My Memories

[Pauline]

Hi I was just wondering if someone could help me.

I don't know if I am describing a flashback correctly or if it is just a bad memory I am having but recently I have been thinking about what has happened to me in the past for example being rushed to hospital in the ambulance my memory of it is so vivid and it covers the whole of my head, for example like when you come out of the cinema and the images you have just seen are replaying in your mind so vividly and so large that is what my memories are like and it comes out of no where and they are so intense and scary. (Hopefully I have made sense)

Am I just having a bad memory or am I suffering from a flashback,

Many Thanks

Chelle

 

[franciemarnie]

You might want to read the articles on this in the Help Section.

I can only speak for me. When I have had a flashback, I am back there, in the living moments of the past. what happened then is happening now in real time. I can't stop it by thinking about something else. It is a live thing. And it's over when it's over.

If I have vivid memories, I can change the subject in my head - albeit with effort when it brings up strong emotion. I can switch the scene. I cannot in a flashback.

That is just my experience though.

 

[Kas_Can_Fly]

My therapist described the difference between a memory and flashback thusly: Flashbacks are a form of dissociation, if you have an intrusive memory it is horrible but it is just that, flashbacks include at least one other sense being back there as well as the memory - so that you are not seeing but reliving the memory so in some way physically/emotionally experiencing it as well.

You maybe seeing the memory, but you might be experiencing the emotions you did at the time, or maybe you feel fear/pain and can smell something from the event, you may not see it at all but hear things from it and experience the emotions as well. or not experience any emotions related but just experience pain and maybe hear some flashes of sound related/smell something.

So that's emotions/feelings, physical pain/sensations, visual, hearing, smelling, tasting and usually at least two or more at once. If it is just seeing the memory - either as you saw it then or from a 3rd person point of view then it's likely "just" an intrusive memory. For me these can evolve into a flashback if I can't stop it. Very nasty things, for me they come 10+ all at once, not letting me adjust to one before the next one assaults me and I can't escape them without calming down - but how do you calm down with that going on?! Tricky nasty things, both of them.

 

[Pauline]

Thanks for your help

Basically when I think about it it covers most of my mind and it makes me feel edgy and disturbed I also feel like I've got to prepare myself for the worst the images make me very very tense sometimes they can get so annoying they can give me headaches and I have to really try and focus my attention on something else like I listen to loud music a lot or sometime watch music videos just to get different images to play in my mind would you have any advice on how to stop them

Many thanks