Involuntary Age Regression: Does Anyone Else Experience This?

I feel like a kid again sometimes, scared and helpless and alone and shutting down/dissociating/going nonverbal when people start screaming at me. I don't know how to help, though, sorry. You'd already be avoiding your triggers if you could and I can't think of another way to help, except maybe leaning into it a little so it doesn't last as long? It helps me to bring up a safe memory, in this case, the scent of lilacs, napping under the bush where it's dark and muddy but /safe/ on a warm Summer evening where I drowsily just know my mother-figure is going to call me inside for dinner soon, her voice warm and kind, and everything's alright. Sometimes I go to another safe place, too, I'm a maladaptive daydreamer with a lot of different worlds in my head; I can't sleep without falling into one of them. Or maybe channeling it into something constructive, like writing poetry, or even meditating, or some activity where you can be blank and focus everything on it? I don't know if it will let you, because we're all different, 🤗 and I'm fine a few hours after that person stops raging, but if I don't do something that I've listed here I'll either dissociate completely or have a panic attack, and then dissociate. Sometimes I go into a mild dissociative fugue for days after. Said person (with severe brain damage, including to the prefrontal cortex) is then confused as to why I'm upset. Let us know if anything works! 💕

Its normal for people with trauma to be triggered and transported to the mind of whatever age they experienced it

I feel like this everyday. I feel like the traumatic experiences I've had since I was a child make me be stuck in the mentality of the kid who didn't understand the things around them, even though physically I'm an adult now. I also feel really ashamed when I do, watch, or say things that bring out that inner child because I had to act older than my age my entire childhood to please my parents. Sometime, like you said, i feel the same way i did as a kid when i am triggered by a memory and the scary feelings rush in. But then at the same time I try to remind myself that its not who you are now and that even without a trigger making you feel that way it's still okay to not always be so serious. The feel sucks, but I think acknowledgment rather than shame and kindness and understand towards yourself help when those triggers rush in. No one may have been there for you then but you can only try to help and be there for the child that's in your memories and within you. I don't know if this makes any sense or helps, but it's just some stuff I try to think about and sometimes it helps. You're not alone and I hope you truly know that especially through this app as we're all alike and understanding of each other in some way.

My sibling can definitely relate. It happens to them a lot. You are not alone. I wish I personally understood it better from experience so I could help more. but you certainly are not alone.