Endurism & Escapism: CPTSD Survival Strategies & Nervous System Adaptations

The Friday Edition | No. 29

Endurism & Escapism: CPTSD Survival Strategies & Nervous System Adaptations

Living with complex trauma (Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder / CPTSD) is a marathon of trauma, not a one-time sprint. It reshapes our very being and is where survival instincts are forged during the harrowing storms of long-term trauma. Once we begin to understand how we have coped, and how deeply entrenched our survival patterns live within our being, our subconscious mind, and automated nervous system responses we can begin to see them at play. Understanding allows us to be a witness to ourselves as we relate to others, our environment, and how we have narrowed our aperture to life to simply survive. We do this automatically and miss out on how to expand our viewpoint and open up to life in a way that would allow us to thrive and begin to heal.

Complex trauma comes with a set of blinders, essentially. Narrowing our field of vision, limiting our options for experiences through fear and distrust of others due to repeated and life-threatening past trauma that often recurs in the present to remind us and keep us in check.

Most of our automatic responses are unseen, confusing, and overwhelming and keep us from seeing the scary threats around us. Our body simply reacts. It is a lifetime’s work of vigilance and automation to stay alive that was developed beyond our control. Much of it learned and habituated in childhood from a very innocent and open mindset that only had the knowledge that abuse and neglect hurt, that danger was imminent, and where self-preservation strategies were birthed.