hi Jonah, my name is Lilly on here. i'm so sorry you have PTSD and from what happened to you.

it may take some time before you can talk about it with your therapist, and that's ok - it takes time to build trust, especially when someone has taken that away from you.

you may feel like you can talk about it with someone here after awhile and that may help or you may want to wait. that is up to how you feel, ok? you can feel safe here. you can just be here with us and be safe right now.

there are other kids on the site and lots of people who have been through really awful things, so you are with people who understand. you are not alone with this stuff.

sometimes we do breathing exercises to help us feel more calm. Leo does one called breathing the box and it helps a lot.

you find a safe spot to sit down and then, breathe in while you count to 4, then hold that breath while you count to 4, then blow it out while you count to 4, then hold it out while you count to 4.
then start over.

that helps.

Jewells told me to try to keep a cold bottle of water in the fridge, then i could get that and have it near me in case i got too shook up feeling. i could sip the cold water, but also, i could hold the cold to the side of my head and under my ears, my wrist and my elbows to help me feel cooled off and it also helps me feel more calm.

gentle hugs, you came to a good place

I'm in the same boat of doin it alone. some things that I do is leave a light on at night and music on low so that when I wake up its not dark and I can see where I am. music to help knowing that I'm here and not there. I tap or try naming things around me to ground myself. you can google it. thats where I got ideas from

I have a special light in my room that projects onto the ceiling and slowly changes patterns and colours. It helps me a lot because I don't really sleep either and night time is hard for me too. I also sleep with lots of cuddly toys which help me feel a bit safer. Quiet soothing music is nice too, or watching my favourite cartoons, but it depends whether you want to fall asleep or just get through the dark.

Thanks guys. I like the idea about the breathing exercises. I wish there was like a magic pill you could take to just forget

Hello:-) There are pills that can help, but as I can attest, since I take one... They don't eliminate nightmares. Just reduce their frequency. And as I've had a nightmare every night for, oh, a month now? Yeah.

U yse breathing, keep a nightlight on, use the grounding exercises mentioned above, and I also just get up and spend 10-15 minutes doing something small and mundane like dusting shelves or putting away dishes. It helps ground me, distract my brain, and let me see my house is not in fact invaded by (nightmare topic). I used to cuddle myc at, but he died almost 3 years ago and I haven't had heart to get another pet. I use stuffed animals, too, aromatherapy, go drink ice water, all kindso f things.

I also write down immediately what I remember. No narrative, just write down the images as best I recall. SOmetimes, that helps me not lapse back into that nightmare for a while. I also paint the images that get most stuck in my head. Doesn't help at 2 AM, but over time, helps reduce the "power" to frighten me.

Blessing.

one good thing about the therapist? maybe, they can recommend a dr for you who can prescribe medicine to help with sleep and nightmares. some people on here take medication to prevent nightmares and it helps them a lot.

it is worth a try, especially when it is getting very difficult.

i found out that whatever is bothering me? bothers me a lot more when i can't sleep. getting sleep is extra important when we are trying to get through this kind of stuff.

extra safe hugs

When I was first diagnosed with PTSD and no finding out it's CPTSD, I was on medications that inhibited dreaming, having been off those since about 6 months after my diagnosis it's been more of emotion flashbacks than nightmares. I'm sorry to hear that your therapist isn't of much help at this time.

Are you on any sleep aids? Sometimes if you get something to knock you out it helps to prevent the mares from taking away what little sleep you get.

Much Love

A dream journal worked best for me. Recording my dreams was a restful activity which helped to calm the after-effects of the nightmare while helping me to process whatever was causing the nightmare in the first place.

I seldom have nightmares any more and find myself missing those wee-hour writing sessions sometimes. Just sometimes. Not enough to want the nightmares back.

Nothing worked for me except time. I used to sleep in my car so i wouldn't be able to get deep enough asleep to dream. In the winter. In Canada.

Everyone's different. That is my experience. They became less frequent over time. There are meds that might help, but I never went that route.

I've been lucky enough to try the newest PTSD nightmares medication since last year, Prazosin. It was originally for blood pressure, and 4 years or so ago was found to help our troops with PTSD nightmares.

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/760070

Your primary care doc can prescribe it. It's great, no side effects for me, and for the first time in years not only no nightmares, but good dreams instead. I started keeping a dream journal just to keep a record of the good ones.

Just me, but from my good experience with it, if things are that bad, why not give it a try like I did?

That's great Muji. I'm happy for you.
My shrink wanted to try Clonazepam. Wish Prazosin was out when I was first diagnosed.

Yeah, Mojo, I get to take Prazosin because it's processed by the liver, not the kidneys. Before that, it was 5 years with no meds at all. And before that, Seroquel, which was not good for me at all.