Dear John,

Assuming it is true, any idea what I need to do to fix the problem and what would it actually involve. Therapy of some sort presumably.

I think the most important for you would be to realize that your basic emotional needs were probably not met. And that you’d need what is called reparenting of the inner child.

There is a great video about it on youtube, by Barbara Heffernan, titled “Reparenting yourself.” It gives an overview of what it means to reparent oneself, and what our basic needs are (some of them are self-care, emotional validation, emotional regulation etc).

You can do parts of the reparenting process by yourself, but it would be better to have help of a therapist, someone skilled in working with the inner child or complex PTSD. I’d look for such a therapist, because you said CBT wasn’t too efficient for you.

If you’d like to talk more about it here, on your thread, you’re welcome. I’d be glad to help if I can.