Difference Between Flashback And Panic Attack?

[Deleted member 38242]

I don't know the difference between a flashback and panic attack. Is it a flashback that last for hours, or panic attack. Flashbacks are from shock, and things I couldn't get safe from so it's hard to tell. Is there a difference because it feels the same except maybe the pain in connective tissue to bone feels electrocuted with shock that I think that's a flash back. My trauma put me in a state of panic though for months on end before they stopped. Anyone have any experience with this?

 

[Crow]

Mine are synonymous. Flashback triggers panic which triggers body memories which triggers flashback which triggers......

The one Saturday lasted until a friend called Monday night. They used to last weeks or months. I'm considering 48 hours a victory. Every now and then I stuff them down and do what needs doing but that ends up with an even worse result later like not getting out of bed for days.

 

[Deadman]

A flashback is generally the feeling that a traumatic event is happening again. Some of us just see it in our mind's eye. Some of us believe it really is happening and act it out.

Usually a flashback is triggered by something associated with the traumatic event - a sight, a sound, or a smell, or a touch.

Panic attacks don't require a trigger and may not be associated with a past trauma. In a cruel twist some people can have panic attacks because they fear having a panic attack.

Oh and I should add that in some flashbacks people may feel physical pain related to the original trauma, especially if they were injured or assaulted.

 

[Deleted member 38242]

Mine are synonymous. Flashback triggers panic which triggers body memories which triggers flashback...

I've never met anyone like me. I used to smoke pot for the pain, but for some reason decided to try Pristiq. Honestly I don't know what to do. I can't watch tv really as it caused flashbacks when I tried. Sometimes everything causes them, and they don't stop. I get the 48 hour thing. How do you deal with it? You were tortured just like I have been I take it.....

 

[Crow]

Not tortured in the traditional sense. Neglect from birth until I left home, 4 years sexual molestation, rape at 4 & 11, emotional abuse big time. It's taken a decade in therapy to develop tools to deal and still appear fictional at work. So I'd suggest finding a Somatic Experiencing certified trauma therapist. It's slow, difficult work but it gets manageable. Maybe even better. I'm working on it.

I think the key is being able to complete the circuit. Then the panic response is no longer stuck in the body.

 

[Deleted member 38242]

Thank you. I was no touch tortured before It was a thing in 95, but had multiple traumas before then. They didn't even have a name for it back then, and it was everything except waterboarding. Cultural, sexual, mental, emotional humiliation, and then some. I got raped, harassed, laughed at, spit on, mocked and eneded up in a psychosis. Video cameras in my house, and stalkers outside. I knew a cop turned private investigator in 96, and he confirmed it, but was rare and used usually to investigate people, but some sick f*ck with money hated me in the end for not being a good little whore.

 

[GwenDR]

I have panic attacks and don't think I have flashbacks. I curl up in fear, mentally if not physically, hyperventilate, pulse racing, often hitting or pinching, and all I can think is awful things about myself, or imagining self harm or suicide. It's possible my panic attacks are emotional flashbacks, though.

 

[Deleted member 38242]

I have panic attacks and don't think I have flashbacks. I curl up in fear, mentally if not physica...

That sounds like a flashback to me. have you asked up your therapist.

 

[GwenDR]

I don't think she thinks of it as one. I kind of asked about it, but I think she feels the sensory component of reliving the trauma, the seeing or hearing or feeling it, and uncontrollably, is necessary. Not just having an emotion you felt when it happened. We're about to start a formal diagnostic process, though, so hopefully we'll work it out.

 

[Hope4Now]

For me, a flashback is some semblance of re-experiencing a trauma. I get different kinds of flashbacks--some are visual, some are body-oriented, some are auditory, some are emotional. I have never had flashbacks with more than two of these together, thankfully. The flashbacks don't last too long--anywhere from a few seconds to 30 minutes. But when they abate, I'm left in a terrible state--either still stuck in the part and feeling the way I felt then (which I guess is still part of the flashback), or hating myself for having this happening to me and not being able to control it.

My panic attacks can come along with a flashback either preceding or following it, but they can also come with no re-experiencing. Unless of course you equate the feeling that you're going to die with an emotional flashback...it's possible that my panic attacks just don't "attach" to anything that resembles memory because I have a lot of gaps in memories of traumatic experiences. My therapist thinks my panic attacks are a type of flashback, but I'm not sure.