What will help ptsd and struggling

[Hellamegafuckup]

Hi I'm really struggling today and don't no what to do. I am getting talking therapy which has made things at worse for me. I'm told to stick with it but I'm not sleeping and when I do I wake up having nightmares and feeling like its happening again. Having that feeling in the day I am on edge all the time. I made a appointment with my Dr who called but I had no signal so I have to wait until tomorrow. I don't know what they can even do to help has anyone come out of this feeling

have you talked to your care providers about other types of therapy?
I have complex PTSD, and had both CBT and EMDR therapy as part of my treatment, and I found the EMDR to be way more effective and less traumatic than the CBT.

No I haven't spoken to them about another type of therapy. I think that sounds like a good idea I just need something to stop this feeling. I don't think I can actually do it again as we went through the not so bad things. I don't think I can actually do the stuff that is more troubling . Thank you. Do you mind me asking how long it took for you to feel a bit better?

While you're waiting for tomorrow Calm Harm app might be worth a go, lots of ideas for soothing and settling activities on there.
You could also look at TIPP skills and see if you feel these help xx

Thank you I will take a look at those.

I was prescribed mirtazapine as well as psychology appointments to help with PTSD after my DS nearly died at 3 weeks old. Might be worth looking into medication along side the talking therapies.

@Hellamegafuckup honestly that period of my life is a massive blur.
Alongside the therapy, I was also on a mad cocktail of al sorts of antidepressants, antipsychotics and god knows what else, so there’s not really a clear timeline in my head. But after weaning myself off all the drugs (against doctors advice I should add), that’s when I did the EMDR, and I remember being able to sleep a bit better within a few sessions. It works differently to CBT. The way it was explained to me, is that CBT uses your conscious mind to rationally and logically pick through and process the trauma. Whereas EMDR taps directly to your unconscious mind and the area of the brain that stores memories, and just sort of magically reprocesses them and stores them correctly. Even the scientists who came up with it in the 1980’s don’t really understand properly how exactly it works - but it does! Have a google! It has a massive success rate when it comes to patients with PTSD/C-PTSD

That sounds a lot better thank you so much. I am not really wanting to take drugs to help. I that sounds like a much better idea. Thank you

@Hellamegafuckup i know there’s lots of people who have good experiences and the medications really do help them. But for me, it was a lot of trial and error with dosages etc which either wasn’t enough and didn’t help at all or was too much and sent me into really scary highs. When I eventually got the “happy medium”, I was just numb. Numb to everything. Nothing made me happy and nothing made me sad, it was just a whole lot of “meh”. And I didn’t want to feel like that.

Im really not up for taking drugs if I can help it. I have a 5 year old son here by myself and I'm worried about taking that and not being able to look after him. Luckily I do have a very good friend who has really helped me with him.

Can I ask what type of therapy you're currently receiving?

E m d r

Complex PTSD sufferer here and what you have found is very common with people who have trauma - usual talking therapy can make things worse. You need trauma focused therapy from someone who specialises. EMDR is recommended. I have had EMDR twice (many sessions each time) over the year and both times it was transformative. I found reading The Body Keeps he Score very enlightening and helped me to understand how I was reacting to things. I also found movement helped me - yoga and Pilates. You can find trauma sensitive yoga teachers if you have a bit of a research online. Look after yourself, it's a tough journey.

I also take Sertraline and Propranolol both of which have been extremely helpful, minimal side effects, and have helped me to feel more myself again:)

Thank you so much I'm definitely going to see if I can do the emdr therapy. At the moment I'm having cbt therapy where I have to keep going over and over what happened and remembering the details which is really hard. If I could avoid the going over details I think it would really help. So I will definitely look into that. Its good to hear people who have come out cause it does feel like a never ending thing at the moment.

Also might be worth contacting PTSD-UK. They are an amazing charity who were a massive lifeline for me.

I started seeing an NHS therapist about 3 months ago who specialise in trauma as I had PTSD after being assaulted.

She started with EMDR for the first few sessions and then we moved to talking therapy.

I think it is quite common to feel unsettled and even a bit worse while you are having therapy as a lot of stuff comes out and it takes time to process it.

The therapist also recommended reading ''The Body Keeps the Score'' which I found really helpful too. She mentioned ''Complex PTSD: from surviving to thriving'' last week which I am also going to get.

I really wanted to avoid having to take any drugs so I have stayed away from any kind of anti-depressants.

Listening to ''guided meditation for relaxation'' podcasts or YouTube videos every day has also been really helpful.

I warmly recommend The 3 day effect by Florence Williams - there's an audiobook on audible. I know it really inspired me.

Cardio work outs are essential for me. If your hearts hammering working your body really helps.

I did CBT I had 6 sessions and would always feel worse after them, it was extended to 12 and suddenly on session 11 I felt loads better, though I don't entirely understand how or why. Apparently although my progress was slower the data of my iOS and downs with it was pretty textbook in the end. Warmly recommend.

I came to TRE shaking exercises very late, where you do exercises that make you shake to help your body release it. It's interesting and I think it's good but tbh the other things have helped me so much I don't feel I need it.

Good luck

Thank you so much. I had a look at the website and will definitely look at the books suggested. I really appreciate it. It can feel really lonely and desperate sometimes but knowing other people have come out ok really helps to think that things might get better