Hey everybody! Happy Thursday!
And since it's Thursday, I have taken some of your questions
Today's are actually from the website, and if you haven't hoped on to katimorton.com
I'd encourage you to do it
And I have two questions that are really good and different things that
I haven't even talked about yet if you can imagine
So... let's get started
First question says,
"Kati, I've had PTSD for twelve years."
"My nightmares have gotten to the point that I'm afraid to sleep some nights"
"mostly when something triggers my startle response."
"How can I help myself stop being afraid to fall asleep?"
"I wake up most nights in cold sweats and shaking."
"I'm almost always reliving parts of my trauma,"
"and I would give anything, including give up sleep"
"not to go through that again."
Okay, so there are a couple facets to this,
The first being, I don't know if you're seeing a therapist, but if you are,
let them know about this
And if you aren't, make sure you're seeing someone,
reach out to someone, I know that trauma work can be
sooo exhausting and so hard
but I promise you it's worth it
And, so if you are seeing someone, let them know
It's very common, like I said before
about a lot of different things that it can get worse before it gets better
and when we first open up Pandora's Box
of our trauma, whatever it may be,
whatever our past abuse or situation
may have happened to us,
when we open that up and we start
dissecting it and talking about it
and trying to process through it,
it can get a little worse at first before it gets better
because we hadn't talked about this in ages
and we try to just deal with it,
but "dealing" really means stuffing it down
and so when we open that all up all that stuff comes out
and it can be really overwhelming,
and so it's important to have some extra support
during this time because it can get worse
There are also some things you can do
to help yourself better sleep I have a video about how to go to sleep
I also have a video about,
it's an FAQ from forever ago that's like...
how to overcome PTSD nightmares
And so you can watch that again as you, if you would like
but there are things that you can do as far as... doing some journaling
about positive things that have happened in your life before you go to bed
Creating the dream for yourself as you're going to sleep of happy things
Like, so I'm in my house with my friend,
and we're having a really nice time and so you can start to kind of create
the dream that you want to have
and that can sometimes help
But the thing that will end up helping the most is therapy and really processing it through
and I promise it will go away, these nightmares will go away
Just let them know that you're struggling, and hopefully, you know,
it'll get better sooner rather than later
And if anybody has any advice as well leave it below!
because that is just my experience clinically
and I know it can be really hard at the beginning
and sometimes it's good to get some other information
from people who've experienced it themselves
Okay, question number 2,
"Kati, I've recently told my parents about"
"sexual abuse that happened to me when I was 12."
"The person who did it is now out of my life"
"and I have not been abused by him for 4 years."
"They asked me if I wanted to charge him,"
"but I didn't think that I wanted to,"
"but my best friend doesn't understand"
"she thinks it's selfish and that I need to because"
"he might hurt another girl."
"I'm not sure I can handle it though."
"I don't know if that's what's best for me."
"Is it selfish not to want to press charges?"
First of all, no it's not selfish
It's your recovery it's your situation
it's your body it's what happened to you,
you have the right to decide whether or not you want to press charges
If you do think that he is going to hurt someone else, or he's around children of the age
that you were when he abused you...
I would encourage you to report it
If I knew, if I was your therapist and I knew and I knew he was around other people
and he has the potential to abuse, and then I would have to report it,
but it's really your choice
It's something that is completely unique to you,
something the your own process and your own recovery has to call for
I find that it really depends on the person,
I mean, and where you are in your recovery
If you're working with a therapist and you're talking it out
I'm sure they would encourage you to press charges
because for a lot of people, it can feel very...
freeing, in a weird way
like, okay I've done that, close the book
I've made people aware of what a horrific person this person is,
and it can feel kind of good
But I've had other people who never wanted to report it,
and don't feel any worse for it
It's your own choice
There are benefits to it if you still feel so angry at the person
and you just can't deal, that can sometimes relieve some of that,
but the main way we will heal from this, and move past it is in therapy,
and talking it through,
and maybe group therapy too, so you can here from other people's experiences
and know all the things that you're thinking aren't weird, or don't make you crazy,
it's just part of the process of overcoming the abuse
And I, I don't know the type of abuse, but if it was sexual,
the "Courage to Heal" workbook is really great for that
But I would just encourage you, above all things for right now,
to find a therapist, to start talking about it,
start opening up, start processing through it
and then know that you're open to decide whatever you want,
it's your decision, it's not anyone else's
Did it happen to them? No.
So, take your own time, decide what's best for you,
and that doesn't make you selfish You're just taking care of yourself
And last time I checked, self-care isn't selfish
Am I right?
Okay, I love you all, I will see on... probably Friday
'cause Saturday is the Fourth of July, yay!
So, I'll probably post a journal topic this week
on Friday, so you get to hear my song
But I will see you all then, tomorrow
Bye!
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