Is it possible to be triggered reading the book by Pete Walker on complex PTSD?

I started reading the book on surviving and thriving with CPTSD and finding it difficult because it causes emotions to come up.
I've never had this happen before reading any self-help books. It just makes me feel revictimized, depressed, and more angry
and overwhelmed at my circumstances. I think I might be too much of a wimp for that book lol!

Absolutely - I was triggered all over the place reading it. I'm going through it a second time just so I can get more out of it, since I was in hyper-adrenaline mode the first.

I find that now, as I'm working on my healing, sometimes the triggering is okay. It helps me bring up and deal with issues I didn't realize were issues. And then sometimes I had to put it down after reading only a few lines.

Take it at your own pace. If you're not up to dealing with it, then postpone until you feel stronger. That's how I got through it. One day I'd read two or three sentences and have to put it away. It took time to process. Other days, I'd read several pages. But, yes, it is triggering. I'm finding that most of the good healing stuff is.

Hang in there.

I haven't got that book yet but it's on my list. I'm having trouble just doing the exercises in the 2 courses I bought from Richard. I start doing them, start feeling better, then stop, then I go backwards or stand still. Why do I do this? Why can't I just do the work? I don't get myself sometimes. I'm seriously messed up in the head.

jazzycat - you're trying to recover from some serious shit (forgive the french). That takes time. The courses are very helpful, but I found that I could not adhere to Richard's schedule. I have my own issues both physically and mentally that mean I have to alter pretty much everything I do so that I can do it.

It was hard for me to be able to say "I don't have to do what anyone says" and start doing things in a way that helped me best. Sometimes that was by doing what was said, sometimes it was by altering it.

If you're doing the course, you'll find the self -talk area. Maybe start with that part. You'll have to tame that demon a bit. It can be done. You can do it. But be gentle with yourself - you're wounded - it's just the wounds don't show on the outside. If you walked around with a cast on your arm or leg, you'd understand that you have to move differently and compensate. It's the same thing, only your heart and mind are in a cast while they try to heal.

Bad days happen and they'll happen a lot at first. Sometimes just knowing that helps. Hang in there. Each inch forward is more distance between you and the abuse.

Yeah, I used to get these kinds of triggers. Basically a trigger is us taking up the mantle for the original abuse. So, my mom used to say to me all the time when I was a kid "Oh you'll never finish, you never finish anything" So every time I'd start a book - even novels - I'd feel like I had to barrell through. And I took up the mantle and did it even better, not only did I have to finish the book but I had to read it from cover to cover, including the introduction, and finish every exercise and if I didn't an indictment was sitting there looking at my from my bedside table every night and every morning.

Yes, you can get triggered and you don't have to read it now, or at all, you can do what you want to do, what you need to do. And he does say to go to the chapter you need. Skip around if you need to or use one paragraph and not even a whole chapter. Recovery takes time and yes effort and it happens in non-linear ways. Give yourself a big gigantic break. Pat yourself on the back for every single thing in the right direction - you deserve it, you need it, you need to have validation for even the tiniest step, and you need to do it. Because aside from a really good therapist no one is going to take care of us. We were set up to NOT be taken care of by the narcissist, by the abuse itself, and at the same time set up to expect that someone else should. But it is not going to happen. Part of self care is thanking your self for taking care of your self. Putting a book down that triggers you, or flipping to the chapter you want to work on IS self care.

You will find what you need to heal so long as you keep looking. So keep looking.