These are my coping strategies for my C-PTSD. I’d love to hear yours. Of course, PTSD people are welcome too, I am a-ok with that. C-ptsd just is PTSD by way of repeat. It’s causes are the same (afaik), some traumatic event in your life that you carry onward with you. Because, and I quote, “You never get over that shit, it stays with you forever”

(Image by Shawn Coss)

I’m still learning, but, as I see it, it’s not just abusive relations and war. It could be a freak major medical event that alters everything in your life thereafter. Or living 3000 days in pain. CPTSD is trauma, on a sustained basis. Trauma is trauma. You may have grown up in an abusive home. Maybe every relationship you had throughout your life was warped. Perhaps you lived in a war zone, served several tours, were raised by wolves, or any fucked up combination. Dealer’s choice.

C-PTSD is living in a continuous fight or flight mode. Fight flight or fright. And it has physical effects. That’s trauma stress. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The C adds Complex. Multiple instances of trauma adds the complexity; often beginning in childhood, when we are most susceptible to long term factors out of our control.

Did you know? It takes 13 days to teach your brain a new trick. To train your body, you repeat something over & over. What happens after 1000 days?

I don’t know about y’all, but somedays I get friggin twitchy. My insides zap, as if someone stuck my soul into a light socket. It’s fucking hellllllllll

(Image by Getty Images)

Soooo any tricks for coming down? When you can’t distract your brain anymore? When netflix isn’t chilling?

What do you do?

I need to flood my senses. These things help me..

• I’ll turn on youtube and listen to a rain storm. It also works in tandem with music, watching a series, or writing. I paint the same way. (Tandems, that is.) Chores too.
• I add some outdoorsy essential oils to my diffuser and lean directly over it, letting the cool mist blow across my face. Current favorite: chamomile with salty roses. It smells a bit like the beach around here.
• I blast music thru my headphones and dance around the living room. This one I don’t do as much as I used to, %$%# PTSD & all. Sucks, but it’s getting better.
• If I’m able, I’d love to be able to sit outdoors again. I miss that one. I would sit outside for hours, listening to the ocean breathe or watching the oak branches splay across the sky. My zen zone.

Mix and match. Depending. I rely on these tricks. They are my sanity savers.

New ideas welcome □●