Flashbacks Or... What?

[bonanno]

Every since I remembered my childhood trauma, I've had night terrors. Maybe they went on longer than that, I don't know but it's bad. Now the thing is, my childhood trauma wasn't even that traumatic. It was obviously bad but not really bad... I was held on the ground for like 10 minutes and dry humped. There's signs more happened. But I don't know.

I was recently reading stories about how flashbacks aren't always like your reliving it.
Anyways, some nights I wake up feeling like I'm unable to breathe and it sometimes happens several times during the night. It doesn't happen every night. Sometimes I wake up with heat flashes or my hearts pounding. I also have dreams of being sexually assaulted(one of them I think I was raped but that one is kinda blurry) even though it's not of that specific night. They're not real so I don't know why I have them... or I wake up in the middle of the night or I can't sleep at all. I'm not sure if the dreams and my night terrors correspond with eachother. and I wake up sweaty sometimes it's really nasty.

Does it just sound like anxiety and isnomia or possible flashbacks? I'm going to get checked for mental health but just want some input

 

[joeylittle]

When was your last full physical, and have you ever had a sleep study done? I only bring those two things up because it's good to rule out physiological causes, along with investigating psychological causes.

Waking up and feeling unable to breathe can point to sleep apnea. Night sweats and accelerated heart rate can point to a few different things, depending on your age and gender.

Don't judge your own trauma as not being 'that bad', though - you were held down and sexually assaulted, and you aren't sure of the entire extent of the episode. It's a legitimate reason to be having anxiety problems and sleep disturbances.

There's also no such thing as 'just' anxiety, really - it's all legitimate. So, whether it's flashback, intrusive memory, body memory, panic attack, anxiety....they all matter, and you can get help for any and all of them.