FallColour
New Here
Last night was a terrifying mix of escalating panic, nightmares and flashbacks. I'm hoping someone else has experienced this and may offer some coping skills. I'm seeing a good counselor currently and tried the recommended grounding technique: 5 (see five things), 4 (touch four things), 3 (hear three things), 2 ( smell two things), 1 (say a positive affirmation). I tried breathing techniques for relaxation. I'm waiting to see a psychiatrist for medication, but currently trying to cope without.
Last night's cycle began with my popping awake to an eerie light moving on my ceiling. As I focused on the moving light, I saw the Marine Corp Emblem (in color) within the white light moving on my ceiling. I did a panicked freeze while trying to figure out if a special forces unit was running down a fugitive who was trying to get in my window. I thankfully noticed that the dogs were not barking at the window, got up the nerve to pop out of bed, turn on all the lights in my apartment and finally peek out my window to find nothing but parked cars.
That first event triggered numerous other nightmares and flashbacks every 30 - 90 minutes throughout the rest of the night including:
My smoke alarm popping off the wall, smoking and moving about on my carpet like a possessed robotic vacuum and filling the air with that acrid molten steel olfactory flashback -- that is my most common olfactory flashback, but the smoke detector ravaging my carpet was new.
An intruder removing my entire window frame in an attempt to enter, waking gasping for air, panic with chest fluttering, and a few others.
When I tried my grounding exercise and got to the touch sense, I reached toward my headboard (forgetting that I had earlier retrieved a bottle of water from the refrigerator) and touched the bottle of water instead of the feel of the headboard -- immediately the bottle flashed into the bloody severed arm -- again this is a common flashback for me, but I usually see it and this time it came from the touch sense.
I'm very glad to have you folks out there on this forum. I would really appreciate any feedback on coping techniques, medications that may have worked, and anyone with similar experiences of combined nightmares/flashbacks. Also, has anyone experienced a flashback popping from one sense to another?
Thanks for listening...
Last night's cycle began with my popping awake to an eerie light moving on my ceiling. As I focused on the moving light, I saw the Marine Corp Emblem (in color) within the white light moving on my ceiling. I did a panicked freeze while trying to figure out if a special forces unit was running down a fugitive who was trying to get in my window. I thankfully noticed that the dogs were not barking at the window, got up the nerve to pop out of bed, turn on all the lights in my apartment and finally peek out my window to find nothing but parked cars.
That first event triggered numerous other nightmares and flashbacks every 30 - 90 minutes throughout the rest of the night including:
My smoke alarm popping off the wall, smoking and moving about on my carpet like a possessed robotic vacuum and filling the air with that acrid molten steel olfactory flashback -- that is my most common olfactory flashback, but the smoke detector ravaging my carpet was new.
An intruder removing my entire window frame in an attempt to enter, waking gasping for air, panic with chest fluttering, and a few others.
When I tried my grounding exercise and got to the touch sense, I reached toward my headboard (forgetting that I had earlier retrieved a bottle of water from the refrigerator) and touched the bottle of water instead of the feel of the headboard -- immediately the bottle flashed into the bloody severed arm -- again this is a common flashback for me, but I usually see it and this time it came from the touch sense.
I'm very glad to have you folks out there on this forum. I would really appreciate any feedback on coping techniques, medications that may have worked, and anyone with similar experiences of combined nightmares/flashbacks. Also, has anyone experienced a flashback popping from one sense to another?
Thanks for listening...
