But I feel like if the burden, the weight of complex PTSD, is like a pack on my back, then the process of healing has made me stronger. It’s sort of something that you carry with you all the time.
…I don’t think that you ever totally heal from complex PTSD. Although this has certainly been helpful, her course of treatment is about management, not cure-as is the case with most chronic conditions. She eventually chose him as her own shrink. And that is exactly what having complex PTSD is like. He would sort of literally not be able to speak well, and he would just focus on surviving.
His father was an alcoholic, and now he had a hard time controlling his emotions when he was angry. And her efforts were wide-ranging they included EMDR, microdosing and megadosing (acid, psilocybin), a support group, meditation, yoga, and acupuncture.įoo then heard a podcast that featured a therapist who compared complex PTSD to the Incredible Hulk ( NPR interview): “Because the Incredible Hulk was actually abused as a kid. This, despite its widespread recognition among trauma experts since psychiatrist Judith Herman coined the term back in 1988.Īnd unfortunately, many of Foo’s initial treatment experiences weren’t too helpful. Years of trauma and violent abuse as a child had left her with a diagnosis – complex PTSD, a little-studied condition that Foo was determined to understand.Ĭ-PTSD, however, is not to be found in the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders).
She graduated from college, landed a job at ‘This American Life,’ became an award-winning radio producer, was dating a lovely man, but she was also struggling. Stephanie Foo grew up in California, the only child of immigrants who abused her for years and then abandoned her as a teenager. It can occur when trauma is repeated and prolonged. The widely acclaimed new book by Stephanie Foo, What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma, is bound to educate many about a type of PTSD we don’t often hear about- C-PTSD (complex PTSD).
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