Flashbacks - What Happens To You? Coping Methods

[Maltesercheeser]

Rather than go thru the whole scenario of what happens to me when a flashback occurs, I am wondering if people can pop a list of the things which happen to them when experiencing a flashback.

I often wake up in a sweat at night
Hyperventilate when flashback occurs
Almost faint
Become very agitated
Cry a lot
Become shaky
Sweat
Cannot think straight


To overcome the flashbacks:

Try to concentrate of my breathing
Go for a walk
Ring 1800 RESPECT
Try to do something relaxing
Sleep (often exhausted afterwards)

 

[Jen93]

I usually cry during flashbacks. I've also said some stuff, like asking where my mother is and that I want to go home. It will be completely out of the blue; and feel as if I'm almost regressing when I say this stuff.

My friends telling me where I am can help calm me down sometimes. Other times I just sit and try to wait it out.

 

[BlackbirdSinging]

I tend to

Freeze on the spot
I feel terrified
My heart starts pounding
I shake
My breathing is shallow and fast
I curl up in a ball and sometimes I'll sob until I can't breathe

If I wake up like from a nightmare or night terror
I'm usually sweating and sometimes whimpering
Startled
Scared
Disoriented

To calm down
I focus on my breathing
I repeat positive affirmations
I find someone I trust and hug them if I'm ok with being touched at that moment
And I try to focus on the present moment

After that I usually will
Go sit outside with hot tea
Try to watch something lighthearted
Talk to someone
Call my therapist
And I definitely rest like you said. It's exhausting.

 

[WillyKat]

I get a lot of the symptoms other posters mentioned. But I also find it really difficult to think of anything other than the one thing the initiated the flashback.

 

[Maltesercheeser]

I also try to not focus on the flashback and what triggered it but rather finding ways to eliminate the negative feelings I experience whilst and after a flashback has occurred.

I have not tried the positive affirmations Blackbird rising but I feel that recovery may just be finding the best method of calming down after a flashback has occurred.

 

[Anna]

My heart will start to pound and I can hear it thumping in my chest.

Then I feel incredible sorrow.

I start to shake

Then a rush of energy like an adrenaline surge

I may cry shake and become hysterical

Run up and down the stairs as I cannot sit still

If I am at home I tend to run up and down the stairs to get rid of the energy, I try to think of something else, positive, maybe photos of holidays or put on a comedy film to draw my attention away from it.

If I am at work. I excuse myself then go to the bathroom and cry. Then I go for a long long walk alone.

During this period I tend to isolate myself so noone sees my behaviour.

 

[BlackbirdSinging]

Then a rush of energy like an adrenaline surge

I hate that adrenaline rush. It's so intense and so exhausting.

 

[Grace511]

I know this may sound stupid but can someone explain to me what a flashback is? This is the one thing that is not making sense to me in regards to my diagnosis. I have had nightmares and in certain situations my heart pounds, my face gets flushed, I sweat and I get shaky but I do not have a "flashback" of the traumatic events. I know of one traumatic event which may have led to my PTSD and have written down somethings I plan on sharing with my therapist next week that might shed some light on my situation. I have never told anyone about these things that's why I chose to write them down.

 

[Luke]

Occasionally, I'll have a lurid nightmare (some that are repetitive for 15 or 20 years) or a flashback when awake. These isolated incidents are easier to cope with &/or dismiss. Other times however, I will have a series of flashbacks, a prolonged & unwelcome subsequent stream of repressed memories. That is when I have a fight or flight reaction... to something that is not tangible... yet is an innate & intimate part of me. It is ingrained in my mind & throughout my stricken body. I become upset that I am letting... that something that happened to me so long ago can still exert a deluge of repressed emotions, & I feel powerless to fight those recollections... because the only one left to fight... is me.

The only thing I can fight is my own mind & how it is effecting my body, & the malevolent affectations mangled & tangled within... & Yet there is no "flight", as there is no where to run. I have tears in my eyes & I am tremulous with anger, fear, remorse, & self-disdain, over things I had little or no control over, & seem to have little control over (in these flashing recollections) even now. I hold my head in my hands & ask myself out loud, "What is happening to me?", because the past has superseded, superimposed, & folded it's convolutions onto my present & perhaps even into my future if I can't stop it from doing so. I become angry & tell myself to "Stop!". I am speaking to myself... although perhaps just as much as I was "then", as I am "now".

I am not a very emotional man. I have been referred to as phlegmatic. These flashbacks incur emotions I have usually repressed for some time. It's like a break in the dam, & I am wet, hoisting sandbags in an attempt to quell their surging storm. I tell myself, &/or someone... to "Stop". These are my flashbacks, in a lachrymose infliction/depiction, of fight or flight.

 

[Meadowsweet]

For the most part, I experience intrusive thoughts and images. They can be quite severe and put me in bed shaking.

But what i understand a flashback to be, I experience total confusion. I jump or shout out and I shake a lot. Thankfully they have been rare. Afterwards I remain quite dazed or dissociated and lie around and sleep a lot.

 

[safenow]

For me, a flashback is intense pain or feeling like someone is trying to kill me again. If anything is over my face, I panic. Of if I can't move my arms or legs I feel as though I'm tied down again. I tend to come up fighting. At times it is a sharp pain as though I'm being hit time and time again, where it is hard to catch my breath. It takes a while before I realize where I am, but once I do, then I can calm down. I hate flashbacks.

I've been known many times to wake up in the closet huddled up on the floor with all my clothes piled on top of me. Or in one instance, under my desk curled up in the fetal position. It took my boss calling my therapist to come and get me out, since no one else knew how to reach me. In my younger years I really struggled with flashbacks.

Not that bad any longer, thank goodness.

safenow.

 

[WillyKat]

A book I've been reading suggested this visualization technique, which is similar to a lot of others but for some reason seems to be working for me:

Visualize the thing that's bothering you as having a shape and a color. Imagine walking around it and past it (or them) toward someone or something that loves you, cares for you, is beautiful, protects you, and welcomes you with open arms.

To me, these things seem to come out looking like rocks or boulders, but it could be anything. Maybe it's something you can throw (like to the bottom of a lake).

After reading this, I realized that its much like a technique I read about in a wilderness survival book (98.6 Degrees by Cody Lundin). And that is developing a "Party On" frame of mind. So no matter what goes wrong on your wilderness adventure, Party On. For example, you just broke your leg, the bone is sticking through your flesh, and you have to cross a river. Wooohoooo, Party On! I know that seems like an odd example for a forum like this, but I've learned a lot of survival techniques for dealing with PTSD from reading wilderness survival books.