Have you ever felt like your brain and body were just…stuck? Reliving the worst moments of trauma over and over, no matter how hard you try to move on? For many of us who have survived repetitive, inescapable experiences like childhood abuse, domestic violence, or combat – that’s just how it is to live with complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD).
CPTSD isn’t your typical once-and-done PTSD from a single event. It’s like the trauma went nuclear, shattering your core senses of self, safety and ability to trust into a million pieces. Leaving you in this constant state of emotional dysregulation and hyper-vigilance, always waiting for the next bomb to drop.
The Aftermath
On the surface, CPTSD can look like intense mood swings, panic attacks, or feeling completely numbed out and disconnected from your own life. But under the hood, it runs so much deeper.
We’re talking about a profoundly negative self-concept, where you start believing there’s something fundamentally damaged or unlovable about you. Healthy relationships become really hard to create and sustain when mistrust is your default mode. Physical ailments like chronic pain, fatigue and autoimmune issues are also really common when your body is trapped in that perpetual state of dysregulation.
Maybe you’ve noticed yourself dissociating more, almost like you’re watching yourself go through the motions from the outside. Or you might gravitate towards self-destructive habits to cope with the internal chaos. That’s the heavy, heavy weight of unprocessed traumatic overwhelm for you.
The Light at the End
I want you to know that as dark and hopeless as it can feel, CPTSD doesn’t have to be a permanent prison sentence. You don’t have to just “get used” to living this way.
By releasing stuck trauma through specialised therapies like hypnosis and EMDR, then understanding the importance of the way nutrition and exercise boosts positive cognitive thought, it’s possible to gradually restore your nervous system’s resilience. To rebuild a sounder mind-body connection and sense of earned secure attachment.
It won’t be a quick fix – treating CPTSD is very much an inside-out journey of patience, courage and self-compassionate presence. Sitting in those places that feel too hard or shameful to look at directly…until the charge dissipates and you can reintegrate your most vital, grounded self.
An Understanding Guide
That’s where having an attuned, trauma-informed guide can be so crucial. Someone who has traversed those shadowy valleys themselves and can hold space for all those overwhelming feelings – the grief, rage, internalised fears – without flinching or invalidating.
It’s not easy work by any means. But it is re-humanising and empowering to reclaim authorship of your own life story beyond victimhood and survival mode. To no longer feel like a haunted alien within yourself.
The first step is simply getting curious about your experience without judgement. Recognising that you’ve subconsciously been living in an emotional bunker for way too long. The journey back to wholeness can finally begin from that kernel of awareness.
Reach out if you’d like to explore CPTSD recovery options further. You’ve remained unbroken through the darkest of storms – now it’s time to start feeling like yourself again.