Dealing with undiagnosed trauma symptoms

Try doing an online search for local registered counsellors within your area.

Often your search will bring a list of practising local mental health practitioners & services near you that detail specialised qualifications & areas of expertise.

There are also online telehealth counselling services, such as:

betterhelp.com

https://www.betterhelp.com

Beyond Blue

https://www.beyondblue.org.au

Mental Health and Wellbeing Locals

Better Health Channel

https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au

There is also the online resource: Ask Izzy. https://askizzy.org.au

Which is a mobile website that connects people who are in crisis with the services they need at that time and nearby.

Also, your GP will be a good starting point.

Hope this helped a little! Best of luck! And never give up!

I wish you well.

Try doing an online search for local registered counsellors within your area.

Often your search will bring a list of practising local mental health practitioners & services near you that detail specialised qualifications & areas of expertise.

There are also online telehealth counselling services, such as:

betterhelp.com

https://www.betterhelp.com

Beyond Blue

https://www.beyondblue.org.au

Mental Health and Wellbeing Locals

Better Health Channel

https://www.betterhealth.vic.gov.au

There is also the online resource: Ask Izzy. https://askizzy.org.au

Which is a mobile website that connects people who are in crisis with the services they need at that time and nearby.

Also, your GP will be a good starting point.

Hope this helped a little! Best of luck! And never give up!

I wish you well.

Thank you @Grace2276 for those helpful resources, much appreciated!

Hi@ jc8rw8 i too have Cptsd and hypervigilance. I'm sorry that you feel like you aren't been heard by your medical team. If you feel like you aren't been supported by them maybe you can go back to your GP and tell them the symptoms you are experiencing. My psychologist tells me that ADHD and trauma have similar symptoms but require different treatment. It could be that they are thinking that but have not verbalized it. I keep a journal or exercise book and write down what i am experiencing. Maybe you could do this too. As soon as you experience those symptoms write them down and the date so you can let your team know next time you see them. It's a good idea to keep a journal because you cannot remember everything and it helps immensely with your progress with trauma. I find that my memory is affected a lot by trauma. If you are a victim, you can contact victims services in your state and get support. They offer free therapy from a psychologist and they also do pay outs for the trauma experienced.

Another thing i forgot to mention is that when you are trying to heal from trauma the people around you need to be supportive and safe, people you can trust. If you feel like they aren't doing any of this it's time for them to go. You need a therapist that has experience in treating trauma [edited by moderator]. I'll give you 2 simple things i was shown to do.

1. Grounding 5-4-3-2-1 technique. when you are getting a flashback. Pick 5 things you can see in the room or place you are in. Touch 4 different different things. Pick 3 different things you can hear outside or inside. 2 things you can smell or would like to smell. Finally pick 1 thing you can taste or would like to taste. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30VMIEmA114
2. Boxed breathing to calm you down. Do it multiple times a day even when you are calm. It trains your brain to respond quickly should you need to calm down quickly. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8SkhiNmk614

@Misty7 Thank you for the links and for your suggestions. Keeping a journal is a great idea - I've been keeping a digital google doc of all my symptoms for the past three months but I may try and keep a physical copy where I can.

Unfortunately a lot of my childhood trauma is caused by my own mother as I was forced to parent her emotions as a child and teenager while she vented a lot about her grievances, and that has really affected me well into adulthood. I'm still affected by banging pots and pans in the kitchen (like I get agitated and scared when I hear those sounds) whenever she's cooking, because that's how she often expresses her anger and that has really messed with me and my relationship with food.

She's trying to make amends now but spending time with her always makes me hypervigilant which she interprets as a behavioural rather than a biological issue. For a lot of complex reasons, trying to spend less time with her isn't possible and I have to compromise accepting the help she can give practically but also enforcing strong emotional boundaries while doing so.

I am visiting my GP this week and I've booked to see a psychologist with specialist training in trauma therapy, so I hope I will be able to finally make some inroads into managing my trauma symptoms. I will try the breathing exercises again. :) Thank you for taking the time to write your comment, much appreciated.

That's really interesting reading. I agree with all of that. I found EMDR really helpful but trauma work can equally be an upheaval which is not helped when you are staying stable and on your meds. I think you really have to trust the psychologist over a long time to do that and I would be cautious. But for me that helped resolve flashbacks which were directly related to trauma. I was suggested to do some more trauma work because of the trauma caused by the community mental health team but I pushed back there because I do not have the same level of trust with the practitioner and I cannot afford a setback at this stage of life.

I agree, journalling is wonderful. Keep reaching out.