I’m 51 and in a loving relationship for 11 years. I’ve since the start, had my nervous system going into a hypervigilant mode around my partner’s involvement with his ex and his kids, which feels like a big threat to my internal safety. It’s all above board in doing the right thing from his part. I think I’ve got complex PTSD from being exposed to this regularly. I was born breached with hip joints not developed properly and was put into a contraption for a few early weeks and I never cried and I slept a lot and I wasn’t interested in feeding. Freeze? Any advice?
Call Tag: activated
All right, so today, one big broad theme is freeze. Lots of questions about freeze and different ways that it shows up in different people and what happens as we move in and out of it. To start, one of the things to talk about is the physical manifestations of freeze.
“I’m 48. Had chronic fatigue for 25 years, mental health issues since 11. Hypersensitive to chemicals, allergens, shock and childhood trauma, chronic stress, et cetera. I sat outside today with my bare feet on the grass for 30 minutes and did the practice of orienting. Irene said to look for tension in the pelvis, and I did notice a sensation of holding. I breathed to see if it would release and it did. I laughed and then cried. Then all afternoon, I had a sympathetic activation I could not discharge. What’s going on here?”
Something my trauma patterns have a hard time doing is making decisions. I either freeze up and stay stagnant, or I have to adrenalize myself forward and bypass the fear. Especially if it’s a bigger decision, like finding a way to make money long term, or where to live for a couple months. I’m curious, when there’s still trauma present, how can we make aligned decisions? Or is it more about not getting hung up on making the right decisions, and just living our life to the best of our ability?