PTSD recovery

[Karen0901]

Has anyone recovered from PTSD? What influenced your recovery? I have had mental health issues in the past. These have always peaked then recovered for awhile. However, I have complex PTSD now. Multiple traumas. I would love to know if anyone had recovery periods after their PTSD became severe. It can be disheartening sometimes. The panic is the hardest part. Does this ease? It can come out of nowhere sometimes. I have had talk therapy for a number of years but I still see little improvement. SSRI medication has helped but not enough.

[ecomama]

Hey Karen0901, nice to have you on the forums. 

I guess the question I want to ask you about the most is, what does "recovery from PTSD" look like to you? 
It's important to be KIND to ourselves throughout our recovery. 

I also have Complex PTSD (also have ADHD & have experienced depression also). 

2y ago I had "Exposure Therapy". This worked very well to reduce the known triggers I was experiencing. 
I only had 4 useful sessions with this Psych. She taught me how to do ET on my own, which was THE most helpful part of this therapy for me. I am able to use this when I'm calm. Although I don't experience the horrendous PTSD stuff I used to, I do have reactions to triggers I didn't see coming but am able to work through these when I'm in a calmer space. The intensity has reduced A LOT!  

I've done a (hell of a lot of) work outside of professional 1:1 therapy. I see this whole "thing" as a puzzle. We have to find the PARTS of the puzzle that fit US. I've also found that these answers are not usually because we got the right MH professional but more that we put in PRACTICE what we've learnt. 
* I have a Counsellor and will probably maintain a Counsellor for my lifetime. 

* I milked the guidance from Brene Brown, Kristen Neff, Dr Joe Dispenza and others which helped alot. 
* SELF-CARE is what research tells us is the one habit that increases recovery from PTSD. 

I am not on any meds. 

I work FT, sole parent many children, "manage" our household alone, do all housework and gardening etc. 

Have I recovered? I don't have that aim anymore. 
My aim is to live a wholehearted life. 

Love EM

[cambria]

I’m wondering the same thing myself.  I’m also on SSRI meds and have gone through the therapy circuit. My life now is just coping strategies and managing my window of tolerance. I don’t know if it’ll get better, I’m exhausted. I’m just hoping one day it’ll fade into the background instead of the foreground.  

[Eagle Ray]

Hi Cambria,

 I have complex PTSD too and started talk therapy originally 18 years ago. I haven’t been doing therapy all of that time, just on and off at different stages. But it eventually became clear to me that a lot of regular talk therapy wasn’t reaching the deep parts of me where trauma was stored in the body. I read and learned a lot about somatic therapies that work through the body. I eventually found a therapist a year ago who works this way who I connected with. I have made far more progress than I was making before. My window of tolerance is increasing. I don’t know if I’ll ever eliminate all of my fear responses but they are diminishing.

 I started doing a method called Somatic Experiencing with the current therapist and have worked through several traumatic incidents with it, but also just generally working with awareness of bodily responses (interoception) in relation to emotional challenges. Thus I am learning to resolve trauma through the body which for me was essential as a lot of it started pre-verbally from the beginning of life. I’ve even found, as a result of this work, my body starts to enact its own self-healing spontaneously at times, and this has happened even around birth trauma and I’ve now moved into the realm of processing intergenerational trauma that has come down through both my parents.

 I think the key to it all is that my psychologist knows how to co-regulate - attune her nervous system with mine. So many of us with complex trauma had no one to co-regulate/attune with us growing up. So this relationality becomes part of the healing.

 I’m dealing with significant health issues which I’m sure stem directly from a lifelong stress response that was unrelenting for so long. My body is finally learning to let go, that it can feel safe. So while I’m dealing with the health consequences of complex trauma I’m better positioned now to have some healing effects generate in my nervous system that will benefit me going forward.

So I think I am moving towards recovery, even though I still fall in some holes, like two steps forward, one back. But overall I know I am experiencing some actual transformation whereas before I was largely just coping and struggling. I don’t think recovery is necessarily going to mean elimination of all my instinctive fear responses, but more that if they happen I’m more quickly aware and my nervous system can regulate itself and bring feelings of safety. It’s the new learning my body is developing that will probably make all the difference with health challenges as well.

 I hope that helps and provides a bit of encouragement.