[czarina1984]

I had my first flashback yesterday. One moment I was sitting in church and the next everyone I knew had disappeared including my best friend who was sitting next to me. Eventually she must have realized something was wrong and she touched me and I snapped back to reality. I haven't been that terrified or helpless since it happened. I'm hoping that if I try to distract myself that I will calm down but the feelings are still there. I could really use some advice from someone who has done this longer than me. Anything that could help.....

[Bluegrey]

((czarina))

I'm no expert, but i think you might find it helpful to look at the sticky thread here on grounding techniques. My first flashback was a bit like that. Fortunately I have a friend who is very psychologically aware and who happened to be there, and she came and held my hand and told me I was ok, and sat with me till I had a grip on reality again. After that it took me quite a while before I worked out what it was - I hadn't really heard much about flashbacks and the nearest I could get in identifying it was a panic attack of some sort. Even so, that got me to thinking about grounding techniques so the next time it happened I had some idea what was going on and could try and ground myself.

The feelings of terror, helplessness and being completely overwhelmed kept coming at me a lot for a few months, but have settled down a bit now. I am assuming you have a T? I have found that I need to talk about things but am currently waiting to see a T who does EMDR.

Most of all, try and be kind to yourself, and if there is anyone around you can trust (perhaps the friend you mentioned?), try and get them to keep an eye open for you.


Bluegrey