A blog about the search for integrity, DIY psychology, and customizing my own life

Category: C-PTSD

Complex post traumatic stress disorder

  • I Work On My Life 66 Days At a Time

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    A Structure for DIY Therapy During the time when I was organizing the first of my successful efforts to heal (vs. the decades-long failed patterns), my goal-setting challenges modeled from The One Thing book turned into more of an organized effort. I decided beginning in July of 2020 to start one of these 66-day challenges… Read more

  • Is It Really Narcissist vs. Codependent?

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    For those who are making a sincere effort to heal from CPTSD, especially for those raised in dysfunctional families, it’s important to understand types of toxic relationship dynamics. One of the most common–more than a category than a type–is often referred to as the “narcissist/codependent” relationship. The narcissist in this scenario is seen as the… Read more

  • Getting Sober. How Did that Huge Thing Become So Little?

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    Of all the steps that I’ve taken, including: journaling, meditation, impulsively signing on for a couple of creative projects, learning about trauma, etc., one of the biggest steps was cutting alcohol out of my diet and out of my life. Preparing to get sober Getting sober was another big step I took over the summer… Read more

  • Journaling For Mental Health

    Journaling For Mental Health
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    I’ve been outlining the various steps I took starting in late 2019 and going into 2020 to try to emerge from a state of mental illness and misery. Although they seem random and unrelated, these steps led me, for the first time in my life, to a period of continual improvement out of the state… Read more

  • Hiking For (Mental) Health

    Hiking For (Mental) Health
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    In other posts, I’ve described the first effective steps that I took that let to sustained improvements in my mental health. These included creative projects, self-improvement tips, and meditation. The first hike The next “little” thing I did, that ended up being huge for me, was to start more physical activity. In particular, physical activity… Read more

  • Core Beliefs of Meditation Practices Are Also Trauma-Driven Beliefs

    There is no doubt that my starting a mindfulness meditation practice helped to get me finally moving in a direction of healing, after searching for answers for decades. I noticed the difference in my mindset, and I knew right away that this was a tool that was going to improve my life. I still meditate… Read more

  • “I’m Really Very Ill”: Some Symptoms of Misery

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    A big part of getting better, mentally and emotionally, isn’t just admitting that something is wrong. It’s REALIZING that something is wrong. REALLY wrong. Anxiety–Acute in Intensity, Chronic in Duration The main thing that I first noticed—and when I say first, I mean I’ve been feeling it for years and somehow failed to manage to… Read more

  • Full of Poison: Family Dynamics and the Realization That I’m Not Broken For No Reason

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    In 2019/2020, I was bearing up under the burden of lifelong struggles that had never been resolved, but only endured. And this two-year period was a watershed of insights, which I started writing down to make sense of them. I started figuring out tactics and strategies for finally trying to remove some of the burden,… Read more