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Flashbacks Or Memories?

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LSNP

Confident
When asked about "Flashbacks" in any PTSD situation, I stop and wonder and go... Hmmm... I don't know.

I was laying in bed tonight, rocking again. and realized that every single thing in my mind was remembering. Scenes. Times. Things said. Reactions. Is that a flashback? If that is the case, than... Yeah. I have flashbacks. Almost every second of every minute of every day.

I've always viewed flashbacks as somebody not even knowing where they are because they believe they are THERE again. That only happens to me on very rare occasions. Usually in the middle of the night.

The memories, tho, are always, always there. Permeating my life. Always.
 
Hi LSNP

That sounds like you are describing intrusive thoughts, whereas a flashback does feel that you are 'there', in the midst of it again (or almost from the perspective of an 'observer' it's felt like to me), like watching a movie-within-a-movie someone here described it as. It's not that you don't know where you are, or 'believe' you are in it again- you are in it again in terms of sights, sounds, smells, thoughts, feelings and emotions, amidst 'real life', for a moment. You don't have the 'control' of thinking back about it, like a memory, it's instantaneous and then gone/ over. It's like 're-living' some moment not 'remembering'.

Hope that helps, best wishes to you.
 
There are also emotional flashbacks which are experiencing feelings that are inappropriate (or inappropriately intense) for the situation. i.e. I hear and see a mother berating her child in the grocery store and immediately or a little while later when thinking about it) I feel overwhelming anxiety and fear. I may or may not be aware that I am subconciously remembering my mother doing that to me. Emotional flashbacks are very common with C-PTSD and can be harder to pinpoint because it may be a result of years of living in an emotionally abusive envirnoment as opposed to a single trauma.

Don't know if this helps at all ;o) I hope so
 
Junebug,

I'd have to say that I flashback then. Except it is near constant. Sometimes, I will be driving along the highway, completely "reliving" a scene... and then, suddenly, I'll "wake up," and think, "WTF?"
 
Iam,

I nearly go crazy out-of-my-mind when somebody hurts a child or I even THINK that they might be.

Andrea Yates caused me to lose work time, sleep, and cry endless, endless tears. I BECAME her last child, running through the house, knowing my MOTHER was going to drown me like my siblings. F'ed up, on every level. Had to go on anti-depressents over that. Nobody understood why I got so upset. NOBODY. I mean, how can a person NOT get upset over this????? Some dumb bitch drowns THREE KIDS, chases the last one through the house so she can drown HIM, TOO???? And I am "psycho" to cry over it???

Ok. I did more than cry. A problem I have seriously tried to bury in myself is Empathy. I WAS that kid, when I read about it. I FELT the pain, FELT the running, FELT the fear. There is no other way to describe it. I WAS THAT KID.

:-( The only things that keep me from continuing to BE other people is alcohol and anti-depressents. The former because it "supresses;" the latter because, damned if I can hold a single thought long enough to get upset.
 
That must have been horrible for you as well as anything else like it. I am not a mental helath professional LSNP so I can't say. It certainly has certain components of a flashback. Have you described this particular event to your T? If not I certainly would. He or she could tell you for sure if it is a flashback or something different. I know that I can feel terror when something triggers me and I am becoming aware of what triggered me when it happens. I can't say that I have ever "become a different person" though. I am quite sure that your T can help you understand what is and what is not a flashback though. I am sorry that you have to deal with this stuff and I sincerely hope that your T can help you figure it all out. It takes time but you will get there.
 
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