Auditory Flashbacks? Anyone?

[samson]

Hi there. For a few months now I have been hearing a noise that sounds like someone is opening the gate near my bedroom window to enter the driveway/garage. I have looked out the window and even gone outside to check. Nothing. No wind - nothing. I have awnings on my windows and just assumed that one had come lose and was banging against the house.

I told my T about this and he said it could be an auditory flashback. He said to think of it as just a memory. Well, i preferred to tell myself it was just the awning.

I'm having my siding replaced and they have removed the awnings. I heard the noise last night. I wasn't terrified and was able to fall asleep, but it defanitely affected me. I have been useless today and just want to go to bed.

Anyone else expereince these types of flashbacks?

 

[samson]

Shoot - I forgot to mention that my abuser used to come in that gate after he got off of second shift. That is kind of an important detail. :)

 

[Jenny0329]

I hear things such as huffing and I hear words and I also see the person in the corner of my room.

 

[Maggiemay]

I struggle with auditory flashbacks, along with visual and sensory ones.

Mine usually involve lots of fighting and noise and chaos in my head followed by abrupt silence (relating to domestic violence). Or, an intruder in my house, usually a man's voice (relating to sexual abuse).

I find it hard to accept it's all just in my head and will walk round my flat to check it's safe and empty, otherwise mtg flashbacks escalate into quite bad panic attacks.

*hugs*

Xxx

 

[Jenny0329]

I get paranoid at night so I have to have chains on my window now, when I'm really bad I see him in the bathroom as that's where it all happened(but not in this bathroom)

 

[Aribear]

I have auditory flashbacks too. Usually just for a moment or two, but it always shakes me up quite a bit. I've noticed that it can start off with a real life sound (like the house settles and creaks sound like my door opening) then turn into an auditory flashback (like then I hear footsteps creaking closer). It also seems to happen at night rather than during the day.

Maggiemay, I usually end up checking everywhere too around the house too... it's the only way I can calm down after.

 

[tll]

I started having auditory flashbacks recently too. I always hear muffled speaking. It drives me pretty crazy because I feel like I'm never alone and I'm always looking around for someone that isn't there. Mine always happen during the day but I guess all my different traumas happened in the afternoon.

Do flashbacks make anyone else feel like they're losing their minds?

 

[Jenny0329]

I do. At the moment I think there is someone living in my head :confused:

 

[samson]

Yes. Flashbacks do make me feel like I'm losing my mind. But my therapist assures me that I'm not and that this is "normal" for someone dealing with my traumas.

 

[einzelganger]

I suffer constantly from auditory flashbacks. Mine is the sound of animals and people screaming in pain and terror. I heard it about 80% of my awake time. It causes me to have trouble with communication, being around people and when I try to sleep. My doc put me on a new med Saphris today. It's suppose to help me sleep and reduce the auditory flashbacks. Hope it works.

Do flashbacks make anyone else feel like they're losing their minds?

Yes, it does feel like I am losing my mind. It's a constant struggle to maintain my sanity dealing with normal everyday life. But I do it by pushing through the auditory flashbacks and remembering what is important in my life: my child, my girlfriend and my friends.

 

[therapybankrupt]

When I am in a bad place! I get clicking. I hear it and it is annoying. It continues for minutes at a time. Several times in the day. I never thought about it having any connection to a trauma!

 

[maddog]

Auditory triggers result in auditory flashbacks for me, and sometimes these are so extreme that even once grounded, I find it dificult to accept for a period of time that the flashback sounds weren't real.

A classic example is that I was assaulted as a child with an electrical device that emitted a very distinct high pitched beeping. Sadly, the photocopier in the office where I work emits an almost identical sound when the paper jams, and I have lost count of the number of times that the sound of the photocopier has sent me into a flashback in which the copier sound is replaced by the similar but slightly different noise of the device in question. Such flashbacks usually include other sensory components as well.

Of all of the PTSD symptoms, it is flashbacks that most make me fear I am going crazy, because on some level they are synonymous with delusional or psychotic behaviour to me. While it's one thing to struggle with thoughts, feelings and resulting conscious (though unintented) behaviours, it feels like a different level of damage to have sensory experiences of things that simply aren't real.

Needless to say, flashbacks really, really scare and upset me. You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but somehow I never am.

Maddog