Total Immersion Flashbacks

[Ncole]

Do any of you deal with total immersion flashbacks? If so, how do you handle it if you have one in a less than ideal place. I.E. the super market, library, church, exc. I have had them in such places and ended up in the hospital because they would try to touch me and apparently I would just start fighting them. I tend to have a flashback where I am being choked so people automatically assume I am having an asthma attack and then I am taken to the hospital. How do you handle this? How do you make them shorter? I have had it last as long as 6 hours before! I have them EVERY night while sleeping and then randomly throughout the day. I do a lot of grounding exercises but sometimes it feels like grounding is just making it worse when it actually does happen.

 

[safenow]

Hi Nicole, Welcome to the forum.

I used to have total immersion flashbacks at work and other places. I have ended up in the hospital more times than I like to admit. I usually end up under a desk or in a closet or wherever.

It sounds to me that you haven't been able to do any trauma therapy yet. When you do, that is the first one you want to work on. The cause of that particular flashback. But before you can do trauma therapy you need to have ways to ground quickly, so as you work on it, you can stay in the here and now.

What grounding exercises are you using?

 

[Ncole]

I have actually had 16 months of trauma therapy when I was in inpatient, I know, sad, right? They weren't extremely educated on the topic but I did spend pretty much the entire 16 months working on the PTSD stuff. Unfortunately, there is so much to work through that it's hard to work through enough that it doesn't cause the flashbacks to become worse. I am now meeting with a trauma and eating disorder therapist and she is amazing. We haven't been meeting for very long yet.

One of the most helpful grounding things that I use right now is to pinch my fingers in a random pattern, just the tips. I have found this helpful for short periods of time (like to sit in a short class, church, exc.) I also write everything someone is saying if I am in a position where I can do that. I keep my house on the chilly side. In addition, I also consistently tell myself that the body memories I am feeling are not real and when flashes first start, I remind myself what IS true about the here and now...that I am safe, I am not there anymore, I survived it.

I am in the process of starting something called "containment" with my current therapist. I have made a strong box and will be "placing" memories in it until we are able to get to them at a later time. That way when I am having a lot of memories pouring in, I can do something with them, they aren't just stuck in my head. So far I have had a little luck with this process. She is taking everything extremely slowly which I am extremely thankful for.

 

[safenow]

You might want to go to the PTSD diary section and read page 1, Item #21 of "how it began". That is the 5-4-3-2-1 game. You can do it any place, any time. It is not hard, and the more you practice it, the easier it becomes. You can even make a little first-aid kit for it and it can fit in the palm of your hand.

 

[Ncole]

Thank you so much!