A Child Abuse Survivors Group Community Group
We survived child abuse, but the pain still remains and so do the other effects which can last a lifetime. We are often unable to find adequate help, and we are seeking answers that can help us understand what happened so that we can go on to lead normal lives. (Please note that this is a group for child abuse survivors only. If you are a professional in the mental health...
Hello everyone I am new to this group I am a child abuse survivor. When I was 13 months old I got taken away from my birth mother and placed in foster care I lived in foster care from the age of 13 months to 5 years while I was in foster Care I was verbally physically and sexually abused by my foster parents my foster dad beat me and yelled at me. He hit me once with a belt because I would not stop crying I also got sexually abused He touched me where He was not suppose to every time I cried he would hit me finally at the age of five I got adopted I still suffer from flashbacks. I am now 23 .
Flashbacks are a real pain to deal with, believe me I know. I have had them as well. Have you had any counseling for PTSD? How severe are they? Do you totally return to the event and become unaware of your surroundings? Or do you still have a sense of the here and now while it's happening? One thing that helped me a great deal was to have my friends or my boyfriend, people I was close to, ask me where I was until I could answer them. Once my awareness of my surroundings returned, I would name off things I could see, I would walk around and touch objects in the room, all the while telling myself over and over that I was safe, it was just a memory. Over time, the hold the flashbacks had on me began to diminish. At first, I would have a vague sense of still being in the present, so I would latch onto the first object or person I saw and begin listing off what the object looked like, what colors and textures it had.....or what I knew about the person in front of me. As I continued to practice this, my flashbacks came about less and less frequently. Then, I was able to work on figuring out the words or events that would trigger them. It definitely takes work, but in the end, I've been able to eliminate some flashbacks completely.
I hope this helps! Hugs!
Flashbacks are a real pain to deal with, believe me I know. I have had them as well. Have you had any counseling for PTSD? How severe are they? Do you totally return to the event and become unaware of your surroundings? Or do you still have a sense of the here and now while it's happening? One thing that helped me a great deal was to have my friends or my boyfriend, people I was close to, ask me where I was until I could answer them. Once my awareness of my surroundings returned, I would name off things I could see, I would walk around and touch objects in the room, all the while telling myself over and over that I was safe, it was just a memory. Over time, the hold the flashbacks had on me began to diminish. At first, I would have a vague sense of still being in the present, so I would latch onto the first object or person I saw and begin listing off what the object looked like, what colors and textures it had.....or what I knew about the person in front of me. As I continued to practice this, my flashbacks came about less and less frequently. Then, I was able to work on figuring out the words or events that would trigger them. It definitely takes work, but in the end, I've been able to eliminate some flashbacks completely.
I hope this helps! Hugs!
Flashbacks are a real pain to deal with, believe me I know. I have had them as well. Have you had any counseling for PTSD? How severe are they? Do you totally return to the event and become unaware of your surroundings? Or do you still have a sense of the here and now while it's happening? One thing that helped me a great deal was to have my friends or my boyfriend, people I was close to, ask me where I was until I could answer them. Once my awareness of my surroundings returned, I would name off things I could see, I would walk around and touch objects in the room, all the while telling myself over and over that I was safe, it was just a memory. Over time, the hold the flashbacks had on me began to diminish. At first, I would have a vague sense of still being in the present, so I would latch onto the first object or person I saw and begin listing off what the object looked like, what colors and textures it had.....or what I knew about the person in front of me. As I continued to practice this, my flashbacks came about less and less frequently. Then, I was able to work on figuring out the words or events that would trigger them. It definitely takes work, but in the end, I've been able to eliminate some flashbacks completely.
I hope this helps! Hugs!
Flashbacks are a real pain to deal with, believe me I know. I have had them as well. Have you had any counseling for PTSD? How severe are they? Do you totally return to the event and become unaware of your surroundings? Or do you still have a sense of the here and now while it's happening? One thing that helped me a great deal was to have my friends or my boyfriend, people I was close to, ask me where I was until I could answer them. Once my awareness of my surroundings returned, I would name off things I could see, I would walk around and touch objects in the room, all the while telling myself over and over that I was safe, it was just a memory. Over time, the hold the flashbacks had on me began to diminish. At first, I would have a vague sense of still being in the present, so I would latch onto the first object or person I saw and begin listing off what the object looked like, what colors and textures it had.....or what I knew about the person in front of me. As I continued to practice this, my flashbacks came about less and less frequently. Then, I was able to work on figuring out the words or events that would trigger them. It definitely takes work, but in the end, I've been able to eliminate some flashbacks completely.
I hope this helps! Hugs!
Flashbacks are a real pain to deal with, believe me I know. I have had them as well. Have you had any counseling for PTSD? How severe are they? Do you totally return to the event and become unaware of your surroundings? Or do you still have a sense of the here and now while it's happening? One thing that helped me a great deal was to have my friends or my boyfriend, people I was close to, ask me where I was until I could answer them. Once my awareness of my surroundings returned, I would name off things I could see, I would walk around and touch objects in the room, all the while telling myself over and over that I was safe, it was just a memory. Over time, the hold the flashbacks had on me began to diminish. At first, I would have a vague sense of still being in the present, so I would latch onto the first object or person I saw and begin listing off what the object looked like, what colors and textures it had.....or what I knew about the person in front of me. As I continued to practice this, my flashbacks came about less and less frequently. Then, I was able to work on figuring out the words or events that would trigger them. It definitely takes work, but in the end, I've been able to eliminate some flashbacks completely.
I hope this helps! Hugs!