Newly Diagnosed with PTSD, Need Advice

Like someone said, flashbacks are gonna happen. And having an Emotional Service animal is great if you can afford it and handle all their care needs even when ill. Finding a really affectionate animal is ideal, who can give you cuddles, sense your mood, smell your stress hormone, and for me most importantly, you don’t have to react to every loud noise outside bc your dog will do it for you. They will alert you if it’s potentially suspect. This takes some of the weight off your nervous system so you can live and not go into a trauma response sporadically.

EMDR therapy, EFT tapping therapy, meditation, and healthy intuitive eating help me personally. Trauma lives in the body so traditional talk therapy can provide some support, but ultimately you’re trying to soothe an overactive nervous system. The therapies I listed are for the body. Massages if you can afford them can help. Sometimes meditation can be hard bc you have to feel safe in your body to get into it. If you have to stop, stop. Learn about fight/flight/freeze/fawn responses online. Having ways of soothing yourself if you go into hyper vigilance from a sound or person being too close for example is clutch. You should look into the “Vagus Nerve” online- I rub some oil on the areas of my neck where it is to massage it every night. If you feel tension in your body take a moment to release it or shake out. Soften that spot. Overthinking can be a sign you aren’t feeling safe in your body. Learning when you don’t feel safe in your body and are trying to numb it or distract from it is important! You are gonna have to cry and grieve to let the trapped emotions out. Hugging myself, ecstatic dancing everyday, and giving myself a massage with cream at night help me feel safe in my body. Get in touch with your inner child. Importantly, never forget you are NOT alone. You can do this. ❤️

Venlafaxine, Seroquel (or other atypical antipsychotics) and Prazosin have helped me. Venlafaxine helps with the anxiety and depression cycles I have when my flashbacks are more intense or frequent. Seroquel (and risperidone in the past) has helped with some of the paranoia and general management of PTSD symptoms. Atypical antipsychotics are not just for hallucinations and can be very helpful. Prazosin has been a miracle for me. Most people take it to deal with nightmares, bit for me, it SIGNIFICANTLY reduces my flashback frequency and duration. I used to have flashbacks from almost all day long, but now I have them once or twice a week (on a good week) and they last less than an hour usually.

It can be scary, there's flashbacks and nightmares. I was recently diagnosed as well, and one of the things that has helped me the most is my emotional support animal. If you can I would highly recommend getting a pet and talking with your therapist about making them an emotional support animal.

Prazosin has helped me have less nightmares

I highly recommend you look into DBT coping skills (should be easy to find on Google) and ask your therapist if they're qualified to do EMDR which is a special therapy to help heal trauma

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Hi! How do you feel about getting diagnosed? Did you wait for it or did it surprise you? For me therapy helped as well as EMDR