Did your symptom profile change/“evolve” after retraumatization?

Hi ya!

tl;dr Has anyone experienced a change or evolution, so to speak, in their previous symptoms AFTER retraumatization? Of course PTSD can be lonely enough on its own, so I wanted to see if anyone else has experienced this themselves after retraumatization.

With my first round of PTSD, the symptoms I experienced after the traumatic event were pretty standard fare for individuals presenting with PTSD:

• Persistent hyperarousal/hypervigilance,
• Persistent disassociation and emotional numbing,
• Nightmares and fear of falling asleep,
• Emotional flashbacks triggered by traumatic and trauma-related stimuli,
• Internal observation of ego fragmentation; “walking corpse” sensation,
• Executive functioning deficits, such as remembering, focusing, and cognitive flexibility,
• Internalization of blame and criticism, reduced self-efficacy and sense of agency
• Avoidance of the traumatic event, including talking and thinking about it, without significant dissociative measures to tolerate/process

I was ever so fortunate to undergo a repeated trauma of a similar type outside of the OG environment, all while during but independent of my treatment for the initial trauma — so now I’m dealing with the effects of retraumatization.

Retraumatization has been so confusing and hard enough because all the wisdom and growth from round one of treatment is largely inaccessible. This “round 2” for myself has brought on either new symptoms previously not present (things have gotten MUCH more somatic) or things at a much higher frequency, intensity, and duration:

• Previous window of tolerance now inaccessible,
• Large reduction in metacognitive access,
• Increased irritability and anger-influenced emotional outbursts, despite emotional regulation skill usage,
• Externalization of blame, loss of self-efficacy and agency, increased identification of victim/perpetrator dynamics and willingness to seek resolution
• Persistent dissociative nightmares and avoidance of falling asleep,
• Chronic physical exhaustion and incapacitation,
• Persistent intrusive thoughts and emotional flashbacks,
• Ineffectiveness of previously effective therapeutic skills from “round 1”,
• And the fan favorite: tonic immobility during moments of high stress where neither flight nor fight are perceived as possible.