Question for the CPTSD community…
I think my question(s) require context so I’ll start there: I've spent almost two decades working on my own CPTSD, in what I'd now call a maintenance stage (basically, not "fixed," but steady, with tools that actually work for me.) I truly don’t know if I would have gotten here if I didn’t get an “insider look” at why people like me seem to be missed in the mental healthcare system. My relentless need to make sense of myself and the hyper-empath in me led me down a path to training as trauma therapist, but the therapy trainings taught me next to nothing to do effective healing work with CPTSD or more chronic / complex conditions in general. I’ve learned WAY more from my own healing process and my clients than I ever did from a textbook or therapy trainings.
I'm posting here because I keep running into the same frustration, both in my own healing and in what I see people describe in spaces like this: good, accessible support for CPTSD is hard to find. It’s a unicorn, really. What's easy to find is often expensive, gatekept, one-size-fits-all, or genuinely retraumatizing because it was built with capitalism or personal gain vs a human’s actual nervous system in mind. I care a lot about changing that, and I have skills I'd like to put toward building free / low-cost / international / self-guided resources instead of sitting on them.
The problem is I have too many ideas and not enough focus (thanks, ADHD). So, instead of guessing what would actually help, I want to ask the people who know best: those of us living it day in and day out.
So here's my question for this community:
When you think about your own recovery, what's the common gap, not just "my specific situation is hard" (though that's valid too), but something you suspect a lot of people here might run into. Things like:
- A type of resource / explanation of the experience you've wished existed but couldn't find anywhere (or found after many internet rabbit holes)
- Something that keeps being offered but doesn't actually work, or makes things worse
- A barrier that isn't about your individual circumstances, but about how these resources are built or delivered (cost, format, language, accessibility, cultural fit, etc.)
- Literally anything else you thing could be helpful to get me out of this analysis paralysis I’m in on how tf to actually help people 😭
I'm not trying to sell anything here, recruit/promote myself or build toward a paywall I'm just trying to figure out where to focus first so I'm not just spinning my wheels with ideas that never turn into anything.
Thank you for even reading this, and for whatever you're willing to share.