All The Different Kinds Of Flashback

[lnf1973]

Fear

1. Someone could be talking to me and make a sudden movement with their hands or towards me it sends me back to the moment
2. I have nightmares and it seems so real and I wake up and I am paralyzed with fear and I can't move
3. I can be fine one minute and then something small could trigger my memory and I visually see and feel the pain. It's hard sometimes to know if it's reality or just a flashback

 

[Blues in NYC]

Anyone ever have flashbacks just isolated to smells?

The past two days, I've experienced something new: four different incidents where I smell three distinct, alarming smells so strongly that I've had my wife come and go from the room and ask her if she smells anything. I've smelled my assailants cigarettes, I've smelled cooking gas and I've smelled intense building mold/moisture.

I've changed shirts and clothes to try and get away from the cigarette smells. Even washed my hair thinking maybe I got near someone who was smoking recently. No joy.

The gas and super soaked building smells just make me sort of run in circles.

But when my wife, who has a pretty good sniffer, comes in and checks, she confirms that "nope. it's just in my head."

Ugh. Are these purely olfactory flashbacks? We checked and we are about three days off from an anniversary of a very intense incident that involved all three of these odors. The brain is a crazy thing.

 

[kers]

I get those, and used to find them incredibly distressing. I've since read that olfactory hallucinations/flashbacks are one of the most prevalent types, and that smell, emotion, and memory are quite tied up in one another.

In case you want to get out of that headspace when they happen, I find a way to get another strong smell in the room ASAP--I use aromatherapy and hand lotions, but you might try cleaners or sanitizers to do the same trick.

 

[Blues in NYC]

Scented candles. A new clean shirt that still smells like laundry if I sniff it. Sage. yeah... was using all that stuff. These would ground me momentarily but I needed to stay exposed to these stronger smells in the now to cover up those flashback smells. Ugh.

Who was it who called PTSD the gift that keeps on giving?

 

[Manic11]

I have those "smell flashbacks" all the time. Sometimes I smell his clogne and one time when I was shopping, I smelt some clogne (curiousity I guess...) and all I could smell was him. If it has even a tinge of that sent.. its all I can smell.

Then I go to see my brother who I havent seen in a while and guess what clogne he has... It was exactly the same one. I saw the bottle.. Couldn't believe my luck >.<

Anywho...


Manic

 

[Leda]

I also get theese olfactory flashbacks. It is troublesome at nigth if I have them when I wake up, so I keep a bottle of lavender oil by my bed.

 

[Manic11]

Hmm... that's smart, Leda!

 

[Jagged Angel]

Flashbacks

I get various kinds of flashbacks
- some are like the slide show with the slides all mixed up, and literally flashing in front of my eyes. These ones leave me feeling assaulted by them
- some are when I can't tell the difference between what is real and what is not, and I literally experience things from the past including auditory and olfactory sensations. These ones send me into a severe panic state, and I have often mistaken a perfectly innocent person for an attacker.
- sometimes I just 'space out' (although, that doesn't really describe it...) and feel surrounded by memory and pain. This 'zoning out' leaves me emotionally numb.

 

[cat]

My flashbacks are triggered by smells, objects, familiar faces & places, sudden movement, feeling trapped physically or emotionally, meat - does anyone else have this one, its now become a phobia, anxiety, relaxing eg during meditation

-intrusive thoughts
-video of my trauma that plays continuously most days
-single images from my trauma
-an overwhelming feeling of fear
-physical feelings - pain in arms & legs
-nausea

It's rare that I have a day without one

 

[dust]

Smelling essential oil has helped me too in the past, very helpful.

I wanted to pick up on the olfactory discussion - I don't now if these were flashbacks, but when I was bad I would smell and taste rotting flesh even though there was nothing there... I think that a near death situation I had just begun remembering must have been triggering this association.

I also wanted to add that I often 'check-out' when I am in the middle of a conversation. I think this is a kind of flashback, but I never really have any idea where I go... I just go.

 

[Blues in NYC]

If I understand the terminology correctly, just plain checking out is a form of dissociation which is not necessarily exclusive from flashbacks, but not the same thing. But I'm still learning these terms and their nuances for all the crazy things we experience. And I may be mistaken on this distinction.

 

[dust]

Yes, that'll be right... it's dissociation. Just so much to learn...

I can't remember it half the time.

dust