I had flashbacks for about 3 years after I left my abusive ex. I was in regular therapy and had dreams about him constantly. I was Dx with hypervigilance which is like being overly scared of everything; thinking that there is a guy hiding behind my mailbox to attack me....silly stuff like that. I asked my T and he said that it was my brain's way of working through it. I wouldn't have gotten over it without my T but he said that those things would continue for a while. I couldn't have sex without bawling my eyes out and still can't do certain things with my bf. Luckily he understands but it is really horrible to get flashbacks years later. Honestly I'm not sure how the hypervigilance stopped. I guess talking it out with my T helped me a lot.

Just know we are all here for you. We will try to help you find the technique that works best for you. For me I had to physically talk myself out of it. If I started having flashbacks or hypervigilance I had to literally say aloud "Jess, you are being dumb. There is no guy waiting to attack me" or "You know he is not here. You know he is not going to hurt you."

He also told me to not give in to those feelings. I used to always check my backseat convinced someone had broken into my car and was just waiting for me. So he said do not give in to those feelings. If I had an impulse to check something or a flashback I had to force myself to think about something else. That really helped. And yes, I even spoke to myself in public lol