The Elderly and Complex PTSD

How what most consider just a problem can actually be traumatic…and one person’s possible solution

Trauma-informed therapy by therapists trained in trauma processing is a relatively new treatment modality. There are those of us who are 62 and older who have never had this type of therapy available to us. And, unless we have money to spare from our piddly retirement benefits or SSDI, based upon a work quarter that was only 4 figures, coupled with a Medicare Advantage Plan, this type of therapy is STILL out-of-reach for us.

I understand, from a societal economic standpoint, why the young and those with an income above 80% Federal Poverty Level are the preferred clients by therapists and clinics. But, what ‘professionals’ and society fail to understand is, those elderly people with Complex PTSD may be less able to cope without moral support than the young and those who are financially well-off.

There comes a point where situations that normally would have been dealt with as a problem in our younger years, when we had more mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual stamina, are now added trauma on top of the Complex PTSD. And, we are wrongly treated as though we are narcissists with the ‘popular’ literature saying narcissists only get worse with age.

Just because we traumatized elderly are finally taking off the ‘people-pleaser’ hat, setting boundaries, and beginning to put ourselves first; and, just because we are angry at the current state of abandonment we are faced with by those we had put first all of our lives, does NOT equate to us being narcissists! This is a STORY made up by younger generations to excuse themselves from caring for those who cared for them. This is a STORY made up by the ENTITLEMENT generations who want to tell themselves they OWE NOTHING TO ANYONE but themselves.

This was an inevitable devolution of family values that began with the fatherlessness of families built upon the no-contest divorces of “irreconcilable differences”. No longer are the days of multi-generational homes where the elderly were cared for by their children and grandchildren. No longer are the days when Grandma was the Matriarch of a family and Grandpa was respected for his lifelong work of supporting and protecting his family.

For any abandoned, traumatized elderly person reading this. I would like to encourage you. You made it this far through every shitty thing you’ve experienced because of your sense of responsibility, your resourcefulness, and your resilience. Yes, it’s fucking hard now; because, the ‘promise’ of spending those ‘Golden Years’ surrounded by your children and grandchildren has turned out to be a huge ‘future-fake’ by today’s narcissistic zeitgeist.

I do not know if it will get better from here; but, I have a solution I am going to try that I hope, will at least, help me be ok and less reactive to this new reality.

I’ve known for a while what I need is Intensive Outpatient Trauma Recovery Treatment. This has been repeatedly denied to me for the “Medicare Panel Full” and the out-of-reach out-of-pocket reasons. I am going to put my research skills to work and find out what this treatment entails. I am going to look at multiple clinics’ program outlines across several States. Then, I am going to ‘cobble together’, based upon these programs, my own treatment plan that I will self-administer.

I have no ‘letters’ after my name authorizing me to encourage anyone else to do the same for themselves. However, that has no bearing on me publicly sharing my own journey.

Please, hang in there and wish me well.

PS I tagged Dr John Bergman D.C. because according to the ‘father’ of Trauma Therapy, Bessel van der Kolk, “The Body Keeps the Score”. I am convinced that many of my physical health diagnoses can be resolved or become less symptomatic, if I can gain a good amount of healing from the Complex PTSD.