Effective Techniques For Stopping A Flashback?

[Deleted member 1860]

Ok don't laugh. The only thing that stops my emotional flashbacks is when I pray to god or more often call on the angels (archangels). Anyone who has read my story knows I was in a god hating, atheistic mindset when I first started to talk to god, so yeah, you could say it made me a believer. (I was in an extended episode and nothing worked to calm me. For some reason I got it into my head to start talking to god. Why , I don't know...)

If you're not of this mindset, carry on. I'm just sharing what pulls me through.

 

[new gamma rays]

The one thing that helps for me is something I read in a PTSD workbook: Imagine your flashback on a white board or some surface, and mentally use an eraser to erase it. I use a hand motion sometimes. Or I take a mental steel wool pad to really scrape off the dark memories. Or a power hose to spray it off, you get the idea . . . It helps being able to something physical in your mind just to at least temporarily clear your head of that one image

 

[crazy8]

@Solara - I have the opposite problem! Usually I like to talk to God, but in a flashback I feel so separated from God, and from everything that is comforting in my life.

 

[DMerish]

Did you check out Anthony's article? Here's the link:
[DLMURL]https://www.myptsd.com/c/threads/13-steps-for-managing-flashbacks.36787/[/DLMURL]

 

[crazy8]

Thanks @DMerish for reminding me. Pete Walker has some good articles. I'm working to getting to a point where I can try this. The goal is to stabilize my mood a bit via SSRIs then I think I can be a bit more effective....

 

[Sweet Girl]

@crazy8

It's been 20 years since I've had this type of flashback but I have been living in one now for the past 8 months. At first, I didn't recognize what was going on, I just felt crazy and tried to figure out why I would swing from massive panic attacks, woke up every single night terrified, was so sad I didn't think I was going to live, to being so angry I thought I was going to die from a heart attack because the physical stress was so great. None of my normal coping mechanisms worked to temper the magnitude of emotions I was feeling (and am still experiencing off and on, but do have some relief).

@franciemarnie and @Solara gave some very good suggestions. I find that if I express myself physically (screaming into a pillow, exercising, writing my emotions down and crumpling or tearing up the paper, talking to someone that I completely trust [sounds like an oxymoron for someone with PTSD I know], and praying) helps ground me a lot. I also try to remind myself that although my emotions are very real, there is no eminent danger, the act is in the past and not the present. By repeating this in my mind, I find some comfort.

I started back to therapy several months ago and began intensive EMDR for the first time. Although the magnitude of my emotions have subsided, Pandora's box has been opened, but I believe my mind and body are ready to purge and move into the next chapter of my life. That thought is probably the biggest life saver for me. I refuse to let my perpetrators and PTSD steal all of the joy out of my life and remind myself that the sooner I work through the episode the sooner I will be free. So although the incident feels like complete torture from which I will never survive, I remind myself that I survived the hardest part already and the best part is yet to come.

 

[crazy8]

Thanks for sharing @Sweet Girl

8 months of that constant state of mind sounds sounds painful. I'm still wrapping my mind around the fact that much of the negative, uncontrollable emotion I've experienced over the course of the last 10 years have been emotional flashbacks. I just learned the term "emotional flashback" 3 weeks ago.

@crazy8

At first, I didn't recognize what was going on, I just felt crazy and tried to figure out why I would swing from massive panic attacks

I hear ya. I couldn't explain to my boyfriend what I felt, other than extremely bad and had zero ability to control my painful emotions. I couldn't conceptualize why I felt so hurt by him, when I couldn't identify something that he actually did wrong, but felt like I must feel this way for some legitimate reason? I feel like I'm crazy now still, but am beginning to accept the idea that these are the emotions that I forgot about, suppressed from childhood. It is an appropriate emotional response, just delayed and towards the wrong person.

I'm sorry that you are back into having flashbacks, but it is encouraging to me that you went 20 whole years without having them...