Traumatic Memories - medication

[Maz10]

Hi Guys

Im new here and would like the assistance of the collective wisdom/experience of this group.

Last year I had medication infusions as a treatment for PTSD (and chronic pain) and then more lately a different medication (primarily for chronic inflammation and pain - but it is also used for PTSD).

I suspect that both these treatments have resulted in me remembering aspects of an extremely traumatic event- ones that I previously had no memory of and were locked away in my brain as a coping mechanism. Both these treatments restore neural functioning in the brain and normally this would be a good thing for chronic ptsd and pain but now I am experiencing unwanted memories and intrusive thoughts that are playing havoc with my already fragile mental health - in particular I am getting locked into a dissociative/derealisation state that I cant seem to break out of for hours on end.

Has anyone had anything similar happen to them, and how have you coped?

Thanks

Maz

[sunnyl20]

Hi Maz,

I am really sorry to hear about what has been happening for you - that sounds really distressing. I cannot imagine how difficult it must be to go through that, especially as it sounds like your mental health is already fragile. Have you been able to talk about what has been happening with the clinician who prescribed you the medications and tell them your thoughts about what may be causing it? It is really important that someone in your treating team knows how much you are struggling. If it is too raw/painful to talk about yet, it may be helpful to write down what is happening. If you are open to it, the Blue Knot Foundation has some great information and exercises (e.g. grounding techniques) for coping with traumatic memories (https://www.blueknot.org.au/For-Survivors/Survivor-self-care), you may find it useful to have a look at if you have not already tried them.

If you are not coping or need to talk to someone more immediately, please call Lifeline on 13 11 14 - it is available 24/7 & is confidential.

Please do not hesitate to reach out as and when you feel up to it, we are here to listen and support you. Take care.

[Maz10]

Thanks sunnyl20 for your rapid response! And the link to blue knot resources - I had not previously heard about them so will look into the resources you suggested. I have zero capacity to self care - this is not something I think I have the capacity to do - I wouldn’t know where to start.

The clinician who prescribed these medications is not a psychologist or a psychiatrist but is a specialist physician with a primary focus on PTSD. In fact I don’t currently have a psychiatrist that I see on regular basis and when I did try to reach out to the one who had previously helped me in a suicidal crisis as a favor to this specialist physician he included my physician in cc in the email to tell to me he wasn’t taking on new patients. Now my physician thinks I have lost confidence in him because I reached out for more help with my ptsd. The help that I needed though was to help process these traumatic memories - not because I thought that the meds he prescribed were wrong or that I had lost confidence in him. Now I’m stressed that my physician will not want to continue to help me - and Ive grown so dependent on him over the last year and he was been there for me when things have reached crisis point - I’m so confused!

I have managed to secure an appointment with a trauma psychologist at the end of Jan - hopefully we gel!

[sunnyl20]

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