Happy Friday! We’re reading Coping with Trauma Related Dissociation, by Suzette Boon, Kathy Steele and Onno Van Der Hart.
Alice here, I’ll be hosting this week because I’m the most ‘aware’ of our (C)PTSD. Lucky me, eh? 🙂 I learned about the condition in March this year, and sought therapy when I realized how seriously it was screwing up my life. I’ve got the most memory of having these symptoms, and of dismissing them for years because they’re unfixable.
That last word? Not true.
Enjoy the chapter!
Content Overview
What is PTSD / What are the Symptoms of PTSD
These sections cover causes, intrusion, avoidance, and hyperarousal. As in previous chapters, it aims to give you the correct clinical terms and definitions to describe what’s happening to you. Using the right words can really help you communicate with your doctor, therapist or psychiatrist.
DID and DDNOS in CPTSD
“Each part of the personality may be stuck in a particular group of PTSD symptoms”.
Yep, different parts can experience different symptoms. This is another chapter where using highlighters will let your parts more easily indicate where they relate. Even better, they may highlight things where they’d like help.
Discussion Starters
Any ‘oh, that’s not normal?’ surprises in this one?
Are you motivated to start exploring solutions to your PTSD-specific symptoms? Help is far more freely available for these symptoms, since it’s more well known/studied.
If not, what’s your biggest fear, and what help do you think you need to try?
Additional Resources
If you’re finding the book a bit dry, or don’t have the book, these video from an LMFT cover the same topics:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QnfRGQp6ZPA (part 1, PTSD and treatments)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qIAZcOryl4 (part 2, CPTSD, and additional treatments)
Maximum effort:
“Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving” by Pete Walker – This is book is outstanding and if you find reading a helpful way to learn, this is should be your starting point. It’s intended for patients and many libraries carry it.
You can find additional comments on this chapter here.