6 Healthy Coping Mechanisms for c-PTSD

If you have complex PTSD, your body and mind may seek distraction and ways to avoid pain to protect you from hurtful and traumatic experiences. This can lead to unhealthy coping mechanisms that compromise your physical and emotional well-being.

Although you may feel better temporarily when you numb your feelings or engage in unhealthy behaviors, the best thing you can do for yourself is to develop healthy coping skills. Here are six techniques that can help you cope and look after yourself.

1. Journal

The first step to finding healthy coping mechanisms is to become aware of what you feel or experience throughout the day. This can help you address your emotions and make it easier to self-regulate.

Some of the symptoms you may experience include:

• A racing heart or cold sweats all over your body

• Difficulty controlling or regulating emotions

• Feelings of hopelessness or emptiness

• Flashbacks

• Frightening thoughts or suicidal ideation

• Depersonalization or derealization

• Tension in your body

• Feeling scared or startled easily

• Mental blocks or difficulty remembering details about a traumatic incident

• Headaches, chest pains and dizziness

Keep a diary and check in with yourself throughout the day. You can ask yourself questions like, “How am I feeling right now?” or “What do I need in this moment?”.

When you have a flashback or a sudden rush of emotions, note how you feel and any events, conversations or situations that made you feel uncomfortable or unsafe. When you make these notes, you are better able to recognize triggers and notice any early signs of stress or panic.

Detecting your triggers will also help you to work through them and recognize parts of childhood trauma or past experiences you need to heal from.

2. Practice Grounding Techniques

Grounding helps you to self-soothe when you experience flashbacks. Some grounding techniques that may help include:

Soak Your Hands in Water

Place your hands in warm water for a few minutes, then switch to cold water. How does the water feel on each part of your hand? Does it feel different on your fingertips or palms? What does the temperature feel like? Focus on these sensations of the water on your skin.

Take a Short Walk

Going outside can regulate cortisol levels and activate your parasympathetic nervous system to help you calm down. When you have flashbacks, your body goes into fight or flight mode and increases your heart rate.

On your walk, focus on the rhythm of your footsteps and how it feels to lift your feet and put them on the ground with each step. It can also help to focus on interesting buildings, trees or animals around you and what makes them unique.

Use the 54321 method

List five things you can hear, four things you can see, three things you can touch, two scents you can smell and one thing you can taste. Focus on things you may overlook, like the pattern of your shirt or the birds outside your window.

3. Try Progressive Muscle Relaxation

Relaxation exercises are one of the best ways to cope with c-PTSD symptoms. Your body stays in flight or fight mode, which can cause muscle tension.

Lay down on a mat on the floor or on your bed. Take deep breaths. Starting from your feet, tense your muscles, then relax them. Move up to your calves, thighs, stomach and arms until you reach your jaw. The alternation between tensing and relaxing can improve muscle tension symptoms over time.

Practice progressive muscle relaxation even when you feel good to help your body cope with c-PTSD when you start to feel stressed or anxious.

4. Explore Hydrotherapy

Hydrotherapy provides an opportunity for you to decompress, relieve muscle tension from anxiety associated with PTSD and reduce stress. Stress and tension relief occurs because you feel weightless from the buoyancy of the water. This buoyancy also produces calming effects and releases endorphins into your body, promoting feelings of peace and well-being.

Although formal hydrotherapy happens in a shallow pool with warm water and exercise that promotes relaxation, swimming can also decrease stress and produce similar effects.

5. Express Yourself Creatively 

Expressing yourself artistically can help you to process your emotions when you struggle to talk about them. Expressive writing can increase resilience, improve depression symptoms and reduce perceived stress and compulsive focus on distressing symptoms.

Expressive writing is emotional and personal writing that forgoes writing conventions to express what is on your mind. It’s about describing events, memories, feelings and people in any way you want to.

An expressive writing exercise can look like this:

• Block off 20 minutes to write every day for four days.

• Choose a personal topic.

• Write about that topic without going back to check spelling, punctuation or grammar. Keep writing, even if you repeat a sentence.

Write with the knowledge that it’s for your eyes only. You can hide or destroy the writing when you’re done. If you feel a topic is overwhelming and unsafe, stop writing. You may feel down after the exercise, so take care of yourself afterward — you can speak to a trusted friend or family member or do your self-soothe routine.

Aside from writing, you can also paint or dance to express and represent your feelings.

6. Recite Affirmations

You can self-soothe after a flashback or panic attack with soothing phrases that help you feel safe. Make this a personal exercise, and write what you need to hear. Here are some affirmative statements to give you inspiration:

• My feelings matter, and my pain is valid. I am allowed to feel.

• I deserve to be treated with warmth and kindness.

• It wasn’t my fault. No one can blame me for what happened.

• It wasn’t fair or appropriate. I deserve to be protected.

• I am as real a person as anyone. 

• I am stronger than I believe.

• I am safe now.

• I am capable of love, and I deserve love.

 Affirmations that feel real and genuine will feel better than overly positive statements.

Learn How to Cope With c-PTSD in Healthy Ways

Ultimately, everyone with c-PTSD will cope differently. Try out different methods until you find techniques that work for you. Eventually, you’ll build a routine of reliable, healthy coping mechanisms that help you care for yourself.