Flashbacks - does anyone else experience immersive flashbacks?

[Ronin]

@scout86, to my understanding of things...

The usual ones still leave you a space for current reality and don't as heavy plunge you into the past one.

And immersive ones are a different depth & degree & vividness of the past overlaying the present.

The way they move you to then also differs, like sharp free fall and not gradual or stoppable or preventable like the normal flashes.

Like...
Some aspects relived
Vs All of it relived, at once.

I'm having trouble verbalizing this without triggering myself :(
Will try later. :ninja:

 

[Friday]

What are flashbacks that AREN'T immersive?

Reliving, rather than remembering, any of the 5/6 senses.

Smelling smoke, tasting blood, hearing a voice, seeing an image, feeling a hand, or the other kind of feeling / a completely out of place emotion/mindset from a million years ago, etc.

Intrusive thoughts would be the Can’t-stop-remembering things... seen in the mind’s eye, or their voice in your head, kind of thing. As opposed to my stupid ass walking around (read; crawling, climbing, ducking over and under) sniffing the electrical sockets, tryin to find out WTF is burning and where the hell it’s coming from :bag: Flashbacks overlay on top of reality as if they’re happening now.

One of the things I like about Hollywood style dream/nightmare whilst awake is that they’re so disruptive that they’re really obvious/apparent. The “break the 4th wall”. So they tend to be wicked short. Not always, but they usually do come in flashes. Single sense ones I often don’t catch on for hours or days that’s what’s happening. Not until something contradicts it, like realizing I can’t have cracked that tooth, because I don’t HAVE a tooth there. The more conflicting information I can give my brain? The easier/faster it is to break out of it. But I have to know that’s what’s happening. So subtle things like generalized mouth pain, I’ll mistake for generalized mouth pain. A cracked tooth. Damn. Well, no big deal, should make an appointment to get it looked at. Sigh. But if it’s not easily explainable general pain like a cracked tooth, but when my tooth was shattered? I’ll notice faster / can stick my finger in my mouth and feel the gum line. No tooth. Much less a shattered tooth. My face might feel swollen, cut, bruised. But when I put my hand there? It’s smooth. Look in the mirror? Not a mark on me.

I usually prefer flashbacks, and the more disruptive the better, because they’re easier for me to get a grip on. If I hear someone call my name? And they’re dead? My brain rejects that as wrong. But if I’m remembering them call my name? That same scene can play, over and over and over in the corner of my mind. One of those rare times when the more alarming something is? The better, IMO. Because my brain rejects what’s happening as much as I do. The more subtle something is, the less my brain seems inclined to lend a hand and shut that shit down.

 

[scout86]

"Reliving" is pretty much what I've always thought of as a flashback. I can think of one case where I KNEW I was both seeing something that wasn't (and couldn't be) where I was and it was a bit like being in two places at once. On another occasion, what I thought I saw, smelled, etc was so real I was sure it WAS real, until I went back a few days later and actually saw the scene like most people would see. it. THAT was a bit alarming. Left me wondering if that's happened before and I don't know it because I didn't go back..... Weird the stuff a brain can come up with!

 

[osiris]

@Friday your explanations are spot on.

I get immersive flashbacks infrequently, but there are some triggers which throw me wholly back there, all senses blazing. Intrusive thoughts though are my life atm and probably account for 90% of the day.

 

[Widow_of_one]

Me too. Totally my norm.

I think - but don’t know - that when you get to the “full immersion” flashbacks you are resolving that particular flashback totally. There was a good thread (which was closed about a year ago) where the people said soemthing similar to this.

"Reliving" is pretty much what I've always thought of as a flashback. I can think of one case where I KNEW I was both seeing something that wasn't (and couldn't be) where I was and it was a bit like being in two places at once. On another occasion, what I thought I saw, smelled, etc was so real I was sure it WAS real, until I went back a few days later and actually saw the scene like most people would see. it. THAT was a bit alarming. Left me wondering if that's happened before and I don't know it because I didn't go back..... Weird the stuff a brain can come up with!

I think all of this is good, yet frustrating! Getting to this stage of healing makes me realize how lucky I am to make it this far!!

@scout86, The way they move you to then also differs, like sharp free fall and not gradual or stoppable or preventable like the normal flashes. :ninja:

I’d like to hear more about this: 1) how do you prevent and/or stop normal flashbacks?
2) have you noticed that the flashback resolved itself at all?

 

[Mach123]

During intimacy and some other times, I’m looking at people who I know aren’t real. They may be real but my projections mask them completely. The here and now isn’t . This is always going on with me. It runs the gamut from mild to immersive and I don’t always know which.

 

[Widow_of_one]

"Reliving" is pretty much what I've always thought of as a flashback. I can think of one case where I KNEW I was both seeing something that wasn't (and couldn't be) where I was and it was a bit like being in two places at once. On another occasion, what I thought I saw, smelled, etc was so real I was sure it WAS real, until I went back a few days later and actually saw the scene like most people would see. it. THAT was a bit alarming. Left me wondering if that's happened before and I don't know it because I didn't go back..... Weird the stuff a brain can come up with!

For myself, I will be reading then see a person walk by...I know that person isn’t there but I see their “reflection” and I call it a “WakingFB” (as in a waking flashback).

During intimacy and some other times, I’m looking at people who I know aren’t real. They may be real but my projections mask them completely. The here and now isn’t . This is always going on with me. It runs the gamut from mild to immersive and I don’t always know which.

You are looking at people as if they are sitting there at the table with you? What are your projections?