Working With people who once traumatised you badly.

Ask a Therapist Coping
1

Well….for the past few months i was thinking of going back to the workforce. As someone whose most experience is in healthcare and social service sector. Its something that is very this distress to think about.

Also just happened that i am a pretty good stalker when i needed to, and that helps me to track the whereabouts of all my former abusers. This is one thing I learned while working in security.

But so that it happens the last bad experience i have is mostly in polyclinic, Hospitals and FSC that is nearest to my house.

So….if i ever going to think about working in a polyclinic or hospital near my house, it means i will bump into those doctors that didnt bad things to me.

So…..unless i find a job that is much further away with a minimum of 45 mins travel time as compare to just 10 mins walk from my house, just for the sake of avoiding those nasty people.

But sometimes wonder what will happen if i should up in front of those nasty people as their colleagues. But wouldnt be a good way, since my position will be lower than theirs.

But the cool part is that there was once in my life where i actually show up at the hospital that i was once abused in, and i pretty much stunned every staff there. And i just slap it right in their face that i was one a abused victim here. So most of them just acknowledge it and walked away and avoid getting close to me ever since. Except for one which i end up become pretty close to, and from her i understand a lot about how the hospital works.

But….the issue now will also be the face that, i need my emotional support dog when my anxiety from my truama kicks in. Yes….not easy to survive with CPTSD, but the good thing is that, i dont have to rely on medications.

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Hey @user1446,

It sounds like you’ve been doing a lot of thinking about returning to work and weighing what feels safe for you. The way you describe those mixed feelings and the way you’re approaching it, with awareness of what feels safe and what doesn’t, shows a lot of self-knowledge and care.

What stands out is how much awareness you carry of your environment and what triggers you. That kind of alertness often comes from living through things that left marks, and it’s understandable that you’re cautious about where and how you re-enter the workforce. The part about your support dog also says a lot about how you’ve learned what steadies you when anxiety rises. It’s a practical and caring way of managing yourself.

I’m curious, if you were in a work environment where having your support dog wasn’t possible, how do you imagine coping in those moments when anxiety might rise? Are there certain things, routines, or people you’ve found you can reliably lean on to steady yourself when the situation becomes overwhelming?

Wherever you eventually choose to work, I hope it’s a place that allows you to breathe easily and feel safe enough to focus on the work itself, not on the people or memories around it. You’ve already proven that you can step into difficult places and still stand your ground, I would think that your progress would be to look at spaces that don’t make you keep defending it?