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How do i help myself???

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SunsetDawn83

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Hello everyone, I'm now on a waiting list to seen by a therapist for PTSD/CPTSD. In the meantime though is there anything I can do to help myself cope with my symptoms??
 
hello sunset. reaching out for peer support here is a solid start in helping yourself.

do you care to get more specific about the symptoms you are coping with? every case is unique and the possible symptoms are far more numerous than i care to guess at.

whether you care to share, or not, welcome aboard. you are not alone.
 
A lot of my coping strategies look like me living a pretty regular life. Exercising, working, volunteering, eating healthy food, getting good quality sleep. I try and keep occipital with a variety of activities. Every day. Every single day.

Because the minute I stop, and give my brain space to go to dark places? It goes to dark places.

When you're going about your life, it might help to pay attention to the things you're doing. When you complete a task, take a moment to think back on how much you got involved in the task. How distracted by the task were you? Were you distressed doing it? How distressed? Were there moments during the task where you weren't in a dark place? And can you replicate that?

You aren't expected to go about your life and suddenly be fine, or be able to pretend to be fine. But definitely for me, it's actually really ordinary tasks that help me keep most regulated. And I do them like it's a form of essential medication.
 
thanks that was really helpful. I am just beginning to uncover painful memories and feelings and am overwhelmed. Had my first therapy session . saw a psychiatrist who changed my meds . But i have a rock or a hairball ready to throw up it feels like. I don't want to get out of bed in the morning . Doing the best I can.
 
Hello everyone, I'm now on a waiting list to seen by a therapist for PTSD/CPTSD. In the meantime though is there anything I can do to help myself cope with my symptoms??
Think the best advice I was given was Do what's in front of you. Time for breakfast fix a healthy one. No clean clothes concentrate on the laundry. Exercise time, establish a routine. Feeling overwhelmed, slow down, concentrate on what calms you. Writing here, talk to supporters, play with your pet, journal, walking out in nature, even hollering can help. Now this is hard.....try not be frightened. An episode will pass. You will survive it.
Glad you are here.
 
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Hi @SunsetDawn83 , happy you're here! It's hard and a bit tautologic to do sometimes, but the answer do to fine things. Divert attention from what stresses you up but also to reasonably face avoidance, seek for things that help you feel okay and centred and in the moment. Activities that demand quite a good deal of physicality can be nice, as well as learning something you like and get to practice that skill. That is focusing enough to allow you not to divert into dark places and episodes. Often we do that stirring it up ourselves—it's not the end of the world, but there are slippery slopes that do lead the the same walls.

It's already a lot to be here and to look for support and find ideas. I found DBT tools to be useful in the awaiting and the Woebot app to be quite soothing in moments where really everything was adrift. It does teach CBT exercises pretty well and past the moment of silliness to find yourself talking to an app it kinda does its job and you're never worried about telling too much to a computer so that can be freeing for some. Venting here and keeping a journal did help me through really a lot. It's good to know we aren't alone and we're all affected in different ways, as we aren't our C/PTSD. Or at least not only.

What helped me is to see hope for myself in very small ways and very small amounts of time. A few minutes, a few hours. Stay focused on short moments. Progressively it becomes easier to manage longer moments. And everything small counts all the time. It can seem daunting to think about this like this, it's not about that everything has to be perfect all the time at all, but that every little thing does count, every little opportunity does count and they are in fact around. So I try to bring my attention to see it as much as I can and be in there as much as I can. That some days it all goes to the pit of fire is okay too. It's just about keeping going, with some structure and gentleness.
 
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