seeing things from “above”

[infinity4555]

when i have a visual aspect with my childhood abuse flashbacks i sometimes see things from above watching it, idk if that makes sense. but it’s like i could see myself in the corner of the shower... would that be possible. my early early on abuse memories or so fragmented and i am missing a lot to a lot of memories. is this just what dissociation does to memory... i’m confusing myself. i know that i dissociated as a child and still do now and i am always left so confused. just wanted to know if this can happen when having flashbacks ... if any of that made sense i’m not good at putting what’s inside my head into words

 

[somerandomguy]

Yes, it can probably happen during flashbacks. Some people who disassociate report feeling like they are floating above themselves, watching from above.

It happened to me once and was pretty scary.

 

[MyWillow]

Some of my flashbacks I see the whole scene as an out of body experience. I see the child me experiencing it. Most of the flashbacks are terrifying but aren’t linked with an actual memory. My psydoc says it just means I likely dissociated a fair bit as a child. I’m not ready to dig any deeper than that just yet.

 

[Friday]

It’s pretty common for memories to be 3rd person.

You know how photo editing software can take indistict images and fill in the missing data to sharpen the image, or even predict a frontal view from a very partial side view? From an ear and a cheekbone, it can keep making a best guess, filling in the automatic arch, eye shapes, jawline, etc. and actually give you an entire face???

The brain is about a zillion times more capable than photo editing and reconstructive software. Literally. As in computer scientists and neuroscientists work really closely together trying to advance both fields. The better we understand one, the better we understand the other.

If you have seen the entire room it’s very very able to take the “camera” (eyes/visual field) and position it anywhere. Mostly by using existing data and merging them. Like you’ve seen your legs, and the nerves tell your brain what position your legs were in, so it can -voila!- give you a visual representation overlaying those 2 data sets.

As far as flashbacks being 3rd person? I don’t know. While a lot of my memories are 3rd person, all my flashbacks are first person. I would think it would be possible, I just don’t have any first hand experience of that.

 

[Abstract]

One type of depersonalisation involves removing oneself from the body and seeing the body and its surrounds from a different vantage point. Often from above for some reason. Is it possible you experienced this type of dissociation during the trauma that was in your flashbacks? If so your flashbacks will show what you saw at that time. If from above then that is what you would see. It is a replaying. If that isnt the case I think you can have trauma intrusions which may not be full flashbacks but which replay memories in an an intense way. I could see how the brain may want to distance itself a little and see it as third person. There may be other dissociative stuff that could be at play for some people but can't comment as that isnt my history. Also, as said above by others, memories are usually in third person so it is possible to have a memory from that vantage. I have had memories where some component of that memory was more like a flashback and other components not. Maybe visual memory but sensation flashback for example. Don't know if I am alone in this. ?

Personally, I have done the stepping out of my body thing a lot in my life. It was normal for me and I didnt even question it until my I was into my 30's. I'm not sure why some of my flashbacks are from a distance (some from above and some from a different perspective) but I suspect some of them are that way because of how I dissociated at the time.

This is of course all intellectual theorising as I don't seem to have any ability to trust my experiences or share them them in that form.

 

[Innordinate]

sometimes see things from above watching it

Yes, sometimes above, sometimes beside. a lot of times in 3rd person. Sometimes they are memories sometimes they are flashbacks. If I'm even semi-aware of my surroundings and reality at the time I consider it a really shitty ass memory, sometimes I can feel it in my body and smells are there too but I fully know where I am in real time. If I lose reality while watching, I consider that a flashback.
I also have flashbacks in 1st person, but same thing, lose all sense of the here and now.

 

[MyWillow]

I have flashbacks as “me” as a child as well as having them in a depersonalised state. Floating above or to the side. Some are literally a visual flash and others are a snapshot scene. They all suck regardless.

 

[ms spock]

I have quite a lot of memories like this, and I have been remembering a lot more recently.