Shortest time recovering from a nightmare!!

[Strangelongtrip]

I know I just posted in here haha but yesterday I had one of my biggest PTSD recovery accomplishments!! I had two really bad nightmares the night before, one about murderers and one about rape, and when I woke up I couldn’t leave my bed for 3 hours. I was completely frozen. When I finally got up at 8am, I was so hypervigilant. The worst I’d been in months. My anxiety was awful. I wanted to go to the gym and to pick up medicinal for my pain but I drove to the gym and there were too many people there and I had a panic attack in the parking lot. But!! I went home, did some deep breathing exercises, positive self talk, got a hot beverage and an ice pack, sniffed some lavender oil, did some stretches, just all the things I needed to take care of myself. I was able to do my pet sitting visits, and by the time I got home at 2pm I was back to normal!! I was no longer hypervigilant!! I got a huge assignment done and then let myself rest.

Usually nightmares like that would mean I was completely incapacitated for a day or two, or they’d start cycling into a few days of nightmares and hypervigilance. This is the fastest I’ve ever recovered!

 

[littleoc]

Wonderful!!!! Great progress!

I can’t help but wonder if the pet sitting helped!

 

[Strangelongtrip]

@littleoc I know it did, I was watching a 5 month old puppy! She gave me a million kisses and always cheers me up. It makes me think more and more I need to continue working with animals, maybe as a different business that’s more profitable like training!

 

[MamaHopeful]

I needed to read this today. Thank you so much!
Can I ask which treatment you are doing (or did) to help this healing take place? I know you listed all of the coping skills, but I'm also just curious if you also did EMDR or anything else?

 

[Strangelongtrip]

@MamaHopeful I’m glad! I did some EMDR at the beginning of my treatment about 4 years ago, but it’s mostly been CBT and DBT this past year that I think has helped the most. Guided meditation helps too, my therapist has one that’s really cool. I also have done reiki healing but I think that stirs stuff up sometimes. I had it done last month and since then things have been getting worse.