Are These Flashbacks Normal & Advice To Help Stop Them

[Abeille]

When I experiance flashbacks I am unable to move even a finger most times. One time I forced myself to move my neck and had issues for weeks. I can feel everything as if it were happening again, like the male (who depends on the flashback) is there and is raping me all over again. I can hear them talking to me and feel their breath and heartbeat... Sometimes, if it is of a person who only talked to me on the phone, I hear their voice saying select things over and over. I feel completely helpless to stop any of it. I sometimes get violently ill but always at least get a very upset tummy and headaches.

Is all of that normal? Has anyone had luck with any methods to stop similar things?

 

[tgrl]

Flashbacks are fueled by adrenaline. If you're having them, it means you don't feel safe. The flashback is happening to constantly remind you that you're in danger. The only way to stop them, or make them less severe is to find a way to feel safe and calm. Counceling can help.

 

[Samuel]

I have a necklace which I NEVER take off. It is very significant to the trauma I had and the way I coped in the immediate weeks after the event. I have hallucinations with my PTSD - when I get them and flashbacks I find that sometimes I can feel calmer by holding it in my hands and pressing it against my chest. If I focus all my thoughts on that one necklace I can sometimes get rid of the hallucinations (not always but occasionally) and I always feel calmer. I don't know whether this is a healthy way to deal with my PTSD but it helps. I fear that if anything happens to the necklace then I'll fall apart. For the immediate future I find it a comfort.

Maybe there is something in your life that you have always had, or feel safe around that can take you out of the flashback and calm you down.
Good luck

Samuel

 

[disconnect]

I've struggled with flashbacks/dissociation making me feel completely paralysed for a long time now, but it's gotten worse again now I'm doing EMDR. I feel like I'll try to say something and I can't find my voice. I can't make a sound. I'm saying it inside my head, my mouth is moving, but I can't produce a sound. I can't move, I'm rigid, stuck to one spot. My T said this stems from my past and because I was so terrified as a child, I learnt I had no voice, so I can't scream when I need help, so I've learnt to stay quiet. This makes sense to me and she says we'll find a way for me to communicate if I can't talk. I find it incredibly distressing and I tend to have a panic attack during this time, because I feel that I can't run or get away, you know? After a very bad episode, I can feel horrendous - exhausted, drained, sick, panicky. I relate to how you feel during the flashbacks.
D/x

 

[Artista]

What amazes me is... I never thought I could stop them. I mean, I have always believed in the power of the mind yet, to me it seemed I had to have them to get past this. As if I had no choice. Had you forgotten or repressed the memories or not? I had lost the trauma almost completely and now it is coming back 25 years later, in detail because I never dealt with it. It is just as you say, hearing phrases they said over and over, feeling them close to my ear. It really makes you feel a bit insane... I am hoping to gain control by getting it all out. Seems not everyone needs this, but I do. It's terrifying.

I do have a rock or two in my pocket with raised lettering I keep rubbing or find myself rubbing the muscle pad of my thumb's one hand with the other thumb.... stomp my foot too to make sure I am present if I can't seem to handle or be safe to go through it at the time. If you feel you can't move this may be hard to do. I suppose if you can break your mind's path and say a mantra over and over in your mind... "I'm here, now.... I'm here"

I wish you the best. I also freeze up for a while and feel incapable of much of anything when it's new information i am processing. It doesn't keep me completely frozen usually because i have small kids and they have always broken me out of it if they are there. The mom in me pushes past the 14 year old it is happening to.

It is true quite a few flashbacks have happened when I didn't feel safe. So do your best to have a safe place or some people you can call to keep you grounded. That can be hard too... I know I am not good at asking for help. Hate what this has done to so many of us. Just thinking and talking about what you can do to others will start to form a response in your mind and eventually you can gain more control of it. I do believe that. You are still healing. Keep working at it. You can get your life back and be whole. If you aren't seeing a counselor, call your local Crime Victims Council and find a group or free counseling. It really helps.

keep the chin up. Life's worth it.