TW: I survived trauma

Hello 👋🏻
I hope everyone is doing well and have a smooth day 🌼 If you see this, I admire you and your resilience. Remember you are not alone, even if it may seem and feel like it. You have been given the abilities and there’s always a blessing around the corner. The path is not straight. Don’t stop walking.

Some new things I’m trying are:
✅Faith - trusting the his plan or the process
✅Gratitude - even if it rains
✅Mindfulness- blessing are clearer now for me
✅Singing- in my case worship, there’s always a talents/gifts.
✅Connection - all creatures (in my case including higher being).

I’m just here in this journey just as everyone else so feel free if you like to share your resources/practices/strategies/methods/etc around this topic. Hope you find a safe place here connecting. 🙏🏻 Blessings for healing always for everyone ❤️‍🩹🌼🤲🏻

Thank you for your post. Every single one of us needs someone to remind us we all have Some one/spirit/thing with us. I live alone but I have been released from a life of depression at 60 that I began treatment for at 18. I have not ever felt anything close to happiness until now. Keep trying anything you can find to help you. I tried Ketamine at home treatments this March 2022. The first thing that has ever helped me. I should be dead. God has other plans! I so want to help others know there are ways to get well from Treatment Resistant Depression, even after a long forty-plus year trial of every treatment invented. I got a miracle! I believe after my life in the depths of living hell that there is hope for anyone. I cannot believe I am alive and want to live!
Grace, peace and Healing,
Joella

@jokarr60 you are literally light in the darkness! Thank you so much for sharing this 🙏🏻🤍 Blessings 🌼

I pray you have been able to try Ketamine and perhaps have found some relief. Most thankful if I was of any help! Peace ☮️

I was raped in 2019. I remembered face of rapist in January. I had traumatic amnesia for 4 years. I don't know how to trust men when I go places. I worry I will be abducted and raped again. I order all of my groceries on Doordash and Publix Instacart. I went with visiters to Kroger this morning and was terrified I'd lose sight of them and they would leave me.

How do I reconcile my thoughts to feeling safe?

I have identified that is not my environment that is dangerous (if I take reasonable steps to stay physically safe) it is my emotional safety that is jeopardized by my thought process. I am utilizing EMDR with a qualified therapist to deal with my anxiety that occurs with my reoccurring memories. It is difficult work. Many of the episodes have been mitigated but I have a really tough trauma that I must continue to work on. It scares me to revisit that trauma. I do not feel safe when doing the work. But the therapist is there to support me.

EMDR is in my future. I have tremendous physical and mental anxiety. I'm always on guard. It started after rape flashbacks. I was raped by a homeless man I knew.
Would like to compartmentalize the trauma. When I start EMDR, I hope revisiting the trauma will allow me to release it.

Very very sorry for your difficulties. I was a victim of violent crime. In 1982, I was kidnapped and held for a time.

In addition to regular therapy, I highly recommend getting specific therapy to assess if you have PTSD. And if you do have PTSD, to get specific treatment for that.

It is different. PTSD re-wires the brain. It needs a specific kind of work to resolve.

If your therapist agrees it is a good idea, you might want to look into stress management, generally. And also stress reduction. You might want to look into meditation, Hatha Yoga relaxation techniques and such. "The PTSD Handbook" is a professional resource tool for those with PTSD. It includes meditation and Hatha Yoga relaxation techniques. (It is recommended only for use in conjunction with counseling from a therapist).

If your therapist agrees it is a good idea, you might want to think about professional self-defense classes from a martial arts teacher. It is not only learning the physical techniques that can keep you safe, martial arts is an entire culture. Being around that culture can give you confidence in many ways.

But, you really do have to clear that with a therapist. The thought of engaging in martial art strategies, may only trigger you further. The therapist has to review any work in that area.

Online you can find many articles (and, I am sure, many books) by law enforcement professionals, about the dos and don'ts of how to keep yourself safe, what situations and environments to avoid and other safety tips.

Here's one article I found:

You can Google:

"A Former Police Chief Shares 10 Must-Know Safety Tips for Women"

+++

for myself, as a violent crime victim, I have learned some martial arts. I do various things to keep the home safe. And I learned various things that folks would otherwise not know.

For example, keeping your car windows up when you approach an intersection, significantly reduces your risk of a car-jacking. If a perpetrator can stick a gun through the window, quickly, it maximizes his chances of success. Just a side note...about some life hacks that can keep us safe that we otherwise would not think about.

I learned many of these things in counseling and in research to help me endure the consequences of having been kidnapped.

Being kidnapped was a full blown nightmare. I had strong PTSD reactions for at least 8 years. And some to this day. But what I have learned in therapy and through research has definitely made a huge difference.

Very very sorry about the difficulties.

There is hope.

Things do get better.

Take care now.

You are awesome!!! Sorry can begin to express what I feel re your kidnapping and trauma and lingering PTSD. I have therapy every Monday. Next week I booked two to work through anger issues related to the rape. I was treated like a piece of trash. They left me strung out on the meth they injected basically for dead

I was diagnosed 90 percent complex PTSD. I received a lot of SSDI
.