Normal yes...
How I deal: I check the memory and feeling into my "come back to this later" box. Sometimes I forget about it, but it'll come back when it's ready, so I trust my spirit to bring it up or not, when Everything is ready.
Then I reorient myself to the present. If I keep getting pulled backwards, I engage practices to re-present myself. For me, this includes some form of body movement (sitting down, stretching, standing up, flicking my thigh, pinching my arm, twitching my foot, pulling at hair) or a shift in temperature (eating something cold or hot, running hands under hot and then cold and then hot water, going outside, opening a window, whatever is opposite to what *is* right now).
If none of this works and I'm *lost*, I just let it be... knowing Protection is doing its thing and fighting it won't win any battles. If I feel like this makes me look odd, I remove myself from the situation, go wash dishes or go outside or go talk to the cat (etc).
If I manage to re-present myself and I remember later to come back to that flashback, I open the Later Box I put it into earlier when I am calm, alone, and know I have time and energy to look at it properly. I feel the thing, remember the thing, and look at it. I turn it over, poke it, open it up and see what it brings up - guaranteed there is a central message or theme that matches whatever "suffering" is going on, for example for me my common themes are "I'm not safe" or "no one cares" or "I'll never feel at home". After that, I can remember the incident or experience the flashback, but I know it's just reminding me of a thing I already know and have identified, and the memory or flashback loses its pull backwards. Then I can "simply" (
) work on the common themes that are self-sabotaging rather than worrying the flashbacks are random or torturous or unmanageable.
Sometimes if my Awake and Present mind can't deal at all with the flashback, I put it in my Dream Request file. These are usually written down in a Dream Request notebook, which I open before I go to sleep. I read over my items, and I notice what my body feels as I read each item. If the reaction to one item is too strong, I leave it and go to the next one, knowing there will be many nights. If none of them :feel: right, I leave it to my subconscious to pick. Sometimes I dream about the thing I picked, sometimes a different thing, sometimes something not even on my list, but still related to the underlying belief ("I'll never know love" etc). I taught myself to lucid dream when I was plagued by assault-related nightmares when I was 16-18 and it is probably The Best Tool I have acquired. It's a universe where you can explore literally anything, try anything, without real life repercussions. Wanna try your hand at murdering people? Go to town. Wanna learn to fly? Done. Wanna be a dragon? Easy. It may be the only universe where what we want is possible - justice included.
I hope this helps in some way... you are not powerless when flashbacks happen, but you do have to experiment with what works for you, and this can mean failing fantastically. Try to do that surrounded by safe people or in safe spaces and gain confidence with your coping strategies. But don't simply cope - take your power back and tell the flashbacks where to go so you can deal with them later. And then deal with them later. Don't let them rot in the box - they will rot, and they will not bury themselves.
