This method of staying busy to avoid feeling the feelings is an unwinnable game in the long-run because if you’re a human living in a human body, then at some point you will need rest, you will likely get sick, injured, or age and then this method will be painfully unavailable to you. It’s better to sort out healthier coping skills before you get to that point.
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With CPTSD, it’s easy to find yourself in relationships that are painful and harmful. What’s not easy, is getting in touch with your ability to stand up for yourself or remove yourself from these relationships once you’re in them.
With CPTSD, there’s often the hope that people will stop hurting you, being cruel, taking advantage of you, etc and will simply “do the right thing.” There’s beauty in the hopeful, childlike ideals underneath this rule.
This rule, however, keeps you emotionally stuck in childhood trauma where it’s better to go along than to be alone. As an adult, however, this can lead to long-term depression, feelings or helplessness, hopelessness, and suicidal thoughts. It may not seem possible yet, but standing up for yourself is a skill you can learn.
How CPTSD Treatment Can Help
When It’s Time to Call In the Pros
CPTSD will inevitably affect major areas of your life - your relationships, work, finances, self-esteem, and your physical health. Everyone feels down, anxious, overwhelmed, or lonely from time to time. Certain situations, such as being laid off or going through a breakup can remind you of past painful experiences and wreak havoc for a while in the present. Mood changes aren’t necessarily a problem that warrants therapy, as long as they’re mild and aren’t affecting your life. If you notice your cptsd symptoms have been going on for a long time, if they’re bothering you, or if they’re negatively affecting major areas of your life, it’s time to reach out. Read on to learn more about how our team can help.
Find Safety in Relationships
After successfully completing cptsd treatment our clients report feeling safer in their relationships. They often report less feelings of panic and abandonment, feeling less like a burden to the people in their life, and feeling more support and less criticism from those around them.
Because CPTSD is often the result of attachment wounds, CPTSD treatment also focuses on supporting our clients as they learn to identify personal boundaries using their body’s physical and emotional cues, so they no longer have to rely on others to define what is “okay” or “not okay” in any kind of relationship. This often naturally leads to finding their voice and slowly strengthening their ability to use it to stand up for themselves.
Find Your Identity & Self-Worth
Many of our clients who successfully cptsd depression treatment report feeling as if they went from surviving to actually living. They can often name their positive attributes and the value they bring to the world and the lives of those around them - something that never would have occurred to them before.
CPTSD treatment involves learning to tame your inner critic and point that anger in a healthier direction - turning it back on your abusers or the unrealistic expectations others have put on you. While this can often begin the process of grieving past painful experiences, it can also lead you to feel stronger, less perfectionistic, and more compassionate toward yourself.
Reduce or Eliminate Suicidal Thoughts
Our clients with CPTSD often report a long history of suicidal thoughts. CPTSD treatment can help to decrease feelings of hopelessness, helplessness, and shame that often lead to suicidal thoughts. We have clients who report they are no longer experiencing suicidal thoughts, often for the first time in their lives, after decades of living with these thoughts.
Get a Handle on Your Moods
Our clients with CPTSD often report feeling defective and broken before starting CPTSD treatment. Our work together often leads these clients to piece together how past experiences relate to their moods in the present. We work to build context for what you’re experiencing so your mood swings no longer feel like random bolts of lightening that strike on a whim. With this knowledge of what has triggered them and why, our clients often report feeling far more equipped to respond to mood shifts with healthier coping skills so they can feel better faster without sinking as low in the process.
Ready to Get Started?
Get In Touch With Us
Perhaps one of the hardest steps you’ll have to make by yourself is the first step of reaching out to us. Send us your info and we’ll take it from there, supporting you each step of the way.
Complete a Free Consult
You might be nervous about making phone calls or not sure what to say - either way we’ll walk you through it step-by-step in about 15 minutes. We like to be sure it’s a good fit first.
Have Your First Session
We’ll set up your first session with your therapist to complete your initial assessment. This helps to ensure we have a solid game plan from the get-go so you can feel confident in the process.
References:
Mattick, R., and C. Clarke. 1998. Development and Validation of Measure of Social Phobia Scrutiny Fear and Social Interaction Anxiety. Behavior Research and Therapy 36:455–70.