Childhood Do the flashbacks ever go away ?

[Emotional girl]

My repressed memories of CSA have only come back over the last 11 months since I was triggered by a trip to the dentist.
Up until now I have had one major theme with my flashbacks but this morning in the bathroom I had a new and different flashback.
Now I am left wondering what else is going to come back to me? Will there be any new flashbacks?
Do the flashbacks ever go away or are they with me for the rest of my life?
My T said that we can work through the flashbacks but I am scared that it will makes things worse.

 

[Kubash16]

No advice but I feel ya :hug: :hug:

 

[Emotional girl]

Thank you @Kubash16 a hug is fine ?

 

[Freida]

There may be more flashbacks as you go thru the recovery process and they may never entirely go away - but you will get better at coping with them. That's the real goal -- to not let them derail you when they happen. That way you don't expend as much energy trying to block them -- they can come, you can say hello and then move past them.

 

[Emotional girl]

Thank you @Freida for your reply and your knowledge.
My T is teaching me grounding techniques to get through them as well as reminding me that they are just memories.
It is like being in a film and watching a film all at the same time.

 

[EveHarrington]

I’m down to emotional flashbacks only.....which is good in one way, but also bad as emotional flashbacks are the hardest to identify as flashbacks!

 

[Emotional girl]

Thank you @EveHarrington for your reply and explaining how you are feeling and what you are going through with your flashbacks.

 

[Friday]

When I’m symptomatic I tend towards at least a few flashbacks a day.

During the 10 years I was virtually asymptomatic I think I had 2? 1 I’m sure of, but I think there was another time, yep! Now I remember both of them. The recruiting poster & the hospital. Versus 2 an hour, a day, a week, a month as I start moving towards managed.

If I’d done the trauma processing thing the first time around, instead of just dealing with symptoms I don’t know if I’d even have had those 2, or if I’d have gone symptomatic again after 10 years. But the theory is probably not. Which I expect is correct, as the parts of my trauma I processed on accident I haven’t had a single flashback of, nor am I bothered by it in any other way.

 

[Emotional girl]

Thank you very much @Friday for your reply and your experiences of your flashbacks.It is really interesting to read how long people have had flashbacks for and how they have been affected by them.

 

[Starfire 1]

All I can tell you is my experience. Once we worked thru the issues, not every event, they greatly reduced in number. Most importantly in severity. Could say: oh that has to do with X, ok. Became more snapshots than videos.

 

[Emotional girl]

Thank you very much @Starfire for letting me know of your experience and how talking through your flashbacks helped you.
My T has said to me that I could talk through mine with him.I have a restricted number of sessions with him so it really is make or break time for me.

 

[Emotional girl]

So I saw my T again today and we discussed my nightmares which I've had over the last few nights and he explained to me how they relate to how I am feeling in real life.
Then we talked about flashbacks and what I wanted to do with them , I said I am scared by them and he said that we could work on them but it is completely up to me.
He wants me to talk through each flashback and then we would do a form of EMDR and work through my different senses and how I felt at the time.
He said in the past he has worked with clients on their flashbacks and they have all felt better afterwards.
He also gave me the option of speaking to a female counsellor if I didn't feel comfortable with him about the flashbacks.
I think more than anything I am scared to lose control and of the unknown .He said it could go wrong but it could also go very right but I will not know unless I try.
So I need to think about what I want over the next week and tell him next session.