Healing Tips

Self - Injury Awareness
Introduction to Self - Injury
Helping tips for Anger
Breathing
Sleeplessness
Grief
Coping with Medical Procedures

Flash Back Tips

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.

Tips for containing a flashback

• Blink hard. Blink again. Do it once more as hard as you can.
• Change your body position.
• Breathe slowly and deeply.
• Go to a safe place.
• Say your name out loud.
• Drink a glass of ice water.
• Tell someone what you need.
• Move vigorously to release energy.
• Name people or objects in the room.
• Hold something that is comforting.
• Listen to a tape of something soothing.
• Make tea. Drink it.
• Call a friend.
• Eat a snack.
• Jump up and down waving your arms.
• 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.
• Make eye contact with your pet. Now hold it.
• Clap your hands.
• Breathe deeply. Keep breathing. Pay attention to your every breath.
• Hold a stuffed animal, pillow, or your favorite blanket.
• Alternatively tense and relax some muscles.
• Try and "blink" with your whole body, not just your eyelids.
• Move your eyes from object to object, stopping to focus on each one.
• Wash your face.
• Go outside for sunshine or fresh air.
• 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."

• 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'
• Use a magical eraser on the remembering.
• Using an imaginary plastic spray bottle of water, spray the remembering until it dissolved away.
• Put a TV screen around the remembering and then turn down the sound, turn down the brightness, switch channels.
• Look at the remembering with binoculars turned around and adjust the picture to make it smaller.
• Project the remembering on a wall/dry erase board, then 'erase' it with back-and-forth movements of your finger.
• 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.)
• Have the person draw the remembering on paper. Then erase, scribble over the drawing, flush it down the toilet, rip it up, etc.

Breathing

The importance of the role that breathing plays in the collection of skills every survivor needs cannot be understated. According to The Importance of Breathing, lack of oxygen can cause:

• sluggishness
• irritability
• negative thoughts
• depression
• hearing loss
• vision loss
• stroke
• heat disease
• heart attack
• cancer
• lowered immune system function

"A few nice deep breaths can be so relaxing. It can be a quick and easy stress reliever. You can do this anytime. You can do this anywhere. It is not visible to others," says Dr. Marianne Ross in her article Breathing. "And the good news can be that because you are less stressed, you will handle things more easily."

Learning to breath when confronted with panic, anxiety, flashbacks, etc. can help survivors hold their focus on their present day environment and strength rather than becoming lost in the abyss of their prior helplessness and victimization. It can also help the mind calm itself so that alternatives to panic and anxiety can be seen.

Breathing may seem very simple, but most people naturally breath in fast, shallow breaths rather than the slow, deep breaths that are so helpful to stress reduction. Try this one:

• Put a hand on your stomach just below your belly button
• Breathe in through your nose.
• While taking breath in, imagine that you are trying to fill up your belly and push your hand out as far as you can.
• Keep breathing in slowly as you can comfortably breathe and as deeply as you can.
• After you have taken in as much air as you can, pause for a second.
• Breathe out through your mouth as slowly as you can. Purse your lips slightly to slow the outward speed of your breathing. Feel your hand fall inward as the air leaves your belly.
• Repeat this process at least 3-4 times.

Another technique you may prefer:

• Inhale through the nose while counting six seconds and allowing your stomach to relax and take in the air fully.
• Hold the breath for three seconds.
• Exhale through the mouth while counting six seconds and puffing the last bit of air out at the end of the exhale so that your stomach pushes back toward your back.

Breathing can also be helpful for chronic stress and anxiety as well as offering a method of coping with sudden flashbacks, moments of anxiety or panic and the like. For thus who spend a lot of time at the computer, Seagull Breathing from Virtual Relaxation is a wonderful technique for reducing this sort of generalized stress.

Importance Of Breathing

Breathing is important for two reasons. It is the only means to supply our bodies and its various organs with the supply of oxygen which is vital for our survival. The second function of breathing is that it is one means to get rid of waste products and toxins from the body.

Oxygen is the most vital nutrient for our bodies. It is essential for the integrity of the brain, nerves, glands and internal organs. We can do without food for weeks and without water for days, but without oxygen, we will die within a few minutes. If the brain does not gets proper supply of this essential nutrient, it will result in the degradation of all vital organs in the body.

The brain requires more oxygen than any other organ. If it doesn't get enough, the result is mental sluggishness, negative thoughts and depression and, eventually, vision and hearing decline. Old people and those whose arteries are clogged often become senile and vague because oxygen to the brain is reduced. They get irritated very quickly.

Poor oxygen supply affects all parts of the body. The oxygen supply is reduced to all parts of the body as we get older due to poor lifestyle. Many people need reading glasses and suffer hearing decline in old age.

When an acute circulation blockage deprives the heart of oxygen, a heart attack is the result. If this occurs to the brain, the result is a stroke.

For a long time, lack of oxygen has been considered a major cause of cancer. Even as far back as 1947, work done in Germany showed that when oxygen was withdrawn, normal body cells could turn into cancer cells.

Similar research has been done with heart disease. It showed that lack of oxygen is a major cause of heart disease, stroke and cancer. The work done at Baylor University in the USA has shown that you can reverse arterial disease in monkeys by infusing oxygen into the diseased arteries.

Thus, oxygen is very critical to our well-being, and any effort to increase the supply of oxygen to our body and especially to the brain will pay rich dividends. Yogis realized the vital importance of an adequate oxygen supply thousands of years ago. They developed and perfected various breathing techniques. These breathing exercises are particularly important for people who have sedentary jobs and spend most of the day in offices. Their brains are oxygen starved and their bodies are just ‘getting by’. They feel tired, nervous and irritable and are not very productive. On top of that, they sleep badly at night, so they get a bad start to the next day continuing the cycle. This situation also lowers their immune system, making them susceptible to catching colds, flu and other ‘bugs’.

One of the major secrets of vitality and rejuvenation is a purified blood stream. The quickest and most effective way to purify the blood stream is by taking in extra supplies of oxygen from the air we breathe. The breathing exercises described in here are the most effective methods ever devised for saturating the blood with extra oxygen.

Oxygen bums up the waste products (toxins) in the body, as well as recharging the body's batteries (the solar plexus). In fact, most of our energy requirements come not from food but from the air we breathe.

By purifying the blood stream, every part of the body benefits, as well as the mind. Your complexion will become clearer and brighter and wrinkles will begin to fade away. In short, rejuvenation will start to occur.

Scientists have discovered that the chemical basis of energy production in the body is a chemical called Adenosine Triphosphate (ATP). If something goes wrong with the production of ATP, the result is lowered vitality, disease and premature ageing.

Scientists have also discovered that oxygen is critical for the production of ATP; in fact, it is its most vital component.

Yoga permits us to tap into this vital nutrient.

We know how to breathe. It is something that occurs to us automatically, spontaneously, naturally. We are breathing even when we are not aware of it. So it seems foolish to think that one can be told how to breathe. Yet, one's breathing becomes modified and restricted in various ways, not just momentarily, but habitually. We develop unhealthy habits without being aware of it. We tend to assume positions (slouched positions) that diminishes lung capacities and take shortened breaths. We also live in social conditions that is not good for the health of our respiratory system.

As discussed above, scientists have known for a long time that there exists a strong connection between respiration and mental states. Improper breathing produces diminished mental ability. The corollary is true also. It is known that mental tensions produce restricted breathing.

A normally sedentary person, when confronted with a perplexing problem, tends to lean forward, draw his arms together, and bend his head down. All these body postures results in reduced lung capacity. The more intense the concentration, the more tense the muscles become. The muscles in the arms, neck and chest contract. The muscles that move the thorax and control inhalation and muscular tenseness clamp down and restrict the exhalation. The breaths become shorter and shorter. After an extended period of intense focusing, the whole system seems to be frozen in a certain posture.

We become fatigued from the decreased circulation of the blood and from the decreased availability of oxygen for the blood because we have almost stopped breathing. As our duties, responsibilities and their attendant problems become more demanding, we develop habits of forgetting to breathe.

Try an experiment suggested by Swami Vishnudevananda. Focus attention upon the ticks of a clock placed at a distance of about twelve feet. If you get distracted, try concentrating harder until you experience the ticking with undivided attention. If you fail at first, you should try again and again until you succeed in keeping the ticking clearly in mind for at least a few seconds. What happened? The majority of persons who took part in this experiment reported that they have completely suspended the breath. The others, who had less concentration, reported that they experienced very slow breathing. This experiment shows clearly that where there is concentration of the mind, the breathing becomes very slow or even get suspended temporarily.

What's Wrong With The Way We Breathe?

Our breathing is too shallow and too quick. We are not taking in sufficient oxygen and we are not eliminating sufficient carbon dioxide. , As a result, our bodies are oxygen starved, and a toxic build-up occurs. Every cell in the body requires oxygen and our level of vitality is just a product of the health of all the cells.

Shallow breathing does not exercise the lungs enough, so they lose some of their function, causing a further reduction in vitality.

Animals which breathe slowly live the longest; the elephant is a good example.

We need to breathe more slowly and deeply. Quick shallow breathing results in oxygen starvation which leads to reduced vitality, premature ageing, poor immune system and a myriad of other factors.

Why Is Our Breath Fast and Shallow?

There are several reasons for this. The major reasons are:

1. We are in a hurry most of the time. Our movements and breathing follow this pattern.
2. The increasing stress of modern living makes us breathe more quickly and less deeply.
3. We get too emotional too easily. We get excited easily, angry easily, and most of the rest of the time we suffer from anxiety due to worry. These negative emotional states affect the rate of breathing, causing it to be fast and shallow.
4. Modern technology and automation reduces our need for physical activity. There is less need to breathe deeply, so we develop the shallow breathing habit.
5. We are working indoors more and more. This increases our exposure to pollution. As a result, the body instinctively inhales less air to protect itself from pollution. The body just takes in enough air to tick over.

As we go through life, these bad breathing habits we picked up become part of our life. Unless we do something to reverse these habits, we can suffer permanent problems. The good news is that these are reversible. The bad news is that before we can change these habits, we should recognize and accept that our behavior needs to be changed. This means that we see for ourselves the benefits of good breathing techniques.

Certainly, yoga is not the only way to cope up with the stress and the resultant drop in oxygen supply to the brain brought on by the constricted breathing. A smoke, a coffee break, a trip to the restroom or a good laugh may all result in some readjustment of constricted breathing patterns. These can be thought of as "mini-yogas". We can benefit by taking or seeking more smokes, breaks, trips or jokes. But for those whose occupations continue to be highly stressful, something more will be needed. Deep breathing exercises and stretching of muscles, especially those primarily concerned with controlling inhaling and exhaling, should be sought. Participation in active sports also will be useful. Going for a walk is very good. For those experiencing restricted breathing at night, morning exercises should be actively pursued.

1. Reduced vitality, since oxygen is essential for the production of energy in the body.
2. Increased disease. Our resistance to disease is reduced, since oxygen is essential for healthy cells. This means we catch more colds and develop other ailments more easily. Lack of sufficient oxygen to the cells is a major contributing factor in cancer, heart disease and strokes.

With our 'normal' sedentary way of living, we only use about one tenth of our total lung capacity. This is sufficient to survive and just tick over, but not sufficient for a high vitality level, long life and high resistance to disease.

The ancient yogis knew the importance of correct breathing and developed techniques not only to increase health and life span, but also to attain superconscious states.

Modem science agrees with the ancient yogis on the subject of shallow breathing. An editorial in the Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine suggested that fast, shallow breathing can cause fatigue, sleep disorders, anxiety, stomach upsets, heart bum, gas, muscle cramps, dizziness, visual problems, chest pain and heart palpitations.

Scientists have also found that a lot of people who believe they have heart disease are really suffering from improper breathing.

Importance of Breathing Through The Nose

The first rule for correct breathing is that we should breathe through the nose. This may seem obvious, but many people breathe principally through the mouth. Mouth breathing can adversely affect the development of the thyroid gland. It can retard the mental development of children.

The nose has various defense mechanisms to prevent impurities and excessively cold air entering the body. At the entrance to the nose, a screen of hairs traps dust, tiny insects and other particles that may injure the lungs if you breathe through the mouth. After the entrance of the nose, there is a long winding passage lined with mucus membranes, where excessively cool air is warmed and very fine dust particles that escaped the hair screen are caught. Next, in the inner nose are glands which fight off any bacilli which have slipped through the other defenses. The inner nose also contains the olfactory organ-our sense of smell. This detects any poisonous gases around that may injure our health.

The yogis believe that the olfactory organ has another function: the absorption of prana from the air. If you breathe through the mouth all the time, as many people do, you are cheating yourself of all this free energy (prana). The yogis say this is a major factor in lowered resistance to disease and impairs the functioning of your vital glands and nervous system. Add to this the fact that pathogens can enter the lungs via mouth breathing, and you can see that it's impossible to be healthy, not to mention vital, if you breathe through the mouth.

It is easy to break the habit of breathing through the mouth. Just keep your mouth closed and you will automatically breathe through your nose!

Summary: Benefits of Deep Breathing

We will now summarize the benefits of deep breathing. Deep breathing produces the following benefits:

1. Improvement in the quality of the blood due to its increased oxygenation in the lungs. This aids in the elimination of toxins from the system.
2. Increase in the digestion and assimilation of food. The digestive organs such as the stomach receive more oxygen, and hence operates more efficiently. The digestion is further enhanced by the fact that the food is oxygenated more.
3. Improvement in the health of the nervous system, including the brain, spinal cord, nerve centers and nerves. This is due again to the increased oxygenation and hence nourishment of the nervous system. This improves the health of the whole body, since the nervous system communicates to all parts of the body.
4. Rejuvenation of the glands, especially the pituitary and pineal glands. The brain has a special affinity for oxygen, requiring three times more oxygen than does the rest of the body. This has far-reaching effects on our well being.
5. Rejuvenation of the skin. The skin becomes smoother and a reduction of facial wrinkles occurs.
6. The movements of the diaphragm during the deep breathing exercise massage the abdominal organs - the stomach, small intestine, liver and pancreas. The upper movement of the diaphragm also massages the heart. This stimulates the blood circulation in these organs.
7. The lungs become healthy and powerful, a good insurance against respiratory problems.
8. Deep, slow, yoga breathing reduces the work load for the heart. The result is a more efficient, stronger heart that operates better and lasts longer. It also mean reduced blood pressure and less heart disease.
   The yoga breathing exercises reduce the work load on the heart in two ways. Firstly, deep breathing leads to more efficient lungs, which means more oxygen is brought into contact with blood sent to the lungs by the heart. So, the heart doesn't have to work as hard to deliver oxygen to the tissues. Secondly, deep breathing leads to a greater pressure differential in the lungs, which leads to an increase in the circulation, thus resting the heart a little.
9. Deep, slow breathing assists in weight control. If you are overweight, the extra oxygen burns up the excess fat more efficiently. If you are underweight, the extra oxygen feeds the starving tissues and glands. In other words, yoga tends to produce the ideal weight for you.
10. Relaxation of the mind and body. Slow, deep, rhythmic breathing causes a reflex stimulation of the parasympathetic nervous system, which results in a reduction in the heart rate and relaxation of the muscles. These two factors cause a reflex relaxation of the mind, since the mind and body are very interdependent. In addition, oxygenation of the brain tends to normalize brain function, reducing excessive anxiety levels.

The breathing exercises cause an increase in the elasticity of the lungs and rib cage. This creates an increased breathing capacity all day, not just during the actual exercise period. This means all the above benefits also occur all day.

You may go to an explanation of how deep breathing can be accomplished or learn about the anatomy of breathing to get a better understanding of our breathing process.

Sleeplessness

Not Sleeping

Trouble sleeping is one of the most common problems that survivors have reported in my conversations with them over the years. Sleeping difficulty is listed as one of the common symptoms of sexually abused children and Rape Trauma Syndrome. In addition, sleep disturbance is listed as one of the symptoms in a number of conditions commonly experienced by survivors, including:

• Acute Stress Disorder
• Major Depressive Disorder
• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

Of course, survivors are not the only ones not sleeping. In a recent national survey, two-thirds of those responding reported sleeping problems.

The High Cost of Sleep Deprivation

When people have trouble sleeping, they become sleep deprived. The cost of sleep deprivation to the community at large is tremendous.

The National Commission on Sleep Disorders estimates that sleep deprivation costs $150 billion a year in higher stress and reduced workplace productivity...There are indications that the Challenger disaster, the Chernobyl nuclear reactor meltdown and the Exxon Valdez oil spill can all be partly linked to people suffering from a severe lack of sleep.
Lack of sleep America's top health problem doctors say

"If you take all the people that die on the highway from falling asleep at the wheel in a week, and you add them up, that's the equivalent of a major fully loaded airplane crashing every day," says Professor Max Hirshkowitz of Veteran's Administration Medical Center as reported in Sleep problems are costly, dangerous.

For the survivor, the symptoms of sleep deprivation may:

• make it easier for an abusive person to isolate the survivor
• make it less likely that the survivor will seek help from the police, a domestic violence shelter or other helping agencies
• increase feelings of hopelessness and despair
• make it more difficult for the survivor to find the health, energy and other resources to attain and maintain physical safety
• decrease the survivor's financial resources due to loss of work and costs of treatment associated with illness
• make it more difficult for the survivor to reach out for the therapeutic and self-help resources
• increase the frequency and severity of flashbacks
• increase the symptoms of dissociation
• trigger attacks of panic or anxiety or dramatically increase their impact upon the survivor

Thus, it is critical for the survivor to learn to cope with problems sleeping.

Assessing Your Sleep

The first step in overcoming a sleeping difficulty is to assess the problem. Take The Sleep Test from Northside Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia, a screening test for sleep disorders, to see if you should consult your personal physician or a specialist about your sleeping difficulty. .

If you decide to consult with a specialist, the International Directory of Sleep Researchers and Clinicians may help you find the appropriate professional.

At Searle's Shuteye Online web site, you can Test Your Sleep Knowledge to dispel some common myths and learn more about how to improve your sleep, print out a Sleep Diary to track your sleep patterns and identify potential problems, and compile a Personal Profile to increase your awareness of the factors that affect how and why you sleep or do not sleep.

Educate Yourself

It is important to educate yourself about How to Sleep Well. First, you can prepare to sleep while you are awake by establishing a regular time to go to bed and get up, avoiding naps, reducing caffeine intake (especially late at night), and exercising regularly (but not close to bedtime). As bedtime approaches, get yourself ready for a good night's sleep.

According to the ABC's of ZZZ's, following are some of the secrets of getting to sleep:

• Try to get up and go to bed at the same time every night (including weekends). 
• Create a nighttime routine - such as washing up, brushing your teeth, having a glass of water or a small snack, etc. Starting the routine sends a signal to your brain that it is time to sleep. 
• Avoid reading, watching television or other non-sleep or sex activities in bed so that your bed will be associated with sleep.
• When you are having trouble going to sleep, give yourself 30 minutes. Try to relax and breathe deeply. However, if it does not work after 30 minutes, get up and do something relaxing like reading or listening to soothing music. Try again when you feel sleepy.

Cooling down before you go to bed may help according to Patricia Murphy, Ph.D., and Scott Campbell, Ph.D., of the Laboratory of Human Chronobiology at the New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center in White Plains, New York. This may explain why baths sometimes help people sleep because the body temperature cools as you get out of the bath.

From What to Do When You Can't Sleep:

• The bedroom should be quiet.
• If the bedroom is not dark enough, hang up light-out curtains or dark blinds or use an eye mask.
• When you lie down, try relaxing each muscle beginning with your feet and working upwards. 
• Avoid competitive games, exciting television programs or stimulating computer activity right before bedtime.
• Avoid drinking alcohol to help you sleep. 

Many survivors of abuse report success with children's bedtime rituals such as:

• Sleep with a teddy bear or other stuffed animal if that feels right for you.
• Allow yourself to get attached to a special pillow or blanket if it helps you feel safe or comforted.
• Play an audiotape or videotape of a children's story at bedtime or ask someone to read a bedtime story to you.
• Alternatively, play lullabies or other soothing music as you drift off to sleep.
• Use a night light or leave the light on in the closet.
• Do not hesitate to close your bedroom door or lock it (or leave it open) if that helps you feel safer.
• If waking in the middle of the night is a problem for you, then make sure that safe, non-threatening activities, such as writing, audiotapes, videotapes, or coloring, are readily available so you do not wake yourself further by hunting for something to help you get back to sleep.
• If you can afford it and it is helpful to you, get a rocking chair and rock in it before getting into bed. If you have a child alter or inner child, imagine that you are holding that child alter or inner child while you rock.

These techniques may be particularly helpful for dissociative survivors with a child alter that resists sleep but non-dissociative survivors have also reported success with these techniques.

The Angel held her - fought back angry tears
Towards those who terrorized a child with fears
They dared to take a girls' childhood to keep
Giving her nightmares - so that she can't sleep.
- excerpt from Sleeping with Shadows by Margaret Y. Perkins

According to Common Questions About Nightmares, many people experience nightmares after they have suffered a traumatic event and the content of these nightmares is typically directly related to the traumatic event and the nightmares often occur over and over.

The nightmares of traumatic experiences may trigger flashbacks. Even if the nightmare is not about the traumatic event, the nightmare can trigger memories that are similar in some fashion to the nightmare (e.g., a nightmare about being stabbed with a knife may trigger a memory of being raped or a nightmare of being chased may trigger a memory of being chased and beaten as a child). Nightmares can make the dreamer afraid to sleep.

Redreaming, Nightmare Reduction Training and Imagery Rehearsal all offer methods for re-writing the script of nightmares. Some tips for coping with nightmares from Common Questions About Nightmares:

• write down, draw or paint the nightmare
• talk in fantasy with the characters
• imagine a more pleasant ending to the nightmare
• recite the nightmare over several times

If pain interferes with your sleep, Pain and Sleep offers some tips to help you sleep. Generalized pain management strategies, stress reduction and relaxation techniques, taking warm baths before bedtime, taking medication as prescribed and biofeedback techniques may also help.

There are also a number of prescription and non-prescription medications that can help people who have a sleep disorder, who suffer from chronic pain or who just need help sleeping. However, do not be deceived by a medication that does not require a prescription. It is important to know that if you are taking any other medication, particularly any anti-depressant, it is critical to your safety that you consult with your doctor prior to taking any other medication, including over-the-counter medications. 

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