Where to Begin Healing Your C-PTSD

Hey folks, welcome to my channel. I'm Brooke Richey. I'm a 20-year vocalist, musician, trauma survivor of quite a few different things, and I am here blending my traumatic experiences, the work that I've done to overcome these experiences, as well as my expertise in music to help the world become a more peaceful place. I— my goal is to help people better manage trauma and respond— and that's by responding to it. So people who are not trauma survivors, helping those people respond to trauma survivors better, as well as for you trauma survivors, if you're here watching, to help you heal, to help you move out of your trauma. So if you're like me, I have suffered from complex post-traumatic stress disorder, CPTSD, Uh, for a large majority of my life. The onset of my disorder really started when I was 15, after I had 2 severe events happen at the ages of 9 and 15. And that's exactly what this series is on. It's on complex post-traumatic stress disorder and how to begin, how to begin to, how to uncover, how to just get out of it. Because when you're in— this is the thing— when you're in something, you're just in it. It doesn't matter what it is in the world. Like, when you are just fully engaged in something, whether that's trauma, whether that's you playing a sport, whether that's you at work, whether it's you in a relationship, it doesn't matter what it is. When you're fully in it, it is so hard to To pry yourself out of it, right? So where do you even begin? You have to start with self-awareness and recognizing the the subtle discrepancies and differences between your life and other people's lives. And this is the start. This is the start of getting on your healing journey. And that I know even saying this right now, I'm like oh. That's a tough pill to swallow. Like, it's a tough— it's a moment of tough love with yourself of, oh man, something really is— when I look at the trajectories of 70% of people around me, right, versus me, uh, something's off because I'm over here like, you know, that's the image that comes in my mind. Like, if you're scribbling with a pen or something, like, this is This is the imagery that I get, is like people are just— you're drawing on a piece of paper, it's just like easy. It's easy for people to just keep going and keep going forward, people who have not suffered severe trauma, any kind of trauma. And people who have suffered trauma, you are like on this trajectory forward, but it's like a bunch of little scribbles and squirrel— like squirrely kind of things happening while you're still going forward. Um, and so that's the challenge. It's This— I know that this keeps happening to me, but I'm still moving forward. But like, why is it so difficult? And that's what this series is on. It's on complex post-traumatic stress disorder and what to do, just what to do about it, how to get out of it, how to uncover, um, suppressed memories that are maybe contributing to your complex post-traumatic stress disorder. And so that's Quickly, what I'm going to talk about in this video is just what are the aspects and really what is CPTSD. CPTSD is a result of a post-traumatic— of a traumatic experience. CPTSD is a result of a traumatic experience that goes untouched, meaning you had some event happen and it traumatized you, and you were never nurtured for— you were never cared for. You didn't care for yourself. Post the event. So speaking from experience, I was 9 years old the first time I was traumatized. This was by a primary caregiver in a form of what I consider familiar— familial trafficking, because I was brought out of my home, isolated from my siblings, and I was forced to watch a horrendous film. That was a torturous experience for me, seeing a man get murdered on screen. So this is not appropriate for a 9-year-old, right? And That is because I didn't say anything when I was 9, and I instead ran away from home. This is my story. I ran away, um, to the, to the local park. I never had— I never cared. Like, there was no care that ever came for the trauma that I experienced, um, the emotions that came up, how it impacted me, the whole experience around who it was that was making me watch this film. All of those factors and those layers. They were never addressed. And then 6 years later, I find myself in another traumatic experience with the same primary caregiver, and that is what triggered my CPTSD because I suppressed that second traumatic event. Completely different scenario, but this is like, you know, this might sound like I— what I'm hoping, what I'm hoping in sharing this with you is that you can pick up glimmers and pieces, um, you know, like little snowflakes, like, oh yeah, that adds up, that adds up, that adds up, like I resonate with that. And because you're in it, like I know what it's like to be in it, you're fully in your trauma brain. And the goal, I would say, Is getting out of that trauma brain so that you can actually see your disorder, so that you can actually see the disorder. And that is just a long process of being present with yourself. So that's what CPTSD comes from. It comes from uncared, untended, um, traumatic experience and/or repeated trauma that continues on for a period of time, repeated abuse. That's also part of my, my story. And that's how you can end up with this disorder. And with that disorder, I would— I, my own experience and what other survivors have, do attest to, is there's then an umbrella. So you have CPTSD, and here's the umbrella of CPTSD. But then what happens underneath that? Um, ADHD-like symptoms. You really struggle with procrastination, with staying on task. You dissociate. And that's connected to anxiety. So you then, you have an anxiety disorder. You might develop BPD, bipolar disorder. You might develop adjustment disorder with anxiety or with depression. That's been something I've also experienced. And that's all under this umbrella though of complex post-traumatic stress disorder. So what do you do? Where do you start, right? Um, you look at your symptoms. Because divine presence is what is going to heal you the quickest. It's the most efficient. It's being divinely present. And what does that look like? That means you are showing up authentically and you are addressing what's going on in your physiological body, because it's your body that stores all the information. Your body stores all the information of your past experiences. It especially If they have not been cared for when they needed to be cared for. If that goes on for years and years and years, then, you know, it bubbles up into all of these other disorders. That's just the nature of the beast of complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Um, so this series is on CPTSD and working through all the factors of it. those disorders, um, and the things that come up for us. So like emotional domination— you were just emotionally triggered all the time and overwhelmed all the time. You have physiological weaknesses going on in your body, um, flare-ups and/or just body processes that are supposed to be easy that your body just can't do. Because it's so weighed down. So that's what the series is on, and I hope that these videos will help you. My last series is on suppressed trauma and recovering those memories. This is something that I was able to do over the course of 3 years in just using my voice. So that 15-year suppressed— the event that happened to me when I was 15, that turned into a 15-year suppressed traumatic memory. And I was able to uncover it just by using my voice, practicing voice journaling. So if you're here and you're tracking with me, I want to say it's going to be all right if you keep showing up. If you keep showing up and you're present and you're authentic with yourself and you learn to care for yourself. It's going to be okay. It's going to improve. It's going to get better. But you have to keep showing up, is the thing. There's really not another option if you want to overcome your trauma, your complex post-traumatic stress disorder. You have to keep showing up. And you can do it. If I can do it, you can do it. I was 9 years old when I got on board a trauma train and for 22 years was in victim mindset. It is possible. And so with that, if you want help, I have a few options for you. You can purchase my guide, Goodbye Trauma, which is a comprehensive look at my experiences and the things I've discovered along the way that have helped me heal and actually cure some illnesses that I've, I've faced along the way. Um, you can work with me in Amplify Your Voice, which is my 6-week signature program, and that is designed to help you launch forward in your life. What it does is it establishes— I use the same method, the same method that I used, uh, over the course of the 3 years to find my suppressed memory that was keeping me locked into reactivity That's within the program. So we go through that in that program, and really what it does is bring you into a space of dialogue with yourself and with others. So you're expanding your network as well, and then launching forward in your life. So if you are feeling stuck, if you struggle with depression, anxiety, ADHD-like symptoms, and you ever struggle to procrastinate, Um, you're always procrastinating and you just don't know where to begin, Amplify Your Voice is for you because you will be talking these things out with yourself and with others. And I give you all the prompts and the guides for that alongside music lessons. And why the music lessons is because you need a second language on your brain while you do this work. You need music. Quite frankly, has saved my life. It's kept me going. Over the last 22 years, um, because it's a second language on my brain. It's a, um, cognitive behavioral boosting, uh, I don't know, magic, like, that happens to your brain when you are exercising new vocabulary. And anyways, this video is getting kind of long, so I'm going to leave it at that. But, um, you can also work with me one-on-one. Links for all of this below. If the page is up for one-on-one coaching, that means I have spots available, so don't hesitate on it. It is up for grabs so long as there is room on my schedule to take you on. And I trust that you know what's best for you, and the fact that you're here shows me and shows you that you know you need to heal, that you know you want to heal, that That you know you can live a better life than what you're living right now. And I wholeheartedly believe that you can overcome this, whatever it is, you can overcome it. So thanks for tuning in. See you in the next video. Bye.