http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=276x10051Oh geezuz.
redqueen (1000+ posts) Fri Nov-06-09 07:12 PM
Original message
Startle reflex is linked to abuse?
Has anyone else been told that? I just thought I scared easily. But a few weeks ago in a session I mentioned it to my psychologist and he said it fits the pattern. I never knew there was any connection.
I made the connection about inability to trust on my own... that one's pretty obvious... but the startle reflex was a surprise. Today my boss startled me and he went so far as to comment about how it's daytime and I shouldn't be scared so easily. That and a post about being alarmed when there is no reason to be made me think of this... so I just figured I'd mention it here.
Also... isn't it horrible when you're watching a tv show or something and something will trigger some memory or feeling and then that sadness and fear just hits you like a wall? I have had panic attacks from it in the past but recently it's been less severe. Anyway I just wish there was some way to be prepared for it. I guess going to therapy and dealing with stuff is really the only way to defuse it. It just sucks.
knowbody0 (1000+ posts) Fri Nov-06-09 07:41 PM
Response to Original message
1. therapy is no doubt essential
I was unprepaired for how peeling back the onion layers would absolutely drain me and leave me so sad. I continued for 2 and 1/2 years. It never goes away, but gets lighter.
Damn.
franksolich gets startled all the time, dozens and scores and maybe even at least a hundred times a day.
One accepts, adapts, and moves on.
Because franksolich is deaf, and doesn't want to miss anything, franksolich keeps all his doors unlocked, so that anybody who comes by, can just walk in. If the doors were ever locked, and someone knocked and pounded and hammered on them, franksolich would still not be aware they're there.
It's very startling, to be sitting at the computer, or in a chair reading a book, and then pffft! out of thin air there's a person standing there.
This happens all the time, every single day of life.
But franksolich recalls no childhood abuse.
