PTSD 2.0

I've had a LOT of therapy for my PTSD. A LOT, including EMDR. Prior to EMDR, I suffered pretty heavily from intrusive memories and flashbacks, gawd awful startle reflex...like constant...like hard to function day to day.  EMDR really dampened the symptoms down, as long as I hadn't gone too long without adequate sleep, and wasn't hyper-stressed out, or currently triggered as shit.

I did have a couple years where I really felt like I had a handle on this shit...like it was just one little piece of who I am, as opposed to The Thing that overshadows all aspects of my life.  I had some glorious moments of "wow, this must be what it's like for 'normal' people." Eventually little chinks in my armor that didn't' seem like much until they all piled up, pulled me back into those old loops. Some experiences I can identify that got me off course include a couple experiences when I was doing sex offender treatment, toxic work environments that were not safe, reliving childhood dynamics of not being heard/validated/protected by those with power. Then the subsequent feeling like a failure, like I can't do anything right, the decreased ability to deal with stressors... And then the whole Broch Turner thing knocked me flat on my ass, and I haven't been able to really get my legs under me. Add to that the insanity of our country electing a man who has been accused of sexual assault by numerous women, and who has openly admitted to being a sexual predator. 

When I slow down ...especially when I lie down to go to sleep, as silence sets in, "it" is un-ignorable. It's like when you can hear your neighbors...they're just loud enough that you know who is speaking, and just loud enough that you can't ignore them, but not loud enough that you can make out what they are saying. I know what is there, and these days, instead of coming as the video recording of events, it's the emotional/visceral piece...the claws sunk into my chest that are the anticipation of the inevitable/unavoidable that I hope if I just pretend it's not there hard enough, that it won't be...even though deep down I know it will be the same...that I am not safe, I am alone, no one is going to make it better, and all of my efforts were useless. 

There is a darkness...a heaviness that surrounds me and fills me. It is hopelessness, and helplessness...knowing that I am powerless. It is the constant vigilance; wondering when the next attack will come...and knowing that it will come, because it always does.

It is being caught by the loop of the trauma, the hopelessness, the sense of endless torture.

I wish I could say that today I AM safe...but I can't. As a gay woman, I am a target...it's been a few years since I've been accosted, but the politics of the last several months has put those of us who don't fall into the standard Straight/white/male/christian category back in the cross hairs. 

So, I don't sleep at night, I eat like an elephant all day, and I can't seem to slow my brain down long enough to focus on studying for my boards because that might allow "it" to creep in. I busy myself with trying to make this world a better place so I can feel safer in it, less powerless...but I'm still struggling.