Daily functioning tips

After suffering trauma These were the tips that I found useful. For some it took long time to figure it out. Some of these tips I describe while writing my diary. However, this is benefit of wiki as can collect them in one place to make it easier to read.

Have a routine, daily plan, but do not take it hard

You may not complete a single day this plan, but it will make your day simpler, when your head does not function.

Writing a diary

I never had a time to write diary, nor did I feel a need. However, things changed. After the trauma the fear become overwhelming. It makes very difficult to feel anything than overwhelming fear. Journaling, or expressive writing is highly recommended for healing after trauma. I found it useful tool. It is not a magic thing, but it helps to move forward a bit. I found that the most useful is to write diary as the first thing when you sit down to start working or sometimes as soon as you get up for the day. It helps to reduce that morning rush of overwhelming fear, when everything seems catastrophic and you are freezing without being able to do anything.

Playing some sounds

Complete silence is the best option when you need to focus under normal circumstances. However, having PTSD is not normal and it affects a lot especially by significantly reducing ability to focus on the task ahead. I found that some sounds were better depending on the time of the day and how you feel:

1. Middle of the night - guided medications (especially body scan). They were especially helpful after calls to help lines as it maintains the illusion of someone being close to you. This helps to override hyper-vigilance. It make sense thinking logically from evolution point of view as humans are social animals firstly for safety. I think Polyvagal theory explains it at least to some extent (enough for me).
2. Early morning - birds singing. Can be other nature sounds, but birds seem to work the best. In rare occasions while feeling very down and needing to start day very slow meditation music might be useful.

Working in bed

When I am exhausted just sitting requires a significant effort. So, I move to work in bed. I arrange myself so, that I need to move only fingers. Everything including my head and my arms are resting on pillows. I arrange myself lying on my back in half seated position. Laptop has to be lifted up so, that you are actually looking up when you are looking at the screen. If you leave it low and will be looking down it will make you even more sleepy. This position gives me extra 15-20 minutes energy time before I completely shut down by dozing off, or simply lying numb. It is not very productive, but when you are in survival mode any move forward is a good one.

Is it worth it?

Maybe half an hour ago I got to the point where no matter how hard I tried; I could not focus anymore. So, I went for a short walk. It is a beautiful day outside. I used to love days like this. However now it was reminding how much I lost. Out of nowhere thought came to my head: "is it worth it?". It is my life. Of course, it is worth it. Any amount of effort is worth in trying to get better. I want my life back. Such questions imply that it was my free choice to get hit by a car and to be abused by layers so that I can fight them. You cannot ignore what has happened. There is no magic wand to undo it. The only purpose of this question is to put a blame on victim.

Doing something despite overwhelming fear when you have to do things

That is not something I recommend doing on normal circumstances. This is only for the case when you are in terrible situation:

1. You have experienced Trauma and you have PTSD, that is crippling your life
2. You have a task that is related to trauma and just a thought about it makes you freeze in fear
3. You do not have a choice; you need to do this task. Completing it actually may help slightly softening your PTSD symptoms.

Start with related, but easier task

Some stressful tasks especially if they are trauma related may raise emotions that are so overwhelming that you will not be able to do the task. However, you still need to do the tasks. What shall you do?

This has been and still is the case for me to anything related to the injury. I am similar situation now. It has been 3 weeks since I got 2024-07-19 PSD decision and was not able to write a reply. One of the ways I try to overcome this problem is instead of diving in and getting overwhelmed, I start with small task, that is related and part of the task I need to do, but less overwhelming.

In this case I start from very far. First I checked deadlines. Now, I am writing about my ways to deal with it. Next I will add a bit about last days events, and then I hope to be ready to face most overwhelming parts.

When you cannot cope

You wish that such day would never come. However, if you have experienced trauma and have PTSD there is a change that such day may come. It is useful to know what to do and to have simple action plan. I have a list: call Sane, call Lifeline, got to Safe Haven, go to Police Station, go to Emergency Department. For more details please read When you cannot cope.

Coping with panic attack

Panic attacks at least in my view are reasonably understood and there is many good strategies to deal with them when they come. Preventing panic attacks is different and way more complex story. In order for panic attack strategies to work you need to prepare it ahead. So, here is my list, start with the easiest and if it does not work then next and so on.

1. Step away from what you are doing. It is unlikely to do something useful during panic attack.
2. breathing exercises (double inhale)
3. meditation (body scan)

Dealing with pain of loss

It has already happened

This is the mantra I keep repeating to my self:

It has already happened. I have learned what I can, but there is nothing else I can do about it now. I need to focus on what I can do now.

Pushing forward when you have no energy

• Spicy food. Always punch a boost. As far as I know there were no negative side effects in consumed in moderation. I keep a jar of jalapenos in my fridge and time after time I eat one small slice. It cuts through all sensations and lets me to do just a bit more. The small price of burning sensation and pain is nothing in comparison to reducing complete exhaustion even if just for a bit. I do not have time now, but when I can I will grow my own. Simple read: Spicy Food Challenges: Harmful or Healthy?. I am very sure I am sacrificing some of my taste buds for this, but it is worth it. My ability to taste is reduced anyway and because spicy food provides some grounding it may allow me to taste better at given moment. I will attempt to restore them when my mental health will bet better.
• Mint. Leaves or in processed form even as candy it helps a bit. It goes well with spicy food - increases its effectiveness. Again, I do not know any danger if consumed in moderation. Often just one leaf is enough. I used to grow all the time, only this year I did not cleared other plants that were grown in pots where mint was staying dormant over winter and it did not come back. Read more about mint Health Benefits of Mint And Its Side Effects.
• Coffee. I found coffee more efficient if I take antidepressants. Then several cups of coffee would make me a bit focused after lunch, otherwise I stay drowsy all day. However, more than few cups of coffee around the lunch is maximum of its efficiency. When you are exhausted, spicy food works better.
• Tea plant leaves (Camellia sinensis) e.g. black or green tea. Works similar to coffee, only coffee has stronger effect on me.
• Taking a break: short walk or medication. Sometimes, short walk can help, but if you are exhausted it may also make you more tired. Meditation is a good option if you are also physically exhausted, which is an option very often. It works much better than other forms of relaxation like listening to music or watching some video as it utilizes other body senses that are not so active otherwise. Of course if you are tired and you able to have a nap and have time do it. Then it is a best option. Unfortunately, I struggle to fall asleep during the day.
• Visualising distorted image in a funny way. If there is something you have to do and you know it is going to be difficult emotionally, sometime s it may reduce stress by having different visual image than the actual expected events. Example: I need to go through my emails and collect of corrupt conduct by my solicitors. It causes me a lot of stress that often result in panic attacks, when I feel so nauseous that I cannot hold it anymore. Sometimes before I never start I may already feel unwell. So, I bring image of the cat making the same movement, close to puking, when it is offered something it does not like. The only difference is that cats look funny. I play this image in my mind several times and it is a bit easier to start the required task.

Nothing substitutes sleep

This is a bit sad one as I wish there would be something.

My example: I had no good night sleep since the injury. Sometimes it is worse, sometimes it is a bit better. However, in average I am feeling severely sleep deprived and exhausted all the time. For example I am so tired now, that I started feeling pain, just by trying to navigate where to write and with every keystroke it is getting worse and worse.

What to do? There is no good solution, so there recommendation is to do the best you can:

1. Try to get as close to required hours of sleep as you
2. Use all relaxation techniques that works for you and keep trying and retrying new ones
3. Use all other tools and devices that can help, like keeping dark, silent or noisy if needed, and taking supplements or tea and anything else you can get
4. Dedicate good portion of the day to sleep. I try to sleep from 21:00 till 9:00. It may be that I still get only 40 min of sleep, but I do dedicate this time to attempts to sleep.
5. Scarify other things if you have to, but try to get at least minimum amount of sleep. For me it is 5 hours. And most of the time I fail to get. I am actually surprised how resilient my body was, but it is coming to the limit. Nothing else will matter if you come to early grave. I scarified maybe 95% of the things I enjoy doing. I still have to do a little bit, because you can not give up everything for too long. I gave up all my hopes and dreams, but I will survive. I will get over this. One day.

Regulating nervous system

I like the term of dysregulated nervous system as it well describes my status. So, the natural question is how do I regulate it. Basically, the goal is to bring back to window of tolerance. I did an exercise together with my psychologist twice. However, the irony was that when I come back home and try to do it at home all I could remember, was that memory does not work when you are out of window of tolerance.

It took me several hours, but I think I was able to recreate at least similar exercise, that mainly includes slow breathing, focus on internal feelings and repeating mantra that I am here and now and I am safe. The last topic left is to do it to reminder and do it every day at the time when I am not overwhelmed.

There are many sources about regulating nervous system, just a few that mention the same things I am doing:

• https://blog.calm.com/blog/how-to-regulate-nervous-system
• https://www.wikihow.com/Regulate-Nervous-System

Nutrition and medicine

I tried long list of medication without any benefit. However, almost all of them had significant negative side effects. There are also a lot of information about potential benefits of different types of food and herbal medicine. I have not noticed any significant differences from the things I have tried. For now this is just a place holder for the things I am trying now or going to try.

Cannabis tea

I seen cannabis being mentioned in many sources as a useful remedy for people suffering with PTSD. All my life I have been staying away from any recreational drugs including There was one time when I was looking for the way to get medical cannabis, but few things went wrong increasing the stress I am living in and I had no energy to research it. I also got very negative feedback from psychiatrists.

Last year I learned that long term stress caused me some damage on my heart. I been trying a year to manage it better using monitoring, relaxations, diet, exercise, and other ways including taking some medication. There is some improvement, but my body can not take it much longer unless I will find other more beneficial ways.

Two days ago, I spoke with my nephew. He had some very hard times himself. I was surprised how well he understood my situation and even used same words to describe the symptoms. He mentioned that cannabis tea was a game changer for him. It helped him to sleep and reduced feeling of danger. So, cannabis tea or other products are strongly back in my plans.

Valium

I could not sleep for several nights and it was becoming way too bad. So, I am back using Valium for at least few days. It has probably shortest wearing of time from all other medication, but it still adds up. For the last few days I was feeling as if I am drunk, but without any relaxing effects.

Sleep

Lack of sleep has been a major problem for me. I do not have a good solution, but only small tips that can help sometimes.

Call to help lines

Hyper vigilance is one of the key problems keeping me awake at night. It is very difficult to reduce. Having compassionate support that makes you feel safe can help. Talking to someone face to face is the best option. However, it is not available most of the time. Talking on the phone is surprisingly useful too. My ques is that primitive feature that prevents from sleeping and force to be alert at night in case of danger does not recognise phone too. So, if I talk to someone on the phone it reacts as if someone is near by and will be on guard in case of danger. I would say it helps me to fall asleep in about 60% of time within an hour after the phone call. There were 3 useful parameters to keep in mind:

1. Compassionate. The other person has to have some understanding about trauma and its effects or good understanding about mental health problems. He/she also has to be active listener, to listen what you are saying and to understand as best as they can your situation. Random suggestions are not useful.
2. Talk about trauma or the things that are keeping you awake. Talking about good memories and fun things will not help. My ques is that in order to feel safe you also need to feel that you explained and been understood where the danger comes from. Only then you can expect that they will protect you from it and it is safe for you to go to sleep. I am sure there is more to it, but I do not have resources to research, I am writing just about what works for me.
3. 20 minutes minimum. I try to be mindful of mine and their time, but cutting it shorter than 20 min never worked. Sometimes, you may need to talk for longer. It is hard to tell will you be able to fall asleep after or will you be hit with another impulse of danger. It does not relate directly to stress or emotional pain you feel.

Morning routine

Hyper vigilance is much higher during the night than during the day. Unfortunately I can not sleep during the day. However, sometimes I can sleep in the morning. For most my life before the injury I kept very similar morning routine. I think in combination with natural body instincts recognizing that the day has started it my brain to recognise that safe part of the day has started.

Here is my routine:

1. It has to be morning and sun has to be up for at least an hour or more. Artificial light or earlier did not work for me.
2. Get up, open blinds or curtains to let sun light in. You do not need to get outside.
3. Follow lighter version of morning activities, like stretching instead of morning exercise.
4. Have some breakfast. Eating does calm nerve system. You may have about half of regular portion.
5. You may even have some coffee if it is very strong of your morning routine. Getting your body into day mode is more important than potential effect of coffee. I did not find any real effect of coffee. I do fall asleep better if I drink some coffee, but effect is minimal.
6. Start normal daily tasks that you would have done if had good night sleep.
7. About this time, there is a shift, alertness goes down and I start dosing off. It is as if my body is saying "you no longer need to stay alert to survive, deadly danger has passed for next half an hour. I almost need to rush to bed before I collapsed on the way.
8. I do get about 40 minutes of sleep. Sometimes less. However, when you slept very bad and can not get any sleep of second part of the night it is very important.

I recommend to try it. Every time I wake up after this nap, it feels like every cell of my body is saying we needed it to survive.

Dedicate reasonable amount for attempts to sleep each day

No matter what I do my sleep is terrible. I tried everything I could think of, including trying to spend the time when I am not able to sleep doing something productive, but nothing helped. So, the best option so far is to dedicate large portion of the 24 hour cycle to sleeping, or attempting to sleep to be more precise. I dedicate about 14 hours for it. Trying to shorting this time has only one result: the rest of the day become completely unproductive and has significant damage on my health (both mental and physical). Sadly, this does not give me