Hey, I suffer from PTSD too and some things that I've found that help are trying to "force perspective" as far as emotions go, I imagine getting drawn into my anxiety/vigilance dominated mindset as getting too immersed in a bad video game and if I force myself to fix my perspective into reality or me sitting on my couch holding the xbox controller it helps me regulate where my thoughts are going. It's also important to understand that your brain is kind of a thought machine that produces feelings in reaction to stimulus and for us we have a conditioned panic reaction because of an extreme stimulus, so when the PTSD kicks in it helps me to change environment which is why I picked up a temporary smoking habit when things were bad, going outside for a few minutes helped me stay calm.
I totally empathize with the keeping your mind busy thing too. Besides reddit and bad vices, the things I've found that help (and backed up by research) are intellectually stimulating games, like tetris or minesweeper or chess. I've gotten really good at minesweeper in the past few months and the distraction it provides is just challenging enough to keep you busy but it's not too tiring either.
OX-in-the-box1 karma
Hey, I suffer from PTSD too and some things that I've found that help are trying to "force perspective" as far as emotions go, I imagine getting drawn into my anxiety/vigilance dominated mindset as getting too immersed in a bad video game and if I force myself to fix my perspective into reality or me sitting on my couch holding the xbox controller it helps me regulate where my thoughts are going. It's also important to understand that your brain is kind of a thought machine that produces feelings in reaction to stimulus and for us we have a conditioned panic reaction because of an extreme stimulus, so when the PTSD kicks in it helps me to change environment which is why I picked up a temporary smoking habit when things were bad, going outside for a few minutes helped me stay calm.
I totally empathize with the keeping your mind busy thing too. Besides reddit and bad vices, the things I've found that help (and backed up by research) are intellectually stimulating games, like tetris or minesweeper or chess. I've gotten really good at minesweeper in the past few months and the distraction it provides is just challenging enough to keep you busy but it's not too tiring either.
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