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| Bi-polar Disorder & PTSD Question: Response: The memories and flashbacks are the
subconscious mind's way of drawing your attention to issues that you need
to work on. Once your fear of
those memories are addressed and you are able to separate past from
present... you will see that the bipolar symptoms will reduce in intensity
also. When you get in touch with your strengths as an adult, and
create an emotionally safe environment for yourself, you will be able to
help the inner child overcome the fears and trauma. It is important to realize that people
re-create and reinforce their trauma through their life choices... so that
a similar abusive situation is experienced.
Survivors learn to abuse themselves in almost the same manner that
they were abused. ie:
objectifying themself, disrespecting and devaluing their life, abusing
their body, not trusting themselves and not setting appropriate
boundaries, etc. Everyone
develops a belief system based on his or her experiences, so if your
experience is of abuse, then it follows that your belief system about
yourself is abusive. Therapy will help you identify your belief
system and the choices you make that are harmful to you.
And help you get to the point that you can love, respect and value
yourself, regardless of the past. The
results are worth it, YOU are worth it.
You deserve to heal and create a beautiful life for yourself. A good book to start with is: 'The Courage
to Heal' by Bass and Davis Regards
Follow-up Response: The reality is that we can never control
the other person's actions. An
emotionally safe environment is created internally when one is able to
overcome their fears. As long
as one is scared one gives one's power away. If the perpetrator knows that you are scared then of course
he is going to intimidate you. We
create our own emotionally safe environments.
Survivors have to learn how to think and feel safe, despite the
trauma. Non-professionals cannot substitute for
counseling... they can be great, safe support system, help you vent your
feelings, encourage and nurture you... but there is more to therapy than
just supportive listening. Most
survivors develop delusional thinking patterns that must be identified,
non-professionals are not trained to identify delusions, nor can they help
you out of it. The connection
between thoughts, feelings and actions, patterns of behavior, etc. have to
be identified and replaced with healthier ones. Just to give you and example... you say 'afraid is good'... that is unhealthy thinking, being cautious in some situations makes sense, being afraid all the time does not. There are many single women living alone who have a history of abuse and they learn to overcome their fears and not allow it to control their entire life. I am not trying to be insensitive to your situation, but it is important to see that you may be reinforcing the fears beyond what is healthy. I can answer some of your questions online, but therapy involves more than just reading the written word, body language and facial expressions, tone of voice, etc. are all important clues to a client's state of mind and emotions. Without that therapy is not too effective. Now, why do doctor's offices make you nervous? There must be enough professionals there to deal with any situation or condition you might get into. The main issue for you seems to be fear,
and learning to think/feel safe... before you even start working on
anything else. Regards |