[Moodswing]

https://dharmagoddess.wordpress.com/...ks-and-c-ptsd/

I had no idea that this actually had a name. I just thought I was nuts. I feel so validated now. I just wished with all this therapy someone would have explained it to me.

[Open Eyes]

(((Moodswing))),

If you are still in therapy you should copy this and bring it to your T. That is what I do with my T as T's don't always keep up with the latest.

Yes, this is a very good article and is also "very validating" too. I struggle with these "emotional" flashbacks too and my husband tends to give me a hard time when I just can't always "snap out of it".

Thanks for sharing
OE

[Moodswing]

No I feel like that would be baiting him. He needs to do his own research.

[Moodswing]

Here is another good one. I have been barking up the wrong tree for the last 10 years researching bulimia/self-harm/depression/suicide. Nothing really fully made sense to me until recently my T mentioned he diagnosed me for the insurance company as complex PTSD. That is when I started looking up cPTSd and it just all makes so much sense and explains what has been happening to me. Not that it changes anything but I do not feel soooo crazy. Well maybe I do.

Sanctuary for the Abused: Managing Abandonment Depression in Complex PTSD (C-PTSD)

[unaluna]

Originally Posted by Moodswing

No I feel like that would be baiting him. He needs to do his own research.

I would see it more as just saying, this is what it feels like for me. When we find words we can relate to, it's a gift from the universe.

[Open Eyes]

Originally Posted by Moodswing

No I feel like that would be baiting him. He needs to do his own research.

I used to feel that way myself. But I don't anymore, because I know that often therapists get into a therapy program that seems to work and they get very involved with patients and don't always have time to keep up with all the articles and research that comes out.

What I think about is how much I struggle and how difficult it really is and that therapists do "learn a lot from their patients" as they "practice" therapy work.

So, if I find something that really helps me, I do bring it to him because I would rather "share" and if I can help "him" it will also help others like myself who reach out to him for help. I have gotten to a point with my therapist that we are a "team" and while I look to him for help, I am also aware that what he is also doing is "helping me learn how to help myself". There is such a "need" for "good therapists" out there, it is a challenging career. It must be so challenging and tiring to hear so many bad things that people experience day after day. I know that it can get depressing and tiring for T's. My T told me that it took him a while to understand that he cannot "fix" his patients, that he has to learn to be patient and listen and do his best to help them learn to "help themselves".

OE

[Moodswing]

[quote=Open Eyes;3164902]I used to feel that way myself. But I don't anymore, because I know that often therapists get into a therapy program that seems to work and they get very involved with patients and don't always have time to keep up with all the articles and research that comes out.

Is this "Emotional Flashbacks" new?

[Open Eyes]

Originally Posted by Moodswing

Here is another good one. I have been barking up the wrong tree for the last 10 years researching bulimia/self-harm/depression/suicide. Nothing really fully made sense to me until recently my T mentioned he diagnosed me for the insurance company as complex PTSD. That is when I started looking up cPTSd and it just all makes so much sense and explains what has been happening to me. Not that it changes anything but I do not feel soooo crazy. Well maybe I do.

Sanctuary for the Abused: Managing Abandonment Depression in Complex PTSD (C-PTSD)

Wow, this is a very good link.

Thanks for sharing.

OE

[winter4me]

omg. I am 60yo, had yrs of t etc; was diagnosed by three separate pdocs with ptsd but found this hard to accept (I could "get" the panic, depression, anxiety, hypomania when feeling good till someone complained of it as not normal..then wanted to disown this and felt so ashamed by it each time...). I have never had such a flood gate of both emotional and visual flashbacks that suddenly connected in this overwhelming way before. It makes sense of the senseless, things I have been through, things I have done, what happened to my brother,-----I couldn't read it all, have to wait till a day I don't have to go to work. Could something set me "free" in a new way after all this time???????????????
Or will I sink? I am not sure, but I think I want to thank you. "me" "ME" "ME" it kept saying.

[unaluna]

Originally Posted by Moodswing

Is this "Emotional Flashbacks" new?

I think it's that it's hard to communicate to another person how we are feeling. I would be very very surprised if every person on pc read these articles and said yes that's exactly how I feel, partly because it's not how they feel, and partly because they just won't understand it the same way as the next person.

I wouldn't say that the concept of emotional flashbacks is new. The idea of repetition compulsion is kinda based on it - we have these old bad feelings that repeat, and we try the old bad ways, over and over, to make it come out differently. Sometimes we're not ready to hear it - which is such a cliche, but what has been helpful for me is to find a benchmark (as we used in computers) - a test process that you try every six months or however, to measure how much you've changed. In my benchmark process, my t was interpreting exactly correctly, but it was too painful to hear at first. Who wants to hear, you sound like your mother?? I told him, no offense, but no wonder you're divorced - nobody wants to hear that in ANY context!!

[Open Eyes]

[quote=hankster;3165046]

Originally Posted by Moodswing

I think it's that it's hard to communicate to another person how we are feeling. I would be very very surprised if every person on pc read these articles and said yes that's exactly how I feel, partly because it's not how they feel, and partly because they just won't understand it the same way as the next person.

I wouldn't say that the concept of emotional flashbacks is new. The idea of repetition compulsion is kinda based on it - we have these old bad feelings that repeat, and we try the old bad ways, over and over, to make it come out differently. Sometimes we're not ready to hear it - which is such a cliche, but what has been helpful for me is to find a benchmark (as we used in computers) - a test process that you try every six months or however, to measure how much you've changed. In my benchmark process, my t was interpreting exactly correctly, but it was too painful to hear at first. Who wants to hear, you sound like your mother?? I told him, no offense, but no wonder you're divorced - nobody wants to hear that in ANY context!!

Hankster, that was not "my" question that you put in quotes.

What I find "good" about this link is that it describes the "cycles" that PTSD can present. Are emotional flashbacks new? No, this information is not really "new", however, the way it is written out and explained is very "well done".
Honestly, what I read of it (I didn't read it all either), it described so much of what I have been trying to describe for a very "long time". I think what this article does is it really articulates the challenges that are so hard for complex PTSD patients to explain to their therapists and even those around them.

Yes, I know that PTSD or more specifically Complex PTSD is often misdiagnosed as "OCD and Depression or Bipolar, or Avoidant personality disorder to name just a few. It is nice to see this "validated" too.

I plan on sharing this article with my T because I think he will agree with how well it is written and that he works his therapy the way this article suggests that works well with patients. In fact we had a discussion about Borderline Personality Disorder because when I saw that here at PC I wanted to learn about it because I met some members struggling with it. He doesn't like the "negative" stigma attached to that disorder and he feels these individuals respond to therapy just as well as someone like me. He doesn't like "feeding negative to people who already struggle with personal value".
I tend agree with his opinion too.

OE

[Open Eyes]

I really appreciate your sharing these links Moodswing, I got a lot from them too.

OE

[unaluna]

Sorry oe - I didnt notice it at first,; I corrected it.

[Open Eyes]

[quote=Moodswing;3164942]

Originally Posted by Open Eyes

I used to feel that way myself. But I don't anymore, because I know that often therapists get into a therapy program that seems to work and they get very involved with patients and don't always have time to keep up with all the articles and research that comes out.

Is this "Emotional Flashbacks" new?

Well, as hankster says, no, Emotional Flashbacks are not "new" to psychologists. However, I have read a lot on my own and have never come across something as "well written" as this article you have posted. I am definitely going to share it with my T too, because while we have discussed different aspects of the elements discussed in this article, he has never explained it to me as well as this article explains it.

I also suffer from "body memories" too and I "have" talked to my T about having deep depressive days but these days are just like "flashbacks" when I was very young and so stressed that I felt completely depleted. I talked about it as "situational" because of how the situations I have been in lately have triggered these deep depressive full body "flashbacks" to happen to me.
I do not suffer from this constantly, and I am positive, I am having "flashbacks" and can even remember the situations where these severely depressive states occurred in me.

I am so glad you posted this because it will help me with my therapist as it is described so well in this article as I have mentioned.

Please don't get angry with your T for not telling you how you are challenged just as this article does. I have a wonderful T and he has not explained it to me the same way as this article does, I am not going to get "angry" with him for that. After all this article is "recent" and was put out this year. While PTSD has been known about for a while, they are still studying it all the time and just in the past 5 years have gained a better understanding of it. The entire field of psychology is still in it's infancy really because there is so much we have yet to learn about the human brain.

As I mentioned, I share with my T and if I find something that hits home with me, even whatever "new" has come out, I bring it and he reads it and he also makes copies of it for other patients. He is learning all the time from his patients and "therapy" really is a "team" effort IMHO. Remember, not all patients can "verbalize" their challenges either. And T's have to be "very patient" and try not to "overwhelm" their patients too.

The other thing that is "positive" about sharing your own "research" with a T is, that if you do find something that is very helpful and share it with your T, often T's get together with other T's and support and share with each other and if something informative like this comes to their attention, they do share it and discuss it. I know my T does that which is a "win, win" for patients like you and me and others that need all the support they can get. There "are" T's out there that really "do" want to "help" their patients "heal" as best as they can. Not all of them just "go through the motions" for a pay check.

OE

[Moodswing]

I e-mailed my therapist with all 3 links
Pete Walker, M.A. Psychotherapy
https://dharmagoddess.wordpress.com/...ks-and-c-ptsd/
http://abusesanctuary.blogspot.com/2...ession-in.html

I know T's do not like when you identify with a diagnosis but this I am. I never understood my bulimia, self harm or at times the absolute need to end my life. I never felt I functioned well...just enough to get by and if it was not for my husband I would be dead or living on the streets. I still at age 46 can not function on my own and maybe I never will. I just want to feel what peace is like and want to strive to be something without fear and crumbling into a heap.

[MoxieDoxie]

[QUOTE=Moodswing;3165302]I e-mailed my therapist with all 3 links

I hope your T does not turn a cold shoulder to you like mine did. Let us know how this goes.

[Moodswing]

Originally Posted by Moodswing

I e-mailed my therapist with all 3 links
Pete Walker, M.A. Psychotherapy
https://dharmagoddess.wordpress.com/...ks-and-c-ptsd/
Sanctuary for the Abused: Managing Abandonment Depression in Complex PTSD (C-PTSD)

I know T's do not like when you identify with a diagnosis but this I am. I never understood my bulimia, self harm or at times the absolute need to end my life. I never felt I functioned well...just enough to get by and if it was not for my husband I would be dead or living on the streets. I still at age 46 can not function on my own and maybe I never will. I just want to feel what peace is like and want to strive to be something without fear and crumbling into a heap.

This turned out to be a really big mistake.

[Open Eyes]

(((Moodswing))),

I cant see how emailing your T those links would "be a mistake". You have a right to "say how you feel and even that these links make a lot of sense to you". A T's job is to encourage you to learn and even to "discuss" links like this. My T doesn't get "mad" at me, he likes that I have been trying to "learn" and work at my "healing".

My T has explained self injury to me and the symptoms you are describing and he treats patients with these challenges and he would "never" get mad at you for "presenting this info" in fact, what he does with me is "WE DISCUSS IT", nothing wrong with that.

When you find something that "hits home for you like this" then it's important that your T acknowledge that with you IMHO.

I hope you didn't get a negative response from your T on this, that would be wrong of him/her IMHO.

OE

[ThisWayOut]

I'm a little late joining, but I have only recently heard the title "emotional flashbacks" and have always just called them flashbacks (because that is how they were described to me many years ago). But I have had those for many, many years.
I'm sorry that sending the info to your T seems like a mistake. I hope it is just your fear, and not his actual reaction...
(hugs)
Oh, another interesting site on trauma stuff is http://www.drglenndoyle.com/ <--I worked with him ever so briefly while at The Center at PIW in Washington DC. He's got a slightly different take on things, but I like it (and we share a similar sense of humor)

[tinyrabbit]

Why was it a mistake, Moodswing?

I don't think it's necessarily true that Ts dislike people identifying with diagnoses. I told my T I read some stuff about BPD and realised I had some of the traits, though not all of them, and he just asked how I felt about that.

[Moodswing]

Originally Posted by Moodswing

I e-mailed my therapist with all 3 links
Pete Walker, M.A. Psychotherapy
https://dharmagoddess.wordpress.com/...ks-and-c-ptsd/
Sanctuary for the Abused: Managing Abandonment Depression in Complex PTSD (C-PTSD)

I know T's do not like when you identify with a diagnosis but this I am. I never understood my bulimia, self harm or at times the absolute need to end my life. I never felt I functioned well...just enough to get by and if it was not for my husband I would be dead or living on the streets. I still at age 46 can not function on my own and maybe I never will. I just want to feel what peace is like and want to strive to be something without fear and crumbling into a heap.

The only response I got from him was he received the links but had not read through them and that was it. I do not know why I bothered. So invalidating. He can be so nurturing at times and then cold.

[tiggerandcrew]

Thank you so much for posting this article. I really have been confused about my feelings and emotions and now have some place to start looking for answers. Again, thanks for the post.