Phantom touches?

[Mousie]

I was sexually abused as a child, and sometimes i feel as if his fingers are touching me or inside me again, and I can't handle it. I just recently got diagnosed and I have no idea what's normal.

 

[Lionheart]

@ Mousie

Hi,

I am a survivor of sexual child abuse too and I believe what you are experiencing is totally normal.

As we heal, I have found, the frequency and intensity diminishes and things can get much better.

Lionheart777

 

[CCarey]

I use mindfulness, and always practice being in the moment.

 

[Stickler]

That's a normal thing. Try breathing in deeply, then slowly exhaling the nasty feeling as you exhale? That might work a little bit, if you keep at it for a few minutes.

 

[Friday]

It's a kind of flashback. Which is reliving any part of past trauma. Sight. Hearing. Touch. Taste. Smell. Emotions. So for PTSD, it's very normal.

 

[Powder]

I believe it's been called a body memory. This article I found today calls it something else, which is I think not coming from an expert but rather someone summarizing (read plagiarizing) the experts for personal gain and creating more useless life coaches (that's all we need :rolleyes:). Nonetheless, I found this summary to make more sense to me than some.

Maybe it will help.

I truly hate having this symptom. The first emotional response is to feel like a victim again, especially if it's painful. I do flashback management steps that cut dissociation that my T had taught me: cold (air, A/C, go outside in winter, drink cold or hot, or apply an ice pack), movement, and start doing something that requires focus/distraction, like cooking, gardening, or something that forces you to use ALL your senses at once. This is grounding. Best short cut is to smell Vicks or some strong smell which tells the parts of your brain that think you are back in the past trauma frozen in time that you are actually here in the present. It helps to notice the details in your environment and tell yourself what time you are in.

Resourcing – The Antidote for Traumatic Activation

The best part of the article for me was "The limbic, or emotion brain, and the reptile, or body brain, only remember in present moment. They don’t understand past or future like the neocortex does. It’s as though our bodies are reliving the experience, even though our cognitive brains are in the present reality."

My sister has these and used to think it was a ghost. It truly feels real. Hard to believe that the brain really doesn't know time has past.

 

[EveHarrington]

Hi Mousie, I hope you join the forum so that you can continue getting help, with benefits like a members only diary, ability to private message other members, etc. welcome! :hug:

 

[MisterCatLady]

I get these on a daily basis. I used to deal with it by drinking but I've been working with a therapist and now I'm working on sitting with the emotions that come up after these physical sensations. It gets better. Every time you stop, ground yourself, and consciously recognize it as something that happened in the past it gets better.

 

[Draiocht]

Does anyone else get these sensations at super inappropriate times? E.g. I sometimes get this when I'm talking to an older man and I swear my face must go bright red, why am I associating that aspect of trauma with just talking to someone?