Therapy for PTSD

I wasn't in the armed forces, or have combat PTSD. I did have sexual assault related PTSD and found a therapy that can be used to treat ANY kind of PTSD... is in fact frequently used with combat PTSD. It saved my life. It sounded like hocus pocus at the time.. I held NO hope of its actually working but I was already in the office, already paying for the hour visit so I gave it a shot. Two sessions later I could actually control when I thought about what had happened to me... It doesn't erase the memories but they won't accost you in the middle of the day, in the middle of work, you won't suddenly feel them in your hands, hear their voices... It only comes up when you try to tell someone about it or try and think about it (which of course isn't often! Who wants to relive those moments for no reason?)


The therapy is called EMDR therapy... Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. There are a couple of ways it can be done... some do it by having your eyes follow a laser on a screen as you visualize what happened to you... but you have to keep your eyes open for that and I found it hard to visualize with my eyes open. The other way is to sit with your hands on your knees, palms down, and visualize, while the therapist taps the back of your hands... one then the other. They'll stop every few minutes, check on you largely because you stop breathing, you get so deeply into it. It took me two sessions and I went from a total mess to having total control. I never thought it would work but it did. I know it sounds nuts but give it a chance. Find someone who specializes in this. It's worth it!

I've heard quite a few people say that EMDR helped them. It seems that it helps those with pretty severe trauma resulted from a horrific event or multiple events. There are many other people though who's trauma wasn't caused by specific events but a long-term maltreatment. Nowadays, the term "complex PTSD" is used for this kind of trauma or C-PTSD. I don't know if C-PTSD can be helped by EMDR because in that case there is no specific single event or several separate events to process. It's kind of a combination of stress/emotional pain accumulated over many years.

WM

EMDR is a miracle. I have done it with three different health providers and found that the most efficient way for me was with the person waving her pen back and forth. In the background she played very uplifting soundtrack music. I have also tried with a machine that sends a beam of light across a rectangular pole, and with the vibrating things in your hands. I found that following the pen is the best way for me. The amount of information they recorded from me during those few successful sessions were massive. I have her medical notes in my possession, and I usually burst into tears when I read them. However, EMDR had a profound significance in my recovery. I highly recommend it to combat veterans as I am one myself.

What is an accepted and widely used C-PTSD treatment method? Or what are the set frequently used in cases of prolonged childhood abuse from a narcissist? What sort of treatments are given if the personal one time experienced depersonalization, but is no longer experiencing it, and the person is just entirely depressed all the time, usually functions, but doesn't always get out of bed?

I also am interested in this.

In dealing with depression for Child abuse survivors I am often puzzled at how professionals deal with us.

Counsellor : "you are always sad .. cheer up life is not that bad, take some happy pills"

Survivor: "But when I think of where I find myself in life, job, career, relationships, socially .. I ask myself why am I in this situation - and the answer is because someone screwed me up real bad when I was a kid. My life sucks and it is not a life I should be living. A mess not of my own creation. A mess that society stood back from and let happen. Now tell me that life is not that bad again - have you ever lived mine".

Yeah there is depression because you have an imbalance of the right stuff in the brain and depression because you wish you were never born ...two different things.

Hang in there, hope all goes well for you, not everyone understands but some of us do.

Hello!
Please, any key, or idea that woudl work: how to find a luck in such circumstances? many thanks!!!