My therapist explained to me that when I experience a flashback I need to understand that it comes in like a wave, crashes through me and then recedes and that it's like standing knee deep in the ocean where a wave comes at me, crashes through me but always recedes and to learn how to be patient while it happens and once I experience it and identify it as something I experienced in my past, that will slowly take the power out of that flashback so the next time I experience it it won't come on so strong.

If you have found that paying attention to your breathing helps you then continue using that method. It's important to keep in mind that often a flashback can present us with feeling something bad is going to happen and our brain responds to that by pumping out cortisol which prepares one for fight or flight. By concentrating on something mundane or calm, like coloring in a coloring book or slowing our breathing down the brain will realize there is no "current" danger and will stop producing the cortisol and that will finally bring someone back to feeling calmer again. A "trauma" is when someone experiences a situation that is sudden, unexpected and greatly compromises that persons sense of safety or ability to stop whatever they experienced from happening. The brain records a lot more than the person realizes consciously and yet it's in fragments and all the parts to the traumatic experience can take time to piece together where the person can finally identify all the aspects of whatever that trauma was and what the danger actually was and what parts were "not" the dangerous part itself. Trauma really changes a person's overall sense of safety and depending on what that trauma was, it can take a person quite a bit of time to gradually rebuild their overall sense of safety.

For myself, the trauma I experienced caused a lot of damage, and while that was bad enough, I was also frightened by the ptsd symptoms that also confused me and contributed to my feeling "unsafe".