What Do You Do To Cope in Life?

[Tessan25]

hi all!
what do you do to cope the lifes struggle with PTSD.
do you have blackouts to?
do you talk to someone?

[cactus_jack]

No I don't have blackouts, nor do I have someone to talk to. I just deal with them.

[2quilt]

I talk to my husband who does not have PTSD, I come to this forum and ask what others would do in my situation, I ask my psychologist what other options are to react or deal with the problem.

[upstream]

I do not have blackouts. I do have a fun support group I spend time with, and I talk to a therapist regularly when things are bad. I've learned not to talk about this stuff with my family.

[Seeking_Nirvana]

I don't have black outs, but I have a lot of time I can't account for due to dissociation.

I talk to my therapist and post threads here asking the people on the forum to give advice.

I have hobbies to keep my mind on other things when I feel bad and I read self help books.

Tammy

[Grama-Herc]

Aside from talking to mom I also do the deep breathing exercises and take a walk

[Cindy]

I have developed many strategies to respond to many aspects of PTSD.

The key is identifying many factors:

What are your feelings at the time?
What is the situation and how is it affecting you?
What are your alternatives presently or in the future that you can do?
Is this a repetative incident?
What from my past is like this incident or not as you analyze it?
Do you have any control over the situation?

Depending on the answers you can modify your thoughts or actions.


Immediate crisis mode however, you need to refocus by grounding, distracting, or departing to a safe place until you get back together.
Soothe yourself in what ever way works for you: exercise, music, suduko, etc

All of the above is very hard to do when you are an emotional basket case. They will not work if you are on overload and can't think straight. These steps have been created over a long period of time and once ingrained can become automatic. But practice and practice and practice makes it better each time.

I have no one to talk to or share with other than my Therapist. So I go it alone all the time. Other than this forum.