Fake Flashbacks?

[Lisa]

Does anyone know if is possible to have an olfactory flashback which is not a flashback of any previously experienced event? Could the mind spontaneously imagine it up? On second thoughts, I've come back to this to add in that the imagined version would probably be termed as a hallucination... ?

I know this is a really strange question to ask, and if my therapist was here he would be telling me that I am trying to deny the truth... However, the truth for me is that by only having fragmented and dissociated flashbacks it means that I often question whether these are really true memories; or whether my mind somehow imagines them up without me knowing about it...

The olfactory flashback I had came out of nowhere, is not something that I remember, and it wasn't possible that I was smelling something 'real' as in from today (hence I assume it was either a flashback, or alternatively a hallucination). It lasted under a minute, and went once I left the shop I was in and had a cigarrette to try to get rid of the smell. It was so random and unconnected to anything that I can't make sense of it. I don't want to jump to conclusions and want to know that any other possible explanation has been considered.

It frightens me to think it was a flashback. It frightens me equally to think that I could be a really strange person who has hallucinations that are only related to sexual abuse. I know that I am not psychotic and have never had any issues with hallucinations. But I don't believe the flashbacks either.

 

[Lucycat]

The honest answer is that I don't know.

However I have had some strange sensations that I cannot account for. When I am anxious I get a fleeting sensation of cold water being poured into my left ear. It is very quick, but makes me stop in my track, acknowledge it then move on. I have wasted a lot of time trying to explain it.

Now I just let it go. I think to myself, ooops, my ear is doing that funny thing again and then write it off.

I think it is too easy to get wound up with tricks of the mind.

Does it actually make a difference whether or not it was a flashback? Would you have dealt with it any differently? Why does it frighten you?

 

[Lisa]

Hi BrucieLucy

Thanks. Well, no I guess I wouldn't have dealt with it any differently as there wasn't really anything I could do about it. I just don't like suddenly smelling nasty and distinctly sexual smells. In one sense I don't know why it frightens me because at face value it is just an unpleasant smell that came from nowhere and in the present tense it related to nothing and therefore meant nothing and passed. It just felt quite confusing and disgusting at the time, as for a moment I wondered if it was something to do with right now somehow. But then I realised that wasn't possible. Nothing had happened. I suppose what frightens me is if I am or if my mind is crazy and nasty or if it is another one of those flashbacks, and that frightens me because sometimes I still don't believe my memories. And that frightens me because then I think I must be going insane, and I don't want to be insane. And so on...

Meh. Let it go. If it was a weird moment then it was just a weird moment. If it was a flashback, then I don't know what happened in my childhood, I don't remember in any coherent normal way and family won't tell me. But I'm here now, so in many ways it doesn't really matter.

 

[krystina]

Most likely the flashbacks are real. I think that eventually your mind will be convinced that they are real but it will take time. If you are having flashbacks then it is probably something that happened to you. When the abuse happens to you you pretend it doesn't happen and so sometimes it doesn't come clear into your brain.
Hope that helps a little.