Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Therapy and lifestyle changes: nutritious, nourishing foods, daily walk, exercise, cutting toxic people out of my life, learning how to have/express/enforce boundaries, etc, etc. Trauma recovery is possible, but it is a lot of work and it is painful at times. Keep at it.

This exactly. Meds should be last resort, not first.

I get what y'all are saying and agree that meds should not necessarily be the first treatment for everyone with PTSD. But the suggestion that serious mental illness be treated with "nutritious, nourishing foods" and "daily walks" really needs to stop; it is next level ignorant and harmful.

Ptsd isn't a mental illness, rather it is a trauma response. The lifestyle changes were listed *after* therapy. It is ok to take meds to help access therapy and it is ok to not take meds. My trauma surrounds the loss of control. Running, choosing to eat well, etc help me feel in control of my body. Medicines I tried in the past were not only unhelpful, they made me feel worse.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Therapy and lifestyle changes: nutritious, nourishing foods, daily walk, exercise, cutting toxic people out of my life, learning how to have/express/enforce boundaries, etc, etc. Trauma recovery is possible, but it is a lot of work and it is painful at times. Keep at it.

This exactly. Meds should be last resort, not first.

I get what y'all are saying and agree that meds should not necessarily be the first treatment for everyone with PTSD. But the suggestion that serious mental illness be treated with "nutritious, nourishing foods" and "daily walks" really needs to stop; it is next level ignorant and harmful.

Meds and set aside a particular time for worrying. In the middle of the night, get up, walk to another room, read a book, etc. Don't just lie there and ruminate.

Anonymous wrote:Therapy and lifestyle changes: nutritious, nourishing foods, daily walk, exercise, cutting toxic people out of my life, learning how to have/express/enforce boundaries, etc, etc. Trauma recovery is possible, but it is a lot of work and it is painful at times. Keep at it.

This exactly. Meds should be last resort, not first.

Anonymous wrote:Any hints and tips on how you were able to stop the rumination with PTSD. Like even waking up to go to the bathroom at night ends in 2 hours of rumination before falling back to sleep. How did you make the intrusive thoughts and memories stop?

When I get into a rumination cycle, my first strategy is to try to distract myself. In the middle of the night scenario you describe, that might mean listening to a podcast while falling back asleep instead of just lying there with my eyes closed. In the daytime, maybe it looks like going for walk, doing some kind of project, talking to a friend (about something other than the rumination), or whatever.

My second strategy is to engage with the rumination stuff, but in a more structured way. I journal. I make a therapy appointment and plan to talk about XYZ there. Sometimes I talk to a friend about what I'm ruminating about if that's appropriate.

Meds made it a lot easier to actually do those things, rather than aspire to do those things, fail, and then feel shame about it.

I remind myself of what's going on in the present time and what I'm aiming to do. In the middle of the night when I'm trying to sleep, I meditate. - works every time. During the day I distract with music or people or dog, etc.

I haven't been able to stop it completely. I have had some success with Cymbalta (an SNRI), but I'd say it only cut the noise and hyperfixation down by 75% or so, and it only worked for a couple of years before the efficacy wore off. I'm in therapy now talking about the traumas that led to my PTSD and triggers and although it is a relief to talk about it all and processing it is going to help me in many ways, I can tell you that my triggers and hyperfixating are probably not going to end.

I did a course of EMDR therapy and it was somewhat effective, but the benefits were fleeting. I'd say 6-8 months later, I was back to my baseline of anxiety and difficulty dealing with triggers. But YMMV, it is worth a try if you can find someone (I had a hard time finding a qualified therapist--they all seem to have waitlists, in the DMV anyway). EMDR is not the magic bullet for everyone.

You've gotten some really good advice on this thread. The only thing I can add is that even if you don't use medication now (SSRI primarily), don't rule it out completely. I suffer from CPTSD from childhood domestic violence/abuse. In my late 20s/early 30s, I did a lot of counseling and CBT (including meditation). I was great until I was about 55. I then, again, experienced nightmares (always a fight or flight situation) where I couldn't tell it was a nightmare and thought it was real (poor DH). I also had sleep hypervigilence and some other, negative behaviors.

I actually posted in this forum about it. Someone suggest it was a resurgence of the CPTSD. I thought I was totally beyond it but, as I later learned, many women experience anxiety during/after menopause due to the hormonal changes - even if they'd never had anxiety before. My OBGYN prescribed a low dose of Zoloft and I haven't had a nightmare or any other sign of CPTSD since. Just something to think about when you hit menopause ages.

Oh - I wanted to add that, in hindsight, I had my first experience with anxiety about 3 years before I thought I entered menopause. I had to wear a cast because of a broken bone. While I was on the pain meds or it was during the day, I had no issues. But, when I was lying there in bed, relaxing, getting ready to sleep....I was hit by the overwhelming need (not a want) to get the cast off. I needed it off, off, off, off, off. It was freakin anxiety. The orthopedist said it wasn't uncommon but I'd had casts before and never had that issue. Menopause sucks.

I did medication while in CBT. It helped to greatly reduce the panic attacks. I have heard great things about EMDR.

Prozac and Zoloft helped me with runination

Please try EMDR therapy. Truly lifesaving for me - no exaggeration. I’m the dcum/emdr PP - found out about this therapy on dcum and I’m forever grateful - my PCP didn’t even know about this treatment option!

SSRIs (Zoloft, Lexapro) extremely helpful.

Audiobooks and podcasts. They stopped my rumination at night. Actually, they have been the only thing that has stopped my rumination at night. Pick a history podcast with a calm speaker and a topic that you are only somewhat interested in. Put one AirPod in.

Therapy and lifestyle changes: nutritious, nourishing foods, daily walk, exercise, cutting toxic people out of my life, learning how to have/express/enforce boundaries, etc, etc. Trauma recovery is possible, but it is a lot of work and it is painful at times. Keep at it.

Therapy and meds. Grounding exercises also work well for me

Any hints and tips on how you were able to stop the rumination with PTSD. Like even waking up to go to the bathroom at night ends in 2 hours of rumination before falling back to sleep. How did you make the intrusive thoughts and memories stop?