#ptsd things

[penname-artist]

Literally, this might just be the most important fucking thing about mental health and responding to trauma that people completely forget about.

Side note: some people are stupid enough to even debate whether or not sexual abuse is “life-threatening enough to cause PTSD”, because people THINK that PTSD means it had to be life-threatening. It doesn’t. It can come from ANY experience that may damage a person’s mental state or psyche, just as badly as a real life-threatening experience. It depends on the person and how their brains react, not the instance itself.

#PTSD #PTSD things #mental health

[starfishinthedistance]

My last post on PTSD being more than flashbacks and nightmares kinda took off, so I wanted to talk about something many people mentioned in the reblogs: flashbacks are probably not what you think they are.

The depiction you see in movies where someone is suddenly thrust into this vivid hallucination where they see everything in extreme detail and completely forget where they are is possible, but certainly uncommon.

For a lot of people, it's kind of like a mental image. Like your brain just involuntarily starts strongly daydreaming the trauma, and you're seeing it in the back of your mind. Sometime it's an "I close my eyes and see it again" that kind of thing. But there's also other kinds than visual.

There's auditory, but that can happen without a visual component. And it can feel like a hallucination, but again it can feel like your brain is playing the audio from the back on your mind, like a vivid daydream.

There's also somatic (sometimes called tactile or physical) flashbacks, which is where you physically feel yourself being touch like how you were again (very common in assualt and physical/sexual abuse survivors), sometimes as a hallucination, sometimes as the same sort of back of the mind daydream thing.

And then there's emotional flashbacks, really common in abuse survivors and C-PTSD, where you feel like you're emotionally back where you were when the trauma happened. You're feeling what you felt when the trauma happened vidily enough for it to feel like you're back there. This is different from emotional reactivity after being reminded of trauma, because it's this exact sort of re-experiencing of the emotions you felt. Emotional flashbacks actually feel like you're back there, emotional reactivity doesn't, it feels like you're reacting to it but it's not happening again.

All of these can occur together in the same flashbacks, or separately. So you can have an auditory-somatic flashback or just an emotional one, etc.

People also said this is similar with nightmares, but I don't experience them myself so I can't say (people with PTSD nightmares feel free to share your experiences!)

#ptsd awareness #cptsd awareness #ptsd #cptsd #post traumatic stress disorder #complex post traumatic stress disorder #trauma #childhood trauma #mental health #neurodivergent #mental illness #disabled #ptsd things #cptsd things #mental health awareness #ptsd thoughts #cptsd thoughts #flashbacks #ptsd flashbacks #emotional flashbacks #visual flashbacks #auditory flashbacks #somatic flashbacks

[laineystein]

Back on base and I kind of just need to explain something:

I do not process grief and trauma the way most people do. I literally chose a profession where my needs and emotions must be ignored for me to successfully do my job. It is much easier for me to turn off my feelings and my thoughts and focus on the task at hand. I am very good at this. I always have been. Then working in an ED during COVID bestowed me with severe PTSD and that only increased the distance between my head and my heart and reality. There’s also my faith that tells me to focus on the positive and put my trust in G*d. So I also make the choice to show love and receive love instead of projecting hate. So while it may seem like I am happy and everything is fine — it’s not. I am still grieving a friend I lost on October 7th. I am grieving brothers I’ve lost in battle. I’m grieving the loss of time I should be spending creating a family but instead am using to keep myself and my unit alive. I’m processing a lot of hate that I don’t know what to do with; I’ve never experienced pain like this and it’s unsettling what it’s doing to me — something I can only reconcile with in the few rare moments I allow myself to actually process what’s going on…which is rare. It’s exhausting; I’m tired. My heart is broken. But I promise you that I am a human with very real feelings, I just choose not to share a lot of that on here.

#lainey things #⚔️🇮🇱 #ptsd things #(haven’t used that tag in a bit)

[spookietrex]

Here's the thing with my trauma: yeah, it's uncomfortable. Most adults that survived horribly abusive childhoods have uncomfortable stories. My therapist and I regularly comment that my life could have been a true crime documentary with all the crimes and victimization that happened to me. But just because I get graphic with the details and they make you uncomfortable or you don't believe that someone would do something as fucked up as what I'm telling you, you don't get to tell me it didn't happen. Because guess what it did. I did live in a house that was worse than most of the houses on Hoarders where there was regular animal feces. I did live in a house where my mother regularly physically abused me AND gaslit me into thinking I couldn't do anything about it. I was severely sexually abused in a number of vile and disgusting ways. Just because your mind can't imagine the depravity that someone else has been through doesn't mean you get to deny their existence.

Especially if I've already been diagnosed by multiple mental health professionals with PTSD. You don't get to say that my trauma isn't real or it didn't happen because it was just another Tuesday for you.

#my story is real #my story is valid #what happened to me is real #fuck you ptsd #c ptsd #complex ptsd #ptsd #complex post traumatic stress disorder #post traumatic stress disorder #ptsd things #ptsd thoughts #i am valid #borderline personality disorder #actually bpd #borderline problems #bpd problems #being borderline #actually borderline #bpd #bpdprobs #actuallymentallyill #bpd feels #you can't just dismiss me because you don't like what I'm saying

[unstablemotions]

My PTSD ass when the microwave beeps - no matter how prepared I make myself for the eventual noise:

#tw explosion #tw fire #tw war #idk just in case #actuallyptsd #actually ptsd #actuallycptsd #actually cptsd #actuallytraumatized #actually traumatized #ptsd memes #cptsd memes #trauma memes #ptsd things #cptsd things #trauma things #tw flashing #tw flashing images #tw flashing gif #my posts #personal

[bipolarmango]

Complex PTSD is fun. I thought I would just need to talk about my most recent trauma that currently gives me a lot of PTSD symptoms but turns out I need to talk about much earlier trauma first because all my behaviour is based on how I have had to learn to behave to survive that trauma when it was happening.

The problem is that in order to protect me my brain has dissociated me from that trauma so I'm totally disconnected from those memories and my emotional responses to them, so to even get started with any trauma processing I first need to learn how to connect with my emotions. Also, because of severe childhood trauma my emotional development is non-existent and compensated by an overly developed cognitive development, so I'm just trying to reason my way out of the trauma. Great stuff.

#ptsd #living with ptsd #ptsd things #complex ptsd #actually ptsd #ptsdlife #complex post traumatic stress disorder #trauma #childhood ptsd #actually mentally ill

[les-gay-jpg-blog]

Trust issues so deep that my therapist doesn't even know me.

#therapy #mental health #mental illness #ptsd #actually ptsd #adhd #actually adhd #adhd problems #ptsd things #mental heath awareness #mental heath support #mental heath issues

[pensarecool2]

Memories are stupid and weird. Idk how it is for other people, but for most things, your memory bases how you view the world.

For example, you look at your phone. You know what a phone is. You have past memories at some point that are explaining to you what a phone is. You remember it. You might not think about it, but these memories all build up your view of what it is. You can remember there are different kinds of phones. You know how you have your phone, and why it's there. For the most part, it's probably not that significant.

The same goes for a lot of things, especially basic things. What you typically eat. What you look at, etc. If the first time you experience something, it's positive or neutral, then the thing doesn't matter. It's something that exists.

But what about if the first time you experience something, it's bad? Maybe the first time you get into a red truck, something bad happens. Maybe every time you get into a red truck, something bad happens. Maybe when you watch a certain TV show or eat a certain fruit.

Maybe the first time something happened relating to an object or concept, it was bad. And every time it was brought up again, all you could think about was that first negative experience.

It makes it hard to navigate the world when everything about common things relates back to horrible things.

#blurry ❓🦑 #csa survivor #csa vent #childhood ptsd #ptsd life #ptsdlife #ptsd #ptsd things #ptsd thoughts #ptsd problems #living with ptsd #dissociative vent #dissociative identity disorder #dissasociative identity disorder #actually dissociative #dissociative disorder #endos do not interact #did system #actually traumatized #traumagenic did #traumagenic system #memories #feel free to reblog

[shrike-without-a-thorn]

Parent: "wow I did such an amazing job raising my child :)"

Jump cut to said child having a mental breakdown over dropping a cup for fear of being screamed at/attacked despite there being no-one around to witness it

#haha parents amiright #pstd #cptsd #trauma #childhood trauma #complex ptsd #ptsd things #cptsd vent #ptsd vent #trauma vent #mentally ill #mental health #mental illness #mentally exhausted #mental disorder #cluster b #cluster c #anxiety #anxiety disorder

[flirts-with-dragons]

Not a professional but the crazy thing about ptsd is that you can be going through multiple ptsd's at the same time in different severities, complexities, and stages. Like for example I've got cptsd from my childhood abuse, cptsd from being bullied throughout school life, and at the same time, I've got regular ptsd from the mental hospital. I've also got another regular ptsd from cyberbullying. And the ptsd from the beginning of the pandemic! They're all at different recovery stages, they're all at different severities, and there's the differentiation between the forms of ptsd or cptsd.

I know some psychology student is gonna look at this and scoff, but I'm going through this and I know so many other people are. So many of us being poisoned by our own cortisol. Damn!

#ptsd #actually ptsd #trauma #childhood trauma #actually traumatized #actually traumagenic #complex post traumatic stress disorder #cptsd #complex ptsd #post traumatic stress syndrome #post traumatic stress disorder #post trauma #trauma things #ptsd things #cptsd things #abuse #tw abuse #abuse mention #pandemic #pandemic mention #tw pandemic #tw psych ward #psych ward #psych ward mention #not a professional

[agirldying]

idk if i said this before but does anyone else have a problem being around anyone who is as old as you were when Trauma happened? my bf's brother just turned 16 and there's always a part of me that feels protective over him

#text #trauma #ptsd things #cptsd things

[penname-artist]

They Don’t Tell ya this About PTSD

-Having multiple layers of reactions to things and triggers, ie reacting in “fight” mode inititally, and then switching tracks to “freeze” or “fawn” reacting to that

-Having mixed emotions about solitude (for many, isolation might be a safe zone, but it can also be extremely painful and hard to relax in)

-Hyperindependence as a result of being conditioned that needs cannot be met (or are met with malice) by other people

-An overwhelming need to feel in control of a situation to avoid being caught up in another painful circumstance

-“rollercoastering” with your emotions, from happiness to depression to complete numbness and dissociation

-Feeling detached and lonely, craving connection, but also pushing people away as a result of prior hurt

-Struggling to remember parts of your own traumatic experiences (because you’ve buried them so far down), and struggling to remember parts of your experiences BEFORE you were traumatized

-Becoming unable to do or sit comfortably with things you were able to before

-Trauma symptoms and triggers changeing with time and development or healing

-Becoming extremely intuitive and being able to judge people’s intentions/emotions sooner than others, at the risk of being very touchy with reactions to it

#feel free to add to #ptsd #post traumatic stress disorder #mental health #mental health awareness #ptsd things #trauma

[bunfart90]

I yearn for the privilege of solely having first world problems

#ptsd #cptsd #did #osdd #ptsd things #cptsd things #actually traumatized #trauma #bpd #bpd stuff

[putmeinamovieblog]

IS THAT A THING?????

#ptsd #ptsd things #mental health #trauma #trauma memes #ptsd memes #meme #memes #questions

[laineystein]

Lost two in my trauma bay this morning. There’s blood on my pants. A lot of blood. And I don’t have other pants to change into because my usual spare pair was used last week when I had blood on me then. I’ve been so exhausted and preoccupied that I forgot to bring in a replacement pair. To be honest I wasn’t really fazed by any of this until I realized I wasn’t fazed and now I feel like absolute garbage about how clearly messed up my mental state is.

Anyway.

Just going to lay here for a bit.

How’s everyone else’s Tuesday going? 😣

#lainey things #er md #md things #tales from the er #ptsd things

[ajsfried]

nah 'cause i've already spent more of my life being a sa victim than i've spent not being one

#ptsd things #cocsa trauma #dumb brain things #back on my bullshit #traumacore #i think like 3/4 of my life or sumn #rn at least