 Hey what's up you guys and welcome back to my channel if you're new here hi hello I'm Lydia and today I'm coming at you from in a car this is uh it's odd this is weird so today I wanted to make a video talking about coping after a flashback episode this video was requested and I figured hey why not make it because I feel like this is going to be a really helpful video to anyone who's new hi I'm Lydia I'm diagnosed with PTSD I have experienced multiple forms in my life the main one being my ex committing suicide in front of me I've had my fair share of trauma and I experienced flashbacks so over the years I've come up with a fairly okay way of coping now so first of all let's talk about what flashbacks are and how they affect people flashbacks can be anything sensory so it can be visual tactile auditory someone's playing now music because they're a dickhead flashbacks affect people differently so what is a flashback a flashback is a vivid experience in which someone relives a specific traumatic event and it can feel although that event is happening in that exact moment flashbacks are not like watching a video it's not linear it's not watching something from start to finish it can be absolutely anything related to that traumatic event it can be a feeling it can be triggered by someone touching you in a certain place so now let's get on with the video so coping after a flashback so you had a flashback what do you do my first advice is to take a minute I don't care what you're doing where you are what's going on please take a minute give yourself time to come to terms with what you've just experienced take a breath and try to remind yourself that the next thing would be to remember some grounding technique when it comes to this please remember your five senses so so sight touch hearing smell taste remember all the senses and try to stimulate each one in a way that distracts from what you just experienced my next bit of advice would be to just keep telling yourself that you are safe now you are not in that moment and you are you are not in that moment anymore you have moved you've moved forward you're not there you are safe reminding yourself the next bit of advice that I have would be to get some pressure take a step outside have a minute eat grants in our focus on the surroundings where you are what's going on how hot or cold is the next thing would be to journal what you've experienced when it comes to therapy it's quite hard to talk about what you're experiencing flashbacks and something that I found helpful the rest of the credit list is I write everything down that happens and that's been really helpful in the respect that I'm able to then hand it over there you go that's what I've been going for my next bit of advice is if you have them and you feel like you need them take prn medication prn stands for take is it is for take when needed so if you have that I would advise doing that if you feel like you need to the next thing again involves a notebook and that would be to try and work out what triggered that incident and write it down and the more you know about your triggers the more you can prepare yourself and make yourself feel safe and put yourself in a situation where you just feel safer because you know what's going to trigger you and you kind of valued them triggers you can work on them triggers knowing your triggers is some really important isn't that want to make a whole whole video talking about another one would be to talk to someone whether that's a close friend family member so yeah talking to someone is definitely a good coping skill and something that I think most people would suggest doing however I am aware that not everyone has someone's thought to win that everyone feels comfortable talking to people so please don't feel like that's your only option there are things you can do that can help like recording a voice note to get things out filming a video phoning someone texting someone writing a note writing in a notebook these things will help it's a way of releasing what you just experienced and the last thing I want to say is distraction techniques distraction techniques I only a best friend I always carry stuff to distract me with and a lot of times my fidget queue of my puppet thing that mean let me have my puppet out my puppet thing this my puppet thing so I always have stuff like this on me as a distraction and I would highly recommend it if you have any other coping skills for flashbacks let me know in the comments down below because you know I want this channel page whatever you want to call it to be a helpful community so yeah that's all I've got for this video thank you for watching and if you're new hit the subscribe button while you're here give a little tickle say hello in the comment we don't buy a prize and I will see you guys soon in the next video peace