(complex ptsd) Many of us in the mold community get c-ptsd. Our traumas are not war-related, but many little traumas, burn-out, etc. can result in a form of ptsd. But it is complex because often our battles for our health go on for years. Things may continue to go wrong, especially with housing.
One thing I found to happen really surprised me.
I began to see faces wrongly. My being on the autism spectrum has made faces a bit inscrutable since I was young, but I took it on as a challenge (while not even realizing I was on the spectrum) and began “studying” people’s faces and trying to read them. Over time I honed the skill until I could fairly accurately read faces, especially my children’s faces.
Well, with ptsd now, this is what I found and finally researched it, and sure enough, it’s true:
I see a happy face as a cringing face. I see a sad face as they “lost their best friend.” I see an angry face as “serial killer”!
I am exaggerating for effect, but the truth is, we with c-ptsd need a little grace. We tend to misread many things.
I learned it is related to our hypervigilance. And most moldies can tell you it doesn’t take much to trigger hypervigilance: “Is that sound dripping water?! Where is it?! Is it going to drip on something and cause mold by tomorrow?!”
It’s truly hard, because doing mold avoidance DOES require vigilance and diligence. But it can become overwhelming. Just like the faces, we need some help finding if the “face really is happy or cringing.” Evaluating situation with water is similar. But first let me tell you what does NOT work.
“Calm down.”
“You’re paranoid.”
“You’re scared of everything” (or everything water).
What DOES help:
“Ok, that’s an icicle melting off the roof, you can hear the drips hitting the snow, but it is running off down and away from the house foundation.” (or something like that)
What have you found to help when you are going through mold PTSD or water PTSD etc?
