Hey everybody!
Today, I'm going to give you 5 helpful ways
to better manage flashbacks.
[Music]
Before we get into the content of this,
I want you to understand what a flashback is.
Now, a flashback is when we've had some sort of trauma in our life,
and we flashback to it mentally,
and it will feel like it's happening to us all over again.
These flashbacks can be triggered by any number of things
Mostly pulling from our 5 senses,
meaning, we might smell something that triggers it,
hear someone, a voice that sounds very similar to
maybe someone who abused us in the past.
There can be a lot of different ways that these can be triggered,
So let's get into the ways that we can better manage them!
And number one is self-talk.
And I know this sounds really strange,
but when a flashback is happening,
it's actually helpful for us to tell ourselves
that we're having a flashback
Instead of letting it pull us completely back to that time
and feel like it's happening again
I've heard from a lot of my client and viewers that
When they have multiple flashbacks,
and they happen over and over,
We can often feel completely re-traumatized.
Like it actually is happening again
so when we find ourselves
In a flashback
Do your best to FIGHT
And to say in your mind
This is just a flashback
This isn't happening again
I may feel like I'm unsafe,
but I'm actually in a very safe space
Nothing bad is going to happen.
And we can kind of talk ourselves through it
and actually, we find
shortens the length of time that we're kept in that flashback
And the second tip is: Soothe yourself!
Do something that feels really good to us
I know for many of you, you've told me that the trauma
that you go back to in your flashback
was something that happen when you were a child
and so we have to soothe that inner child
This can be anything from purchasing a weighted blanket,
that can be really soothing to a lot of people
but depending on the trauma,
that might not be good!
It might be a warm bath,
It might be putting on cozy clothes,
It might be lighting a lavender candle,
listening to soft music,
Whatever it is,
make sure you're taking the time to soothe yourself.
Because coming out of a flashback
we fan feel
very fight or flight or freeze response
and so coming back into our body can really help.
And the third tip, rolling right from the other,
is grounding techniques, to help bring us back into our body.
And it encourages us to use our five senses
I actually talked a lot about this in the video I did with Alexa.
I'll put a link in the description and at the end of the video,
But we talked about creating a resilience box
and ways that we can ''Ground'' ourselves, AKA
bring us out of dissociation or flashback
back into our present body and present state
and some options that she talked about were:
oddly enough,
sucky candies, because there's something about
sucking and swallowing that's very calming
to our nervous system.
Also movement of the neck,
making eye contact with someone that we love and who cares for us.
It can also be
Silly putty, keeping some kind of movement going,
I would encourage you to rewatch that video but also
find different ways and grounding techniques that work for you
some of my clients snap rubber bands,
hold ice cubes,
wiggle their toes,
there can be a lot of different things that we do
to help bring us back, and pull us out of that flashback.
And the fourth tip,
and this is going to sound really icky but I promise it helps,
is allow yourself the time to grieve
coming out of a flashback.
So you can see I'm kind of going in order, right?
As we get into the flashback, we tell ourselves it's just a flashback,
then we try to self-soothe and bring ourselves back
and now, when we're out of the flashback,
I would encourage you to take the time to feel what has come up
Having flashbacks, as terrible and horrific as they can be,
can actually give our body and mind time
to kind of process through some of that grief,
some of that anger,
some of that upset,
some of that fear that we may have felt when it happened to us
back then.
And it gives us time now
to think through it, process through it,
and maybe even talk to a therapist or friend about it.
Utilize this time to release those unexpressed feelings
because it's a great time to process through it
so that hopefully, these flashbacks happen less frequently.
and the fifth and final tip is to work to prevent them from happening!
Just like I said, we hope that they'll happen with less and less frequency.
And the first part of this
is recognizing the warning signs.
What do we feel in our body?
What do we think in our mind?
Do we get sweaty palms?
What is it that we experience before we go into a flashback?
Do we start to feel ourselves slowly pull away?
Like all of a sudden, it's like a dream?
What is it that you experience?
If you just had a flashback, I encourage you to think back
on maybe how you felt,
in the couple of hours leading up to it
take note of that, so that we can treat it
and work on it before we're into the flashback
That means we can use those grounding techniques a little bit quicker
and maybe stop it from happening.
And then the second is recognizing what triggers them.
Is it situations?
People? Is it certain sounds? Is it certain scents?
Are there things that we can avoid?
So that they don't happen with such frequency?
Or, If we find ourselves in those situations,
Then we can come up with some coping skills
from our therapist, and the work that we're doing in therapy
because we're getting some help and support
What are the things that we can do if we find ourselves in those triggering situations?
to help us cope better so that the flashbacks don't occur
I hope you found that helpful.
There are so many tools we can use to cope ahead
or things we can do in the moment
so that flashbacks happen with less frequency
and hopefully stop happening all together.
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Bye!