In This Episode, We Cover:

• What PTSD nightmares really are (and what they are not)
• Why nightmares are repetitive, immersive, and fully sensory
• How the nervous system uses dreams as survival drills
• The physical and cognitive toll of years of disrupted sleep
• Why nightmares don’t fade—they end when danger ends
• How going no-contact and leaving abusive systems changes the brain
• What happens to dreams once safety becomes real
• Why memory blocks and “closed doors” are signs of intelligence, not failure
• The difference between curiosity and readiness in healing
• Why lucid dreaming is not an entry point for PTSD recovery

Key Takeaways:

• You cannot out-hack a nervous system that believes you’re in danger
• Awareness without safety doesn’t calm trauma responses
• Nightmares aren’t weakness—they’re protection
• Healing isn’t conquering nightmares; it’s making them unnecessary
• Rest isn’t a luxury—it’s a biological signal of safety

Important Reminder:

If you’re still unsafe in your waking life, your dreams are not the place to explore or “fix” trauma. Safety comes first. Always.

Listener Invitation:

If you have experiences with nightmares, changing dreams, or reclaiming rest, you’re welcome to share:

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CPTSD: The Ultimate Time Loop (and the Starship That Keeps Exploding)

Living with complex trauma can feel like being trapped in a time loop. Not a memory—but many of them. All active. All urgent. All happening now.

In this solo episode, Alexis explores CPTSD through an unexpected but painfully accurate lens: a classic Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where the Enterprise keeps exploding—over and over—while the crew senses something is wrong long before they consciously remember why.

CPTSD isn’t about being “stuck in the past.” It’s about the past reloading itself into the present through your nervous system’s red alert system. Tone shifts, pauses, power imbalances—even the anticipation of something good—can trigger alarms that feel overwhelming and confusing.

Alexis breaks down:

• Why your body remembers what your mind can’t
• How “coping” can accidentally reset the loop instead of ending it
• Why awareness often feels worse before it feels better
• The difference between control and choice in trauma healing
• How recognizing memory states—not fighting them—is how the ship finally stops exploding

With honesty, humor, and a deeply personal story, this episode offers language for experiences many trauma survivors live with quietly—and reassurance that you are not broken. You’re responding exactly the way a system trained for survival would.

Autopilot kept you alive. Awareness is where choice returns.

If this episode resonates, you’re not alone—and you’re not imagining it.

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Forgiveness is one of the most misunderstood—and most weaponized—concepts trauma survivors are taught to accept without question.

In this solo episode of When the Bough Breaks, Alexis dismantles forgiveness from every angle:

the dictionary definition, the religious mandate, the mainstream self-help narrative, and what forgiveness actually looks like when you’ve survived abuse, neglect, estrangement, or long-term harm.

If you’ve ever been told you can’t heal until you forgive, this episode offers a necessary reframe.

We talk about:

•Why forgiveness is often used to silence survivors

•How religious and wellness spaces pressure people to forgive without accountability

•Why anger is not the opposite of healing

•What forgiveness does—and does not—mean for trauma survivors

•Why healing does not require reconciliation, excusing harm, or being “the bigger person”

We talk about WHO does and doesn’t deserve your forgiveness.

This episode is for listeners who are tired of being rushed, minimized, or morally judged for protecting themselves.

Forgiveness is optional.

Your safety is not.

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