Hi!!! I tried once in the past to bring back memories by force and had two flashbacks. They were not sexual, but the feeling of being a child feeling stark terror and that her home was such an alien, unsafe place, was so terrible that I immediately stopped doing it. Even after the flashback was over, I still lay in my bed feeling like a child in terror until it wore off. It wasn't beneficial to me in any way.
It's like a Catch-22: On the one hand, these flashbacks make me feel less "together" in my mind, more "unhinged" because it's like I'm connected to that child again, experiencing her terrifying, cold, unsafe, alien world, and feeling so, so alone and out of place in it. But on the other hand, I feel like I can't be complete until I know my past and get answers as to why I am the way I am so I can move on and go forward.
It reminds me of adopted children who feel such a strong need to meet and know their birth parents. Their need to get answers to questions like "Who am I?" and "Why am I the way I am?" Sometimes they are disappointed when they meet them and are unsatisfied with the answers they do get to their important questions. Would it have been better for them if they didn't search?
I don't know. These things are too deep for me to ponder, but I'm going to leave it in God's hands whether I remember my past or not. I'm not going to force anything. Thank you for bringing this up! It really made me think.