CPTSD & sexual assault

[justilou1]

Is there life after this? Does your libido ever recover? I’m not sure my marriage will. Why has my brain decided to recover images I had buried for thirty years? Why couldn’t I have left them in the past?

In my mid-40s I think I've finally "got over" the abuse I experienced aged 7/8 after having trauma counselling & a form of EMDR. It really helped with the images, it somehow processes how your brain deals with them. You have to confront them & work through them, which is distressing in the short term but worth trying.

Please do not give up on recovering some form of life afterwards, even though it might seem impossible right now. I would second EMDR therapy, it is the only thing that has really helped. Like pp said, it can be really hard work but is so worth it. I would not say I am fully there yet but can at least see that there could be a way to get past this and finally get some sort of life back. I really hope you can get the help you need.

Thank you for answering. I will look into EMDR.