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Neurological Dysregulation: The Hidden Trauma Symptom You MUST Heal First

Crappy Childhood Fairy・2 minutes read

Disregulation is a core symptom of complex PTSD, affecting reasoning, emotions, and daily tasks, leading to misinterpretations of expressions and interactions. Techniques like grounding exercises and focusing on positive activities can help re-regulate emotions and improve stability.

Insights

  • Disregulation is a fundamental symptom of complex PTSD that disrupts the nervous system's regulation, affecting emotions, reasoning, and daily tasks, leading to misinterpretations of emotions and expressions, crucial for recognizing and controlling negative impulses.
  • Re-regulation techniques like grounding exercises, self-care activities, and avoiding drugs are essential to combat disregulation, with a focus on addressing current life problems, mastering re-regulation for a positive life, and utilizing strategies like writing fears down, engaging with the environment, and shifting focus to helping others.

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Recent questions

  • What is disregulation in PTSD?

    Disregulation is a core symptom of complex PTSD, impacting emotions, memories, and relationships. It leads to difficulties in daily tasks, affecting reasoning, attention, and emotions. Signs include numbness, clumsiness, and emotional outbursts.

  • How can one recognize disregulation?

    Signs of disregulation include numbness, clumsiness, changes in handwriting, and emotional outbursts. It can cause misinterpretations of emotions and expressions, leading to misunderstandings in interactions.

  • What are techniques to re-regulate during disregulation?

    Grounding exercises like stamping feet, deep breathing, and pressing tongue to teeth can help re-regulate during disregulation. Eating balanced meals, washing hands, exposure to cold water, and self-hugging are also beneficial.

  • How can one climb out of disregulation?

    To climb out of disregulation, taking actions to regain alertness, peace, focus, and friendliness is crucial. Talking about distressing incidents with a trusted person, writing down fears, and engaging with the environment through senses can aid in re-regulating.

  • How can one improve mood during disregulation?

    Engaging in acts of kindness for others, complimenting them, and focusing on positive memories can improve mood during disregulation. Shifting focus from personal problems to helping others can reduce suffering and uplift one's day.

Related videos

Summary

00:00

Understanding and Healing Disregulation in PTSD

  • Disregulation is a core symptom of complex PTSD, crucial for understanding and healing.
  • Disregulation is a universal symptom underlying all other symptoms of childhood PTSD.
  • Trauma disrupts the nervous system's basic regulation, impacting emotions, memories, and relationships.
  • Disregulation affects reasoning, attention, and emotions, leading to difficulties in daily tasks.
  • Signs of disregulation include numbness, clumsiness, changes in handwriting, and emotional outbursts.
  • Disregulation can cause misinterpretations of emotions and expressions, leading to misunderstandings.
  • Disregulation can be compared to wearing headphones with loud music and blurry vision, affecting interactions.
  • Recognizing signs of disregulation is crucial to controlling negative impulses and seeking safety.
  • Techniques to re-regulate include grounding exercises like stamping feet, deep breathing, and pressing tongue to teeth.
  • Eating balanced meals, washing hands, exposure to cold water, and self-hugging can help re-regulate during disregulation.

14:07

Re-Regulation: Key to Healing from CPTSD

  • Drugs can interfere with re-regulation, causing disregulation in everyone, but those with CPTSD experience it more frequently and for longer periods.
  • The goal is to re-regulate as soon as disregulation is noticed and to maintain regulation more often.
  • Focus on addressing behaviors and circumstances that stem from living disregulated due to childhood trauma.
  • Shift focus to current life problems hindering progress and happiness.
  • Mastering re-regulation opens up possibilities for a positive life, including meeting people, trying new things, and making a difference.
  • After a distressing incident, the speaker experienced deep disregulation due to CPTSD, leading to productivity crashes.
  • To climb out of disregulation, the speaker took a series of actions to regain alertness, peace, focus, and friendliness.
  • Talking about the incident with a trusted person helped the speaker process emotions and move past the negative experience.
  • Writing fears and resentments down helps release them from the mind, providing relief and preventing re-traumatization.
  • Going outside, moving around, and engaging with the environment through senses like sight and smell aids in re-regulating and aligning with reality.

27:10

Regain Stability Through Grounding and Productivity

  • Disregulation leads to losing track of time and feeling overwhelmed by thoughts and emotions.
  • Returning to present time and focusing on simple tasks can help regain stability.
  • Grounding techniques like eating well, meditating, and exercising can aid in re-regulating emotions.
  • Using the Pomodoro technique, working in 25-minute intervals, can enhance productivity.
  • Attending a 12-step meeting and making a list of steps to resolve issues can be beneficial.
  • Avoiding dwelling on negative memories and focusing on positive ones can improve mood.
  • Engaging in acts of kindness for others, especially anonymously, can boost happiness.
  • Complimenting others and acknowledging their virtues can uplift both parties.
  • Shifting focus from personal problems to helping others can reduce suffering and improve one's day.
  • Reconnecting with family can trigger old emotions, but utilizing tools to regulate emotions can prevent meltdowns.

53:04

Family Outing Turns Awkward and Stressful

  • The narrator initially agrees to a family outing with a relative and her son.
  • The relative invites more people without consulting the narrator, increasing the group size to 11.
  • Despite being reimbursed, the narrator feels taken advantage of but doesn't voice their feelings.
  • At the park, the narrator's niece is disappointed due to arriving late and waiting for rides.
  • Feeling anxious, the narrator tries to suggest getting lunch and splitting up the group.
  • The group doesn't respond to the suggestion, leading to increased anxiety for the narrator.
  • Overstimulated and upset, the narrator decides to go solo in the park.
  • The aunt confronts the narrator, expressing disapproval of their decision to go solo.
  • The narrator's attempt to discuss the situation with their aunt while still upset leads to further conflict.
  • The narrator struggles with apologizing and seeks advice on how to address the situation with their aunt.

01:05:01

Navigating Trauma and Making Sincere Apologies

  • The individual experienced a traumatic event where they felt unsafe due to reckless driving, leading to irrational thoughts of walking back to the campground in extreme heat.
  • Despite feeling overwhelmed and dissociated due to past trauma, the person managed to remove themselves from the situation and was talked down by others in the group.
  • Advice is given on how to make a sincere apology, focusing on acknowledging the hurt caused to the other person without making excuses or delving into personal trauma details.
  • Emphasizing the importance of humility and emotional honesty in making an apology, the text suggests ways to express regret for one's actions without blaming others or oneself excessively.
  • Techniques for managing overwhelming situations, such as sensory overload and dissociation, are shared, including a daily writing and meditation practice to help regain emotional balance and communication abilities.
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