[RubyRae]

I have been feeling so hopeless lately. So lost and alone. And completely helpless, like I have no voice, no choices and no options. And feeling like a prisoner, wanting to escape and since I have felt there's no way to escape, I have been thinking about killing myself.

It all passed a bit ago. And I am once again feeling hopeful and ok. I'm grateful for that.

It was the same way I felt as a child, even wanting to kill myself. Sometimes I just can't think past all the feelings to even realize it's an emotional flashback. And that's kind of scary to me. I worry one of these days I may actually get so caught up in the feelings that I will do something stupid.

If I could somehow realize what's going on I could probably find ways to manage them when they're bad ones. But like I said, sometimes I just can't think past them and am overcome and overwhelmed with emotions.

How do you help yourself recognize what's happening, and how do you deal with them?

Hey, I'd like to suggest this resource that Reddit's CPTSD community highly recommends: http://pete-walker.com/flashbackManagement.htm

[RubyRae]

Originally Posted by QuietMind

Hey, I'd like to suggest this resource that Reddit's CPTSD community highly recommends: Pete Walker, M.A. Psychotherapy

Thanks. I had that bookmarked already and forgot about it. Thanks for the reminder.

Hey, if you browse reddit, the CPTSD community there is great with tips and coping skills. They're very supportive

[Open Eyes]

Emotional flashbacks can be the worst IMHO, I have them too and I can get triggered and struggle badly for a few days and not really knowing what I am re-experiencing. Sometimes certain things will slowly come to me and I just sit and cry because that child in me did not deserve to "feel and struggle" the way she did and it can be so hard to remember it with my adult mind. I also feel shame in that my husband sees me struggling and having bad days and I feel like a burden and that can bring back how I had felt that as a child too and got messages that sent that message to me.

[RubyRae]

Originally Posted by QuietMind

Hey, if you browse reddit, the CPTSD community there is great with tips and coping skills. They're very supportive

Thanks. I will have to check it out.

Originally Posted by Open Eyes

Emotional flashbacks can be the worst IMHO, I have them too and I can get triggered and struggle badly for a few days and not really knowing what I am re-experiencing. Sometimes certain things will slowly come to me and I just sit and cry because that child in me did not deserve to "feel and struggle" the way she did and it can be so hard to remember it with my adult mind. I also feel shame in that my husband sees me struggling and having bad days and I feel like a burden and that can bring back how I had felt that as a child too and got messages that sent that message to me.

I feel bad afterwards because during them my husband feels like he is so unsafe and I can't stand to be around him. Those old feelings are so easy to get caught up in.

I don't really have other types of flashbacks anymore besides the emotional ones and yes they're the worst.

Sorry you have them too.

[MoxieDoxie]

Thank goodness people here understand emotional flashbacks and how real they are. Trying to explain that to people "out there" and they think you are just being a drama queen or over sensitive because the only real flashbacks are the one veterans get who have real PTSD.

[Open Eyes]

Yes Moxie, it's very hard to explain to others how challenging and "intrusive" emotional flashbacks can be. For those of us who are challenged the one thing none of us want to experience is these often very intrusive and even debilitating emotional flashbacks.

The one thing I have come to see about myself is that I have experienced a lot of things going all the way back in my life that "emotionally" traumatized me. However, a child really doesn't have the ability to understand that and a child tends to try to find ways to distance themselves from the emotional disturbance they are witnessing in their environment growing up. "FEELING" unsafe can become something a child finds a way to get used to "FEELING" and that child may not really realize how that is not really "normal".

[Fuzzybear]