C/PTSD TRIGGERS AND HOW WE CAN HELP … If you are living with someone who suffers with CPTSD OR PTSD then it’s very difficult to help someone that doesn’t want to be helped. You can do various things though that will help. Avoid encouraging your partner to work long hours. Being tired is counteractive where this condition is concerned. To the C/PTSD brain being tired is like kryptonite.
Night shifts are the worst. None of us should be encouraged to lie awake thinking in the dead of night. Your body is at it’s lowest point between 2am and 4am. Therefore your defenses are down and naturally we feel more vulnerable at that time. In this state of mind, our C/PTSD mind is in a state of high alert. Needless to say insomnia is common in sufferers. Worry and anxiety fuels hypervigilance, therefore the early hours are not the time C/PTSD brain to be awake if it can be avoided.
Never walk the garden path by moonlight because you may see a rake as a snake. In the sunlight it is most certainly only the rake. Negative world view and a lack of faith maybe something we are all feeling currently to a more or lesser degree. Dysthymia is going to be a very ongoing and wide spread manifestation during this lockdown and after the pandemic. Agrophobia is common in C/PTSD suffers. Being locked down is going to bring this symptom to the fore in many, but even in those who do not normally experience it.
Being fed fear by the media
The media is feeding us all fear of going out due to the virus. After months of being told repeatedly that home is the only style place, most of us will feel like we are coming out of hibernation. Therefore if it does that to a healthy brain just think what C/PTSD brain will make of being let back out. My least favorite emotion displayed by anyone is embitterment. Down to the close calls with this in loved ones , it tends to rattle my cage a little. It’s a waste of headspace. With C/PTSD bitterness can bubble under the surface . Being very close to someone with CPTSD myself it is something I have had to find a coping mechanism for . Meditation actually works well for me as a time out “winddown ” . Clearing my head of any negative thought patterns that could be starting to build up.
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-dysthymia-dysthymic-disorder-1066954
look up dysthymia on the above link to find information and advice on the condition that is already common but will become wide spread after the lockdown and pandemic ends.
C/PTSD can send the sufferer from apathy to rage in seconds if triggered . Your instinct maybe to run in the opposite direction. It may clear you physically from the path of any rage but don’t run too far or for too long if you want the person to remain in your life long term. If you can learn to be apathetic towards these episodes which can, on occasion, resemble a tantrum by a toddler then you may just survive and the long service could be yours.
It’s not easy living with the feeling of treading on eggshells. Not knowing all the triggers or when one will strike. With C/PTSD it’s not just a case of avoiding stressful situations that could bring up memories of the causal event. With C/PTSD it an be literally anything. You could be enjoying a lovely day and suddenly a noise or smell could be the trigger that sends it all crashing down.