Delayed Trigger? Emotional Flashback

[loui50]

Can a trigger be hours before a flashback? Or is it usually immediate? What have your experiences been?

Yesterday my Mother-in-Law was over and started badmouthing my Father-in-Law. They recently separated and I am very close to both of them. Well, hours later I had an emotional flashback of my childhood. I felt very upset and even cried. I felt like a small child again. My parents divorced when I was young and my mom always badmouthed my dad. Could this have been the trigger even though it wasn't immediate? I like to identify triggers so I can manage them Just looking for some input.

Thanks!!

 

[7Cs]

Can a trigger be hours before a flashback? Or is it usually immediate? What have your experiences been...

I believe flashbacks can be delayed. Sometimes something will happen and I might feel a little off about it, maybe a little moody or down because of it and then hours later I'll have a complete breakdown. It usually seems like it's for no reason but of course there is one. It's good that you're learning to recognize your triggers. Sometimes they can be very subtle so think about any other things that happened between the time your inlaws were arguing and when you had your flashback. Could it have been a "look" your spouse gave you, a tone of voice, a feeling of disconnection with spouse or kids? THe argument could have primed you emotionally and something else could have been the actual trigger.

It is so empowering to learn our triggers!

 

[Anicca173]

I have experienced this too, while you may have been triggered right away sometimes it takes a while for it to become a flashback. I shut down when I'm yelled at and I have my flashback when I'm alone. I don't know why it happens, but I'm glad it does, It wouldn't be safe for me to flashback in front of my abuser. you aren't alone in this.

 

[recoveringfromptsd]

Yes, I too have had this experience, in fact my last one was in the hospital, I remember yelling at the staff, and it was if I was watching myself from afar doing it (depersonalization I think they call it), it was not until hours later that I went into a state where I was in my room curled up in the corner, and other such behaviors, at some point the staff locked me out of my room and would not let me go to bed because they felt I was to out of control to stay safe, in the end by the time the weekend was over I had deep scratches up and down my arms, and spent some time in 4 point restraints, and some time sleeping with my mattress at the door with mittens on my hands. I was put on a higher level of observation on monday for the rest of the week. I was told what I experienced was an emotional flashback.

I find them especially scary because I don't have the ability to stop them when they are happening, and I am totally out of control, and those two elements really worry me. The nightmares I sometimes have worry me in this same regard as I worry I will have a nightmare that becomes a emotional flashback. I worry what might happen.

 

[Gs172003]

I do both.

 

[recoveringfromptsd]

I have experienced this too, while you may have been triggered right away sometimes it takes a while...

I could not even imagine having a FB in front of an abuser. I suspect it probably happened to me in the past, but all my abuse is in the past, but has followed me the rest of my life in my behaviors and hypervigilance.

 

[7Cs]

I have experienced this too, while you may have been triggered right away sometimes it takes a while...

I hope you can find your way out of that situation. You should not be being abused and your healing cannot begin until you are in a safe place.

 

[BuckarooBanzai]

Yes, sometimes the flashback is delayed. I've had this happen to me.

 

[EveHarrington]

IME flashbacks can be delayed.

Most of mine have been delayed in the past. More recently I've been experiencing them more in the moment.

:hug:

 

[Cannottakethis]

Most of mine are delayed. My mind likes to mess with me. :sour:

 

[recoveringfromptsd]

some of mine are scary and extreme and dangerous and seem to last for days. I seem to have had a lot of them over the years, but I and anyone else did not know what they were, but in the records it is clear that is what they were, and in those times they always seemed to have involved restraints and seclusion. I know there are others where that was not the case where my reactions were inappropriate to the situation.

 

[Friday]

Any chance it wasn't delayed, but that you started to grieve the loss of your inlaws relationship & instead of being able to grieve them started grieving your parents?

That's one thing which happens to me rather a lot. I can't properly mourn or process through events happening now because I get drop kicked into the past as soon as I start to; to events I either never mourned or processed at the time or "bigger" things, that have the same ties on my heart. Reopens old wounds never properly healed. Sneaks past defense I have built up over big events, because I never thought to guard that path to my heart.