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Corner: Healing Tips |
Ritual Abuse, Ritual Crime
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If you are having a flashback, and you know that this is happening, try some things on this list. If one doesn't help, go on to another. They are all designed to break a trance state and to get you back in touch with the present.
Many of the suggestions are taken from Chrystine Oksana's 'Safe Passage to Healing.' Others come from a many different survivors and therapists, including Erikson, Kluft, and Napier. If you have some ideas that work well for you, send them to rahome@ra-info.org.
Tips for containing a flashback:
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Blink hard. Blink again. Do it once more as hard as you can.
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Change your body position.
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Breathe slowly and deeply.
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Go to a safe place.
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Say your name out loud.
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Drink a glass of ice water.
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Tell someone what you need.
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Move vigorously to release energy.
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Name people or objects in the room.
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Hold something that is comforting.
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Listen to a tape of something soothing.
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Make tea. Drink it.
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Call a friend.
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Eat a snack.
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Jump up and down waving your arms.
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Lie down on the floor; feel your body connecting with it. Keep your eyes open. How does it feel? Describe it out loud to yourself.
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Make eye contact with your pet. Now hold it.
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Clap your hands.
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Breathe deeply. Keep breathing. Pay attention to your every breath.
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Hold a stuffed animal, pillow, or your favorite blanket.
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Alternatively tense and relax some muscles.
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Try and "blink" with your whole body, not just your eyelids.
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Move your eyes from object to object, stopping to focus on each one.
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Wash your face.
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Go outside for sunshine or fresh air.
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Repeat to yourself: "I am safe. This is (month, day, and year). I am ___ years old. I am a big person. I can protect myself."
If you are so caught up in the flashback that you have no sense that you have already lived through the event, you may not be able to do any of the things suggested above. Here are some techniques that your therapist, your SO, or a friend can use to help you re-connect to the present. (They are written for the person not having the flashback.)
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Introduce yourself, explain it's a flashback, explain where the person is. Give reassurances of safety -- 'that's old stuff' -- 'you are not alone now and are much bigger and stronger now'
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Use a magical eraser on the remembering.
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Using an imaginary plastic spray bottle of water, spray the remembering until it dissolved away.
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Put a TV screen around the remembering and then turn down the sound, turn down the brightness, switch channels.
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Look at the remembering with binoculars turned around and adjust the picture to make it smaller.
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Project the remembering on a wall/dry erase board, then 'erase' it with back-and-forth movements of your finger.
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Suggest that the person remember or imagine a very safe place, go there, and bring all senses to bear in the imagining (seeing, hearing, smelling, touch, etc.)
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Have the person draw the remembering on paper. Then erase, scribble over the drawing, flush it down the toilet, rip it up, etc.
With crisis telephone calls, when the person seems barely coherent, do most of the talking in your calmest, strongest, most reassuring voice. Say things like 'You can hear my voice, you have a firm grip on the telephone receiver, you are safe, you can have control over your breathing.' Then ask them to tell you what they see around them or to just name 'safe' objects in the room.
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hold ice in your hand
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take off shoes, put feet on the floor
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wear a rubber band on your wrist and snap it a few times
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concentrate on slower, longer breaths
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alternate nostril breathing techniques
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frequent intake of drinks of water
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clean house
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