# Anxiety Disorders > Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) >  >  Dealing with Flashbacks

## Chair

I was wondering if any one had ideas on how to deal with flash backs?   Mine have gotten really bad lately and i can no longer control them. I  am on anti anxiety medication and anti depressants. Once i finally fully  realize it is a flashback and get out of it i have really bad anxiety  attacks.

The flash backs keep seeming more and more real and are becoming more and more traumatizing.

The  flashbacks get unmanageable at night.  The time the flashbacks are the  worst is right after i lie down to go to sleep, once i close my eyes I  have a flashback.  They sometimes occur during the day but i can usually  manage those.

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## Coffee

> I was wondering if any one had ideas on how to deal with flash backs?   Mine have gotten really bad lately and i can no longer control them. I  am on anti anxiety medication and anti depressants. Once i finally fully  realize it is a flashback and get out of it i have really bad anxiety  attacks.
> 
> The flash backs keep seeming more and more real and are becoming more and more traumatizing.
> 
> The  flashbacks get unmanageable at night.  The time the flashbacks are the  worst is right after i lie down to go to sleep, once i close my eyes I  have a flashback.  They sometimes occur during the day but i can usually  manage those.



I used to get really bad flashbacks of past negative events and would feel like I was actually back in the situation. My anxiety would spike and I'd get really bad panic attacks. These things were always triggered by certain events that reminded me of the past. I spoke to my psych about it and she taught me some grounding techniques. When you first start to notice that something is happening, you have to try to catch it really quickly to implement the techniques. 

An example of this is picking an object to describe around you, and describing it as if you were talking to a blind alien that has never seen this object or heard of it before. Another technique is to look around at all of the things that are different now physically than they were then. If you open your eyes, look around your room. What's different now than it was in the past? Are your walls painted a different colour? Is your bed in a different place? Another technique I found quite useful, particularly at night and for flashbacks as well as night time anxiety, was making myself really tired before going to bed. There's no point in trying to sleep if you aren't tired. I only go to bed when I'm sleepy so that I minimise the time I have to think about things. It still takes me a while to sleep, but it decreases the amount of time I have. 

You can also try anxiety reducing techniques such require your attention such as counting backwards from 100 in threes, counting the sounds that you can hear around you, picking an object (like the blind alien thing) but this time listing all of the ways it can be used, e.g. a paperclip can be used for a lot of stuff. And of course any distraction techniques such as watching tv or reading a book (granted, that's harder to do at night). Also meditation techniques can be done in bed - such as tensing up each muscle, focusing on that muscle, then releasing. Do that for every muscle from your toes to your head. Then just try to think of a pleasant memory or imagine a pleasant hypothetical situation, and play it out in your head. Make sure you keep going back to that situation every time you find your thoughts drifting to other things. 

I hope that helps a little - I'm not sure if I answered your question (I'm a bit tired and might have misread), but maybe there are bits you can pick out.

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## Jackmack

I am so sorry that you are suffering like this.  My flashbacks were not  as debilitating as yours, but even so, many of them crippled me. 

I  believe that the best way to reduce the frequency and severity of  flashbacks is to address in therapy the scars that the flashbacks left  and the wounds that are still raw.

It also helped to soothe  myself the way I would soothe my babies when they had bad dreams -  saying "it's okay, honey, I'm here and I won't let go of you", "it  seemed so real but it was only a dream", and so forth.  There were many  nights when I held myself tightly and sang myself to sleep.

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## Coffee

> It also helped to soothe  myself the way I would soothe my babies when they had bad dreams -  saying "it's okay, honey, I'm here and I won't let go of you", "it  seemed so real but it was only a dream", and so forth.  There were many  nights when I held myself tightly and sang myself to sleep.



This is good too. Think of a mantra for yourself or your inner child that might help. Mine was something like, "You will be okay, this will pass, it's okay to feel scared but I'm here for you and I won't let anything bad happen to you, this isn't real, you will be okay, it will be okay", as if I was talking to my inner child.

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## VickieKitties

I have some stuffed animal friends that help me with flashbacks, try using your sense of touch to ground you. Calming music helps too, or something distracting like sewing.

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## func

I use music to keep myself grounded. I'm always wearing earphones/headphones.  ::\:

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## Chantellabella

> The flashbacks get unmanageable at night. The time the flashbacks are the worst is right after i lie down to go to sleep, once i close my eyes I have a flashback. They sometimes occur during the day but i can usually manage those.



I know this will sound weird, but my therapist tells me, "ask inside to use words to tell you what the flashback means." In other words, your brain is relieving the trauma for a reason. By asking your brain to use words, you can realize that you were terrified or confused during the traumatic event.  When I am able to verbalize my terror remembering the event, it kind of disfuses it in my brain.

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## nemmm3

I experience flashbacks of one of my family members hitting me
at one point i started having flashbacks of other people hitting me too
I was in a class once and had a flashback of my boyfriend hitting me
it was so frightening and real and I couldnt snap out of it, it caused me to end my relationship

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## toaster little

I've had several flashbacks today after this weekend.  To someone else it just looks like I'm just daydreaming, so they usually don't ask if something's wrong.  I haven't felt comfortable enough to discuss it with anyone as of right now.

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## Chantellabella

> I've had several flashbacks today after this weekend.  To someone else it just looks like I'm just daydreaming, so they usually don't ask if something's wrong.  I haven't felt comfortable enough to discuss it with anyone as of right now.



Flashbacks can be very scary because it's not just remembering what happened, it's re-living it. A memory allows us to see the incident as an outsider, in our older adult bodies. A flashback puts us back into the situation and our bodies and mind react as it's happening at the moment, even if it happened when you were a child. That's why they can be so scary.......... a reaction from a 9 year old in terror is pretty powerful. Our bodies then have the same reaction as it did in the trauma.......freeze, tense, short breath.

Sorry you had to face that.  ::(:

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## merc

I once described what happened to me to the counselor I was seeing and he called it a flashback. I've only had this happen twice and really don't want it to happen again. Both times I felt scared and convinced I was really out of my mind crazy.

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## Ironman

I guess this is another fear we have to face.  Once we have learned that that event is over, it won't do quite so much damage.  Use it to your advantage and stuff.  You are a survivor.

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