Intense Memory Or Flashback?

[TimidZiggy]

See I don't think I have flashbacks but sometimes I'll be doing something and have an insanely vivid memory of something else. For instance I was listening to a song just now that I haven't heard in a while and it gave me feelings from a while back when I first heard the song and triggered a bunch of uncomfortable memories very intense ones that now won't stop or go away. The song reminded me of a time actually when things were "better" yet the memories are still uncomfortable because knowing what I know NOW about that situation (and those people) I'm getting upset and I feel icky.

This happens a lot like if I drive by certain buildings, see certain pictures, hear certain songs, smell certain things. It's not a full on flashback but the memories become intrusive and I can like FEEL them. All the emotions and sensations and everything I felt when I was first having that experience I just don't "Blank out" is that the same as a flashback or is that something else entirely, is it just being triggered? I only ask because I know people with PTSD who have legit flashbacks where they think they are somewhere/some time else. That hasn't ever happened to me (though I do go through denationalization a lot now) I've never had a flashback...or at least not what I think a flashback is. Anyone go through anything similar?

 

[Melody coates]

sounds like intrusive thoughts to me

 

[TimidZiggy]

My psychiatrist today told me how I described it, it's a flashback. So I guess I have to go with that?

 

[illusionist]

I can have memories of events which are not traumatic, just uncomfortable, and feel the emotions of the time....I don't class them as flashbacks, I see them as something everyone experiences. I can move away from them, or choose to stay with them...but I suppose they are a flashback of sorts.

It is akin to having happy memories....how many people have you heard reminiscing?......they are back in time....you can hear, see their emotions of the time. How many times have you heard someone say " oh that reminds me of....." and you can see the change in them as they relay what it is.

Flashbacks, to me, are reliving a traumatic event..sheer and absolute terror...not an uncomfortable event....that to me, is just a memory popping up.

 

[TimidZiggy]

She asked me about certain events and or memories and I said sometimes I have ones so intense sits like I'm back there. The one particular memory I am talking about in this post relates to a horribly abusive relationship I was in with someone and it's why I felt like I was back there. At the time of being in the relationship with them I was happy, at least early on I was, so the specific memory isn't exactly bad it's the person it's attached to and who they turned out to be and that's what makes it bad.

Usually when I have these intense memories where everything is so vivid I can taste and smell things it's attached to a specific trauma from my childhood or one of the abusive relationships I subsequently ended up in because my childhood was crap and I always kept repeating history over and over with abusive people.

 

[illusionist]

I can have many memories of bad times....I can taste, smell, see.....much of my childhood was crap...thats life.........but traumatic? That gives me a different feeling entirely...." I'm, they're going to die".......totally different scenario.

 

[Gadgie]

Aye! it's weird really, as we tend to remember the bad things that have happened to us while growing up, we never seem to think about the good things?

Is it because they were so rare and didn't last long, or is it because the bad ones were so horrific and frequent, that they cancel the good times out?

Anyone got any ideas in this?..............

 

[TimidZiggy]

Well I read something once that adrenaline and anxiety can make time slow down, make things more intense like things happened in slow motion even if they didn't. I have one very specific memory that is so traumatic I know I'm not remembering it right and it's weird and fuzzy and even though it lasted maybe a minute at the most in my head it feels like I was standing there for an hour. The memory is like, too bright, the voices were distorted, I am insanely confused in it. It's like I lived a nightmare. I hate even thinking about it because it's so skewed from the reality of my memories, like when I've met a favorite celebrity let's say. I think they are so intense and traumatic to remember just because anxiety and fear distorts time and reality and it's the intensity of the moment and our brain just recalls that very easily? It's kind of like how e brain is more apt to remember negative things. Like if 9 people compliment your shirt in one day and 1 person tells you how ugly it is, you are more likely to remember someone said you looked ugly even if the majority of people loved your shirt. The human brain loves to dwell on the negative.