/r/cptsdcreatives
A safe & supportive space for artists and other creatives to share their work related to their experience with Complex PTSD. Please read the rules before posting.
A safe & supportive space for artists and other creatives to share their work related to their experience with Complex PTSD. Please read the rules before posting.
Rules
1. OC or approved sharing only.
If your post is not OC, you must state that this is not your original work in the title, and provide artist credit in the comments.
2. No advertising or surveys.
This subreddit is not for sale/advertisement purposes. You may provide shop info in comments only. Excessive promotion of shops may result in a ban.
3. Be considerate.
Bigotry of any kind will not be tolerated (racism, misogyny, transphobia, homophobia, ableism, etc.)
4. Label triggering content accordingly.
This subreddit is for users who have experienced trauma and are at some point in their recovery. Please use post flairs to label content that is triggering (visually, in subject matter, etc.). Graphic content (nudity, blood, gore, etc) must be marked as NSFW and SPOILER.
5. Be mindful of others' recovery.
Everyone is at a different stage in healing. Please refrain from criticism and judgment of others' healing and creative process.
6. Be respectful of all art forms and styles.
Creativity and expression exist in many forms. Please refrain from taking jabs at others' work or style.
7. No AI.
Imagery or text created using generative AI technology (examples include, but are not limited to: Stable Diffusion, Midjourney, DALL-E, ChatGPT) is expressly forbidden. Artwork compositions primarily featuring (representing a majority of the submitted work(s)) is included under this rule.
Feel your content was removed unfairly? Have comments/suggestions/questions? We are more than happy to hear directly from you! Please send us a message at any time for any reason and we'll get back to you as soon as we can :)
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/r/cptsdcreatives
I HATE REMEMBERING I DONT WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOU. YOU ARENT ME AND THESE ARENT MY MEMORIES
I created this piece inspired by the lyrics from Daughter’s song Candles “I'll do whatever you say to me in the dark. Scared I'll be torn apart by a wolf in a mask of a familiar name on a birthday card” and my experience with CSA and grooming.
“Multitudes Contained”
A monthly discussion thread for all CPTSD creatives to chat, ask creative-related questions, or simply to post ideas/suggestions.
i hate how ppl will see me one way then will later have to see me in a completely different way because I am a kind of broken that is not very common. I know I'm not broken but it comes off that way- like a design flaw. Like it looks human but it's not. Not really. She has teeth and they look like they're all there but every tooth looks different from the one next to it. Some AI-generated horror. She is very well-spoken, a rebel and a leader but oh my god what happened why is she so broken and distraught now. Look, she's fusing with her bed. She's completely paralyzed. She was enthusiastic and put on a facade of knowledge but now you see, she's exactly like the rest. The brain-dead rest who just want to numb themselves. She'll squirm like a fish out of water then give up. Then squirm again because she's not dead then give up again. Then squirm some more then give up. And the more you watch her the more you see her fractal-like pattern except it's not captivating unless you're on drugs. Out here she's just sick and flailing and it's too much for anyone
Cow
Cow
Wailing moos in a yellow walled room
This day will drive you to vodka
Born a cow,
You always knew it, home, legs spread
On the bathroom floor to guard against contagion
Seven, eight,
Bleeding from your scrubbing shame
You can only love water things
Jellyfish and rain
Drinking a slushie in the downpour with your sister
Jellyfish soup runs thicker than sticky veins
Bleeding bleeding on tiles
Scrubbing scouring sobbing insane
Cow
Hide a dark splodge mark of shame
That no one should see
And know you are not human
Cow
Focus on the radiator cover
Little crosses cut in white wood like flowers
Look at you like eyes
Cow
Are they mean to you
In the playground
You talk too much and sit like a man
Little girl
You hold your knife and fork in the wrong hands
No one will ever want you, she says
Cow
R--ard
F--got
What did the man do at the funfair
You were with your grandma
New years day
Why didn't you tell?
You got scared of her
When you tried to say
But she saw-
See-saw, she flies up, you fly down, fat, hungry
Cow
You remember
Her golden glasses-
or were they pearly purple-violet?
-threw your tights
Greyier than the sky
When you lie in bed and don't open your eyes
As through flower curtains the realisation comes
That all there will ever be in cold sheets
Cow
As you are still shaking from how she banged on the door to see
See you shame
And you were afraid.
Cow
They feed you wet ham and cold cous cous Cous cous is always cold. But it is freezing in here
There is an old black leather sofa to hide behind
And a black TV turned off
Cow
It will only get worse
You starfished in the snow to go
To the hospital, because you know for sure they all wish you were never born
Cow, rope to the shed
In Morrisons mummy said
She wished you were dead
In Sainsbury's she said a calf as cold as you was a waste of her life
And they cut her out womb,
And dropped it in a bin.
Maybe she hated it, for growing a
Cow
You must make friends that smash their heads and bleeding in the bathroom
And cut out there skin hallucinations
Of bugs crawling on the walls
And up the side of your legs
And scuttling blood down your neck
Cow
You look down at your birthmark, find only crawling bloodied worms
Crawling shame, Crayola crayons,
Cut like little crosses cut in red wood like flowers
Crawling shame, Crayola crayons, clit to cut away.
Cut away you perverted fucking girl
Cut the curtains from your cunt
Cut the flesh from your calf
Calfhood is done
Cow.
Funny. How they only pitty pretty little
Lambs to the slaughter
I typed a poem based on my experience of being bullied, this one is about a certain person who left me with reoccurring memories of what happened but also how eventually I questioned if it ever happened
The last two years have been the worst of my life.
They left me broken, bruised, and battered—
my heart, my mind, my body, my soul, all shattered.
They brought back things I hoped would stay gone,
things I wish had never existed at all.
They buried the progress I had made,
the positivity I had built, under the weight of it all.
Optimism felt like a curse,
and all that was left was pessimism and nihilism,
dragging me into darkness.
Everything went black.
My heart felt stolen.
My eyes refused to see hope.
But lately,
something shifted.
Light started to break through the cracks.
Life came back to me,
slowly, cautiously, but undeniably.
Hope returned, just a glimmer at first,
but then it grew.
My heart came back too.
It grew three times its size,
pushing through the hurt,
beating stronger than before.
I owe my survival to my guardian angels,
the people who stood by me when I couldn’t stand on my own.
They were the stars guiding me back to safety,
their love, their grace, their strength
holding me together
as I learned how to move forward again.
I owe them everything.
But I also owe myself something.
Because without my strength—
even just the smallest piece of it—
none of what they did would have worked.
Their efforts wouldn’t have mattered
if I hadn’t let them in,
if I hadn’t made the choice to keep going.
So while I praise them
and give them all the credit they deserve—
and they do deserve it all—
I also have to give myself credit.
Because I deserve it too.
Without me, I wouldn’t be here.
So thank you, me,
for finding a way to survive when everything felt impossible,
for opening your eyes again to the light.
A drawing of an actual event in my life that happened when I was 17. Laid in the bathroom looking like rotisserie chicken cuz of how hot I felt. The perpetrator of my misery was my eldest sister. She's shameless. Gets mad that I hold resentment for all the things she's done.
Had to censor or Reddit automatically removes it, uncensored versions I always post somewhere on my account
Not sure if this is the right place for this but I do have C-PTSD and I find calm within the community. I added the spoiler in case you are not looking for something happy and light. I know from experience that can be hard to see when you are in a dark place.