What is an Ego Part and how can it cause PTSD?

You might not know what an Ego Part is, but if you are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, you have probably been living with one, or many, for quite some time.
When something happens to you in life which is overwhelming, at an age when you have few resources, a part of you will absorb the pain, upset, or anger that you feel. It is similar to an imaginary friend saying, “Okay, give me all that pain. Give me all that upset. I'll look after that, and you can move forward.”
As other things happen, that part may get bigger as it takes on more trauma on your behalf, or you may have multiple parts which become more and more entrenched in your body. Imagine taking a Polaroid image of yourself at a moment of trauma, capturing the expression on your face, and then putting that Polaroid image inside a cupboard with an emotion attached to the bottom of it. You will be fine while you are able to shut that cupboard, and keep it shut. But if many traumatic things have happened to you, that cupboard starts to get crowded.When something happens to trigger a memory in your body, a rush of emotion can force open that cupboard and you will experience an unexplained feeling. As we get older, the volume of emotions, and the number of Polaroid images in that cupboard, expands exponentially. It will come to a point where the cupboard can't hold them in anymore, and it just bursts open.
That is when PTSD symptoms take hold; when all those emotions, all those feelings, everything you've ever experienced, comes over you all at once, and suddenly you are experiencing not just a touch of anxiety, or a touch of depression that you can get past, but rather you are experiencing a lifetime's worth of depression, anxiety, anger, and everything feels completely out of control. This is called executive control. You may be walking along the street and see something that triggers one of those parts, and the part shoots up inside of you, behaving in a certain way, saying certain things, or feeling certain things that are not useful to you. This might go on for an hour, a day, or a week.
Sigmund Freud recognised ego parts as a significant aspect of mental instability, and said we are not the “masters in our own house.” A sufferer may fight to push the part back down, and may achieve it, but for how long? This is when you need clinical hypnotherapy.
Hypnotherapy is often called a submarine therapy, which can reach parts deep inside of you; so deep that you don't even know half of them are there. While in deep relaxation, those parts become obvious to you. They talk to you. They may show you something, like in a dream. They may show you a memory that you haven't had up to this point and the information will suddenly make sense. For instance, you may realise why you have always got angry in certain circumstances.
During clinical hypnotherapy, all the hidden stressors become obvious, and symptoms are revealed as clues, flags, neon signs, intended to make you understand.
The dichotomy of ego parts is that while there is a desire to be understood, ego parts are extremely concerned the repressed emotion may destabilise you once known. The part has to be convinced that making everything known is essential.
With deeply-relaxed hypnotherapy, the ego part can be convinced, and troublesome emotions can drain away, just like opening the valve on a swimming pool.
If any of this description resonates with you, do explore www.CatchPTSD.com and see if there is a therapist who is a good fit for you. Every therapist on CatchPTSD.com has been thoroughly vetted for their expertise in treating PTSD. You will never be told you are too broken to treat.
We are here to help.
Sarah Yuen Gilliat
www.CatchPTSD.com