Writing it out before therapy always helps me.

Also, before I knew the words "trauma" or "PTSD" or "flashback," I had to rely on metaphor.

"I feel like I'm standing next to a cliff and if the wind changes slightly, I might blow over."

"I feel like I'm standing next to a pit and if I look inside, I might die."

It turns out, I had a lot of unexpressed grief. I had no idea that word -- "unexpressed grief."

And I had PTSD from abuse. But I didn't even know that until I said to my T, "To this day, I can't (do X normal activity) because I panic thinking that (Y will happen.)"

Do metaphors help?

I think there is actually clinical language to help but I needed a therapist to help me.

Another example. I had a bad therapist. And I was trying to describe a traumatic event in my past. (But again, I didn't know to use the word trauma.) So I said to the therapist, "Something HAPPENED to me. Like it changed me drastically and something huge HAPPENED and I can't describe it, but I know it affects me to this day."

The therapist sucked and had no idea what I was talking about and gave me some lame answer that I knew was not true.

My second therapist, in the VERY FIRST session, said, "That was a trauma, like in a normal situation that would be trauma, but with your case it was like trauma times 10."

I went home, Googled "trauma," and realized - AHA this is what plagues me!

...Another time, I had this out-of-body feeling as if someone else were living my life. I had NO IDEA about the word "dissociation." I didn't have the language for it.

So I kept saying, "I don't feel like myself. As if there is this other person carrying out the motions of my life and I am just watching."

Later, I found that I was dissociated much of the time and that I do have some degree of multiplicity of personality. (I think we all do.)

Looooong way of saying that maybe it's OK to not find the exact perfect word, but instead to describe the feelings in terms of metaphor, using the words you know. The more you describe, the better!