Flashbacks Vs. Dissociation Vs. Hallucinations

[friendlybadger]

I mostly get a lot of dissociation. Feeling like I'm not in my body, and like I'm kind of watching things happen. I get that kind of thing even now several years later. That was part of my major coping mechanism when I was being abused, that I'd leave my body and kind of be watching it happen from outside myself.
As for flashbacks, I don't get them so much anymore. I've had therapy and am on meds so that all has helped a lot. My flashbacks would be triggered by something like a smell or a sound or being in a similar situation. In my mind, I'd start recalling a traumatic event associated with the trigger and would start to re-live the event. I'd have physical symptoms too. Like one time, the sunny day and warm air triggered me to recall a time when my exH had choked me in his car on a similarly warm, sunny day. And I could remember feeling the a/c blowing on me as I was suffocating and remember thinking it was such a pretty day to die. Luckily, over time, things that used to trigger me don't do it so much anymore.
Bill, have you seen a counselor who has experience with ptsd?

 

[ClairBear226]

I think (and maybe someone can correct me if I'm wrong) that a flashback has more to do with an experience that you've actually had in your past, while a hallucination doesn't necessarily have that link. My understanding of hallucinations (which is more related to terminally ill patients through my work in hospice than with the psych community) is that a hallucination can also "intermingle" with the here and now. Maybe this is different for those with PTSD, but I've seen patients that have a hallucination, of, say a horse, and wonder if I can see it too. Make any sense?

 

[Bill Dickerson]

I'm seeing a Therapist who is helpful and she has experience the PTSD field. I agree with ClairBear on the FB being a past experience and a Hallucination being often out of place.

Someone asking if you can see there Hallucinations seems perfectly normal to me. I think the rational mind would question a horse standing in their hospital room and the person asking if it's real.

Weird thing about sight, sound, Etc. is your mind interprets everything. Sight for instance isn't like the lens on a camera your mind uses the electrical input to determine what, where, something is. Babies when born can't make out distinct shapes just general forms and colors but with time the determines how it's suppose to appear and the shapes and colors grow more distinctive with experience.

It would seem normal to me anyway that the mind could confuse those interpretations or insert it's own. Kind of like photo shop. You know that horse isn't suppose to be here but you can't see the how it was inserted so it might be real or maybe not.

 

[leira]

I asked my therapist this question (at least flashbacks and hallucinations), and her reply was, along with the dictionary definitions:

A hallucination is organic in nature and symptomatic of a neurological disorder (or drug induced). A flashback is a response to a trauma. Apples and Oranges. :0)

 

[Bill Dickerson]

I'd agree with that in a general sense but I think it's not so black and white. Can a neurological disorder be induced by stress?

 

[leira]

Well, we will probably discuss it more in person, but I think her primary goal in answering my questions that way was reassurance I'm not "crazy" even when I feel that way. Probably why she kept it simplified.

 

[Bill Dickerson]

I've seen crazy and I doubt very seriously your crazy since they wouldn't let you out of the rubber room to use the computer. I prefer to think of it as I broke my leg and it's better but I still limp. Some days I limp more than others but hey I can still walk.

I no longer play well with others but that's OK I don't like the games they play.

Do you know the difference between being crazy and eccentric...........money!

 

[leira]

Do you know the difference between being crazy and eccentric...........money!

Oops, maybe I'm crazy after all. :)

 

[Bill Dickerson]

If you question sanity you are not crazy. If you are crazy you never question your sanity

 

[leira]

Funny, that's what my therapist says, but.. Really?

 

[NutritionNerd]

I believe flashbacks can be other than visual in nature - you reexperience any part of a traumatic event. It can be emotional or even sensory input. A flashback could be smelling something that isn't there, feeling pain that isn't due to something in the present, hearing a sound that isn't real. Any part of the experience replayed.

I think the current popular notion of flashbacks has been influenced by TV and movies.

 

[Deaf Global Nomad]

What flashbacks vs. hallucinations, vs. dissociation are, has been long debated in the field of psychology as well as on this forum. My definitions are research based, but described in my own words to fit purpose of the forum.

Flashbacks are generally recalls from your memory storage. They can be sensations (auditory, visual, tactile, smell, taste) or even motor memory. Most commonly flashbacks are considered to be memories of traumatic events. They can take on a range of forms: from a quick glimpse, which can be vague or clear, all the way to a clear distinct 3-dimensional copy of the environment in which the event occurred. The length of time can range from very brief to relatively long. Sometimes they appear so real that the person feels transported to that time and place of the memory and may even act out the role.

Hallucinations are firings of the brain that give people the feeling that they are sensing something (hearing, seeing, feeling, smelling, or tasting) that is not really there. They are different from flashbacks in that they have no foundation in memory. Hallucinations can be triggered by chemical imbalances, chemicals introduced into the body, seizures, brain injury, or injury to a part of the nervous system. Some researchers even mention that near-death experiences are the same brain firings as people experience during hallucinations.

Dissociation is a reflexive separation of mind and body in order to protect the mind from experiences that could be too scary for a person to handle. It can entail numbing of the body or even out of body experiences (with the person watching from the ceiling or another safe location or simply floating). It can go to the extreme of the person not being able to handle what is happening that the person reflexively develops a personality temporarily or permanently who is better equipped to deal with the trauma. There are also other types of dissociation such as fugue states in which the person "forgets" his/her identity or depersonalization in which the person feels s/he is not real or the environment is not real. An interesting part is that the ICD-10 acknowledges conversion disorder (in which a psychological stressor appears as a physical problem) as a type of dissociation, whereas the DSM-IV does not.