# Anyone w/ PTSD



## intrasearching (Jul 15, 2011)

How do you deal with the hypervigilance and irritability?

I've been without it for weeks at least, and suddenly it's come up today and it's really freaking me out.

Any general advice on how to calm it down would be appreciated.


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## HellCat (Jan 17, 2013)

intrasearching said:


> How do you deal with the hypervigilance and irritability?
> 
> I've been without it for weeks at least, and suddenly it's come up today and it's really freaking me out.
> 
> Any general advice on how to calm it down would be appreciated.


Yoga, pilates, learning to live zen and thankful for everything. 

biofeedback, hypnotism sometimes helps. 

journaling to get to the root of the terror and then working backwards to undo it and get through it.


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## stargazing grasshopper (Oct 25, 2013)

Moved elsewhere.


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## Zombie Devil Duckie (Apr 11, 2012)

Tell someone you can talk to and then talk it out. The purpose of talking it out is sometimes it helps to hear your own words. Thoughts move too fast inside your head. Your brain has to slow down to listen to what you are saying.

Exercise, exercise, exercise.

Avoid alcohol unless you have absolutely worn yourself out with exercise. Feels like it helps at first, but it breaks down that barrier of self-control.

Did I mention exercise? 

It's the only thing that "burns" it out for me, even after all these years.

Remind yourself that it's only a temporary emotion, it won't last, and you'll get through it.


-ZDD


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## O_o (Oct 22, 2011)

intrasearching said:


> How do you deal with the hypervigilance and irritability?
> 
> I've been without it for weeks at least, and suddenly it's come up today and it's really freaking me out.
> 
> Any general advice on how to calm it down would be appreciated.


Aw man, I've had it since I was very very young. With enough practice, you manage to detect it in time, halt it and prevent the thoughts from spiraling into shit. 

Distractions though. I have this word game actually that I do in my head. When I start feeling the paranoia come in, before I can react to it and, you know, start running, duck into a ball, etc, I start this game. Basically you think of a word (ex: Hide) then you think of another word that starts with the last two letters of the previous one (so : dear : arrest : studio : iodine : necklace : etc).


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## tanstaafl28 (Sep 10, 2012)

Meditation, deep breathing, regular exercise. Group/individual counseling.


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## Mystic MagentaRose (May 7, 2014)

Yes I'm suffering with PTSD this whole week and it's been really hard for me as well. So trust me I know where you're coming from. Two nights ago I started to meditate right before I've went to bed and I noticed how I'm feeling much more relaxed about thing. There's times where I still get anxious from time to time however but I try to keep myself busy. Trying writing in a journal or playing a musical instrument. Anything to get yourself calm. And try reassuring yourself that you're safe. I usually say this to myself over and over again as I do breathing exercises.


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## BlackDog (Jan 6, 2012)

intrasearching said:


> How do you deal with the hypervigilance and irritability?
> 
> I've been without it for weeks at least, and suddenly it's come up today and it's really freaking me out.
> 
> Any general advice on how to calm it down would be appreciated.


It sounds weird but I started keeping a journal and writing down every time I felt extremely anxious or panicky. I would try to put my emotions into words (hard for me) and try to work out why and how it was unreasonable to feel that way. 

I also kind of just accepted it and stopped fighting it. I allowed myself to feel anxious sometimes and stopped beating myself up so much about it, which was only making it worse. I also talked to a friend about it and she taught me how to focus on external stimuli to calm myself. I would take deep breaths and tell myself it was okay to be anxious but not necessary. 

As others said, I also threw myself into strict diet and exercise and it helped alleviate the stress. Maybe that was an unhealthy thing to do, some way to impose a sense of control, but it worked. I still do anxiety but its no longer nearly debilitating. 

My advice is very personal, so I don't know if it would help you at all. But I thought I'd share. Good luck.


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## Promethea (Aug 24, 2009)

I think everyone already covered anything I had to share. 

I was diagnosed with it. Its been there since childhood apparently.

Cutting out alcohol helped a ton to ease my "body anxiety" -- if you ever had someone explain the difference between anxiety from thoughts, and anxiety that seems to originate from "nowhere" and affect the body. Like, your thoughts can be perfectly calm, but your body starts reacting like something bad is about to happen. Yeah, alcohol and even caffeine can make that worse. Alcohol can stay in the system for several days and make it worse, actually. When I started noticing that, I cut it completely. 

Exercise can help it, because it burns out the adrenaline that feeds it. And I know, it seems like its such a big deal that what could something as simple as exercise really do. Working wonders is what it does. lol

If you're having a really bad day or week, take it easy on yourself. You will have better days or weeks where you can go face the more challenging things.


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## intrasearching (Jul 15, 2011)

Thank you all. Very good advice here. And even in the simplest sense it feels better to know that there are others who understand this particular experience of life.

What gets me lately is the feeling of defensive anger. I don't express it, but when I'm at work and surrounded by lots of random people walking around, my mind tries to be aware of where every single person or cluster of people is. Like they are potential threats, like enemies on a battlefield. And when they move from their position or come closer, I feel this kind of intense mixture of anger and fear. It really sucks. It's so tiresome. Even though I am not consciously paranoid and I trust almost everyone I interact with, my body and mind are constantly ready to attack with full force against any instigator.

Gonna go for a really strenuous run after work. And gonna get more into meditation... Also, I am in therapy and have been doing EMDR for a few years now.


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## Tad Cooper (Apr 10, 2010)

intrasearching said:


> How do you deal with the hypervigilance and irritability?
> 
> I've been without it for weeks at least, and suddenly it's come up today and it's really freaking me out.
> 
> Any general advice on how to calm it down would be appreciated.


I had a mix of therapy and medication (fluoxetine 20mg worked for me). Generally try and stay in calm environments with low stress levels if possible and try and talk about things.


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## Ninjaws (Jul 10, 2014)

intrasearching said:


> Thank you all. Very good advice here. And even in the simplest sense it feels better to know that there are others who understand this particular experience of life.
> 
> What gets me lately is the feeling of defensive anger. I don't express it, but when I'm at work and surrounded by lots of random people walking around, my mind tries to be aware of where every single person or cluster of people is. Like they are potential threats, like enemies on a battlefield. And when they move from their position or come closer, I feel this kind of intense mixture of anger and fear. It really sucks. It's so tiresome. Even though I am not consciously paranoid and I trust almost everyone I interact with, my body and mind are constantly ready to attack with full force against any instigator.
> 
> Gonna go for a really strenuous run after work. And gonna get more into meditation... Also, I am in therapy and have been doing EMDR for a few years now.


I know exactly where you are coming from. When I'm walking the dog at night I get frustrated when I see someone coming my way, because I instantly become extremely vigilant and tense. I always feel the need to walk up straight with a strong face in public, because I don't want to become a target and the best way to avoid that is appearing strong. 
After a few days I always feel extremely cramped up, with constant neck pain.

The two best things to ease the mind I've found are physical excercise and video games. Video games make you forget about things around you which helps turn off the vigilance. Excercising is just to blow off steam.


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