Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Support Group

Hi, welcome to the group!!! *hugs* Always here for you if you need anyone to talk to. What kind of advice are you looking for??? Well, whenever, you're ready.

I was just diagnosed last year with CPTSD...I never even considered that as a possible diagnosis for myself. I know a couple of instances which would have caused that....but, I can't really remember much of anything prior to the age of 6. So, I'm thinking that something, some things, traumatic happened within that time frame of 0-5 that has blocked almost that entire part of my life. Cause after I turned 6...my memories were so vivid...it's not even funny. But that's just a thought.

*hugs* I hope you find what you're looking for here. :)

hey hun,
thank u so much for the kind words. I deeply appreciate it. Honestly, i'm looking for any advice you would like to give me. I'm especially looking for advice for how to cope with the flashbacks. Sometimes I get through them fine, and other times I feel awful and it sends me into a panic attack. I'm curious if anyone has any strategies that help them get through them? Thanks hun

One thing that has helped me is a practice called mindfulness where you concentrate on what is happenening in the present. Start nameing the things that you see to draw you ino the here and now and repeat affirmations like now I am safe. I have people who care for me. i am doing ok right now. This is a safe place for me. Stuff like that. I also carry a cross and hold it to remind myself that God is with me. You could use any little token that brings good thoughts like a necklace that someone gave you that reminds you of their care or a braclet that
has a special meaning. Something like that.

Hi Hope,

I'm glad you found DS. The wonderful people here have helped me so much in my journey to healing. It's a great place to come to know you're NOT the only person in the world dealing with this, and to learn from others.

Flashbacks SUCK. If I could put that in giant, bold letters, I would! They're like falling down a black hole in time and landing right in the middle of the worst moments of your life to relive them over and over.

My earliest memory was a traumatic one, and I suffered flashbacks since I was about three. As I experienced additional horrors during my life, my "repertoire" of flashbacks just got longer, along with the number of things that would trigger them.

Here are some things that helped me:

When I'm in public, I use the same method bgranny told you about: Naming objects I see around me (silently, of course) . There is a chair, it's brown. The walls are off-white, the sun is out, that's a maple tree.. etc. You're thinking mind can outwork your reacting mind if you give it a job to do like that.

I also find ways to be physically busy with something that requires my mind to be present. I work at a retail store, so ringing up customers, putting merchandise away, etc., is a great way to ward off the reacting part of the mind.

What really did it for me, though, was learning about PTSD, talking to people here to find strategies that worked for me, and one book: "I Can't Get Over It." I read others, but that one really got to the heart of it for me. I spent a year after I was diagnosed reading that book, taking notes in a notebook, and it was the best-spent year of my life. (Oh, it sucks at first - as you begin to recognize triggers, it seems like *everything* in life is connected to PTSD, but that passes after a while.)

To give you some hope: I've now gone almost a whole year since my last flashback - and after thirty years of them, that's really something! I can also look back on the traumas now without getting sucked into flashbacks. They're still uncomfortable and always will be, but I can stop thinking about them without having to relive the whole thing, and that's a victory. There's also no pain or horror attached to them anymore, so I really think my years of flashbacks are behind me. I look forward to the day you can say the same thing!

Stick with this group for support, check out that book, and hang in there. We're all in this together, sister.

Hugs,
Wistala

thank you all for your support and advice. I greatly appreciate it. :)

If I'm at home and starting to get panicky...I'll try to do indulge into something that requires focus ONE thing at a time.

So, for me, I use tarot, runes and a book of answers(in that order). Where I have to focus on ONE thing, in order for any result to at least be useful.

Now, that's just me...and I don't use it for actual fortune telling. I just use it on myself, to help me calm my nerves. Help me focus on something aside from the racing thoughts, the sudden panic, anything that may be making me feel like I'm drowning in that moment. But anything that requires you to just "step back", long enough for the flashback phase to end. :)