Are Emotional Flashbacks Gender Specific?

[RussH]

I have, just this week been able to identify what is going on with me. I was exposed to a prolonged period of significant bullying as a child, and as a result I have PTSD with emotional flashbacks. However all I can find out about emotional flashbacks indicate they are almost exclusively female. Are there males that have this?, or am I just nuts?

 

[keifer]

I have them. They just display as anger, rage, and sometimes I cry for no reason. It's just the pain bleeding through my denial.

 

[katiekat]

I had my first flashback ever in my therapists office a few weeks ago before he diagnosed me with PTSD. I think that tipped him off when I "left the room" for a few minutes and was foggy the rest of the session. I didn't have any memory recall, I am pretty sure I dissociated. I told him I felt paralyzed, and then it seemed like the walls were closing in on me, my vision was distorted and I was overwhelmed with fear. I am trying to figure out just what happened, but from what I have been reading, it was an emotional flashback.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

Have you been to Pete Walkers website? He is quite knowledgeable about them.

 

[Quin79]

Absolutely not gender specific, they are pretty common for PTSD.

I get them plenty, more often than other types of flashbacks to be honest.

I have complex PTSD from childhood sexual abuse which was masked by dissociative disorder until I was 34.

When I first started breaking through the dissociation and feeling again I had emotional flashbacks first before visual ones.

I would have a major emotional flashback and then within the next day or two I would have the same flashback accompanied by all of the sights, sounds and smells that went with it.
Whatever you do, don't go thinking that you are just crazy, what you are experiencing is your past pain being replayed emotionally and for people like us it's completely normal.

 

[RussH]

Absolutely not gender specific, they are pretty common for PTSD.

Whatever you do, don't go thinking that you are just crazy, what you are experiencing is your past pain being replayed emotionally and for people like us it's completely normal.

In this context: Oh to be abnormal:)

 

[Hopp]

I really hate emotional flashbacks..:bawling: I do get them quite often and I think many people with PTSD do, but it´s difficult to understand what´s going on sometimes. I recognize what Quin79 wrote. I also got them first and then I would get pictures or "movies" a while later. I think it would help many people if we talked and wrote about this because it is so difficult to understand them sometimes.

 

[Hashi]

all I can find out about emotional flashbacks indicate they are almost exclusively female.

What indicates this?

 

[arfie]

To the same extent that Real Men don't cry.

 

[Deleted member 1860]

@arfie

Exactly.

The word "emotional" has a VERY female connotation. (Every female on the face of this planet has had this term used against her at some point!)

 

[RussH]

To all of you, thank you for your responses. I have been trying to read up on this, and it seemed every article I found dealt with females and emotional flashbacks. Hopp, like you I really hate them, but at least now I know what they are, and I can find a way to deal with them.

I have had a real difficult time with this most present one. I had something trigger a response, and it has lasted two weeks and counting. I am getting better, but I have noticed some disasociation with it, and I don't remember having that before, and that concerns me.

Do flashbacks get worse with the passage of time? I really don't have a firm handle on all the nuiances of flashbacks, so any information will help. Thanks again all of you for the answers.

 

[WillyKat]

The flashbacks I have are always emotional; I've never had a flash back to my original trauma. I've never thought I was back in that moment, but it always feels like I'm re-experiencing the emotions of that moment.

Flashbacks can go either way: worse, better. It all depends on what's going on in your life, if you're working with a therapist, etc. If you're in a situation where you're triggered a lot....worse. If you're in therapy or change your job/school, etc. maybe better.

I would go out and find a good book on PTSD. I'm sure there are some recommendations here on the forum. Check the articles section too.

Take care!