Can A Nightmare Be A Flashback?

[anthony]

Can a nightmare be a flashback? No.

A flashback is firstly, extremely rare, and a flashback is literally reliving a part of the event. Everything outside of that, is dissociation... and a nightmare is just that, a nightmare, even if associated with a trauma memory.

 

[Heather]

Yes, my therapist said the same thing. Why do you say that flashbacks are extremely rare?

 

[anthony]

Because they actually are medically extremely rare. They are more often than not, confused and misinterpreted with dissociative states. You can dissociate to a traumatic period, ie. it is thought based, emotional, etc. A flashback is a visual cue of a period / snapshot, everything is absolutely as though you are literally reliving it, not just dissociating via memory recall.

 

[Jade-]

A flashback is firstly, extremely rare, and a flashback is literally reliving a part of the event. Everything outside of that, is dissociation

I have days where I am watching a movie over and over in my head of a trauma and can't get it to stop. That's dissociation?

And occasionally, it's like I am actually back in the past, I see and live it outside of my head. It's like I'm re-living the trauma. I can't tell that it's not real and not happening now. The last time it happened, my living room suddenly wasn't my living room anymore, I was suddenly 15 years old again, standing outside, watching my dad go up to a house and watching him turn the door knob and walking in...and it was as if it was all happening again. I wasn't just thinking about it or seeing it in my head, it was all outside of my head. That's an actual flashback?

I'm just curious because you say a flashback is extremely rare, yet I see the word used all the time and all over this forum. I'm assuming that most people consider thoughts/images in their heads flashbacks when they're actually not.

 

[anthony]

I have days where I am watching a movie over and over in my head of a trauma and can't get it to stop. That's dissociation?

Yes... one form off.

I can't tell that it's not real and not happening now.

That is more than likely a flashback. You nailed it with that specific phrase.

I'm just curious because you say a flashback is extremely rare, yet I see the word used all the time and all over this forum. I'm assuming that most people consider thoughts/images in their heads flashbacks when they're actually not.

Correct... people normally have the two very confused. Combat vets are known for it, as a percentage. There is a difference between learnt behaviours, ie. instinctual.

Very very rare to experience... and even if you have experienced one, it doesn't mean you will continue to do so.

People throw the word around because it is hard for most to distinguish... and even therapist use the term loosely.

I think I will have to find some good examples between the two to help people understand these.

 

[anthony]

Ok... to try and make this as easy as possible:

There are two types of dissociation, the first is feeling spaced out, the second is having a flashback.

A flashback, you feel that you are literally back within the traumatic event, reliving it, not recalling it. This is not just thoughts or memories, you actually completely feel as though you are literally reliving it again / you actually begin to relive it again via behaviour.

People often confuse a flashback as being an intrusive recollection of an event, which is false.

Example Time

A car backfires, the soldier immediately goes to ground / tackles their loved one to the ground. Not a flashback, a learnt behaviour which is instinctual on hearing a shot fired.

A car backfires, the soldier immediately goes to ground / tackles their loved one to the ground, begins calling those around them names of their squad / section, begins calling in fire support, contact, starts firing and moving. That is a flashback.

A car backfires, the solider freezes, has immediate recollection of a traumatic event when a shot rang out. Not a flashback, a dissociative state.

A car backfires, the soldier freezes, has completely zoned out and in their brain, all they see is the war zone around them, feel it, smell it... imaginery people appear to them. This is a flashback, they are literally reliving a past event, placing the people, vehicles, etc within the image, completely oblivious to anything around them, not a memory, an actual full reliving of the event.

 

[becvan]

To further confuse the issue, intrusive thoughts are often listed as a flashback when really it's not. So if you puttering around your house and suddenly you can't stop yourself from thinking about a traumatic event, that is an intrusive thought.

When I get flashbacks, I have no idea I'm in the here and now. I think I'm whatever age I was when the event happened and relive it as if it's happening RIGHT NOW. They are brutal. I come out of them and immediatly have panic attacks. Not fun.

Nightmares are just that nightmares. They are the most unreliable thing for any type of memory. You might have nightmares about your trauma but that is not a flashback.

bec

 

[njray]

Question... Uh oh...This is what has happened to me while awake just trying to do some light chore.I opened a draw at the work bench see the almost exact knife that i was assulted with. I freeze instantly (I think i do anyway) as like a camera very specific snips it of assault completely overwhelms me as though I am experiencing the attack all over i can feel the immense struggle and strength i had to use to prevent the attacker from slicing my throat and i can actually see the knife being inches away. but it is weird not like a movie but just flashes but very detailed.. when i snap out of it my heart is racing and i feel drained .. flahback, nightmare or going crazy

 

[Xibalba]

This is a very informative thread, and I learned a lot. Like others, I was confusing flashbacks with intrusive memories or dissociative states. In retrospect I have had few flashbacks. On the other hand, I am cursed with almost nonstop intrusive memories or thoughts, while awake or sleeping, for about three years now. And by nonstop, I mean NONSTOP. There's no rest, unless I am doing something particularly distracting. Even watching a movie isn't enough to distract me to stop the thoughts, I can barely get through an hour without struggling with the thoughts. Making matters worse is for some reason (docs think vasovagal syncope) when the thoughts start to peak in intensity, I faint. Fortunately. I get a one-minute warning, and can feel it coming on, so if I am driving, I can pull over in time. But it's meant I have had to stop driving long distances and take other precautions. I once fainted on an airplane and they almost turned the entire plane around just for me... thankfully I was able to wake up and (grunt) to them to keep going, that I'd be fine with just some rest. Folks on airplanes are hassled enough, they don't need me making it worse!

Well, fainting is something for another thread, but just wanted to mention that it comes on from a flood of thoughts that peak to an incredible intensity, and I THOUGHT that was a "flashback."

Funny how all my high priced docs never explained it to me as well as Anthony did.

 

[The Albatross]

I have had lots of nightmares... but none more than uncomfortable so far. A real blessing.

 

[Kintsugi]

A flashback is firstly, extremely rare, and a flashback is literally reliving a part of the event.

Very informative. I wonder if I should worry that I used to have flashbacks all the time and still often do? They aren't as bad as they were; a few years ago they were more prolonged, giving me just enough time to appear to be a raving lunatic to my poor boyfriend. These days they are more like flashes, as njray said (Rock on NJ!).

Heather, I agree that flashbacks and nightmares are very different, but I have a lot of dreams where parts of my trauma are incorporated, though a lot of it is very distorted. For example, once I was in a parking garage and a man with a bright yellow suit and fedora walked up to me with a cane. He looked more like a pimp or a mob boss, but I knew that he was my brother and called him by my brother's name. Silhouettes of other men crept out and surrounded me, began restraining me, with "my brother" laughing over me. This isn't an experience I had, but it's pretty representative of a string of parking lot incidents involving several boys under my brother's influence. Is this making sense?

I think you have to find the memory or comes to terms in reality somehow with the aspects of the dream that are actually derived from your trauma in order to recognize that as part of your dream construction. For example, I realized that parking lots are a huge trigger for me, but I couldn't understand why until I identified that parking lots were definitely a trigger and started thinking about what it was that frightened me. It took a long time to sort of pick up the pieces, but now I have a pretty good recollection of those incidents and understand why I may often be in parking garages in dreams like the one above.

 

[Emmie Boyce]

I have had flashbacks. You don't know what's happening at the time. They are very real at the time. You actually re-experience the event like the first time amd you know no different.