Strange Flashbacks

[poeticprincess88]

So I'm having these flashbacks where I can feel my emotions manifesting in my body. The fear is cripples me or the pain paralyzes me. Feels like I'm trapped. I can see the little girl who is me. I can't snap myself out of it.

The other day I tried take a shower snap myself out of flashback. The water got too hot and I didn't realize it almost passed out. How do you deal with flashbacks that are hard to snap out of? If a hot water isn't helping me I don't know what to do.

I've tried frozen orange, grounding bracelet, mindfulness techniques. None of the stuff is helpful.

When I'm having flashbacks It's like I'm completely different person. It's strange.

 

[safenow]

That's the thing about a flashback. Mentally, you do go back in time to the age you were when whatever it was happened. You are actually in the event, not just remembering details of it.

Now, just so you know, if you were able to get into the shower, the flashback had already ended. It was the aftermath of it that was causing you the distress. Never get into a shower or use hot water to stop a trigger or bad memory.

Might I suggest a book to you that can explain it much better than I can. It also gives you ways that you can ask your therapist to work on with you to change the ending of your flashback. Once you do that to a safe ending, you won't have that particular flashback any longer.

Waking the tiger, Healing Trauma, by Peter A. Levine. In the book, he even give you examples and exercises to do that can help.

Good luck.

 

[ZoeValgrey]

I also recommend Waking the tiger, it's a great book!

 

[Ncole]

It sounds to me like you are having partial immersion flashbacks which basically means you aren't getting COMPLETELY sucked in by the memory which is good because it means you can still do things to help yourself, even while you're having the flashback.

I do not recommend using water or anything of that nature to keep yourself out of the flashback. When I was in residential treatment they would spray me with water or pour ice water on my head to get me out of the flashback. It took months for us to realize that staying out of the flashback wasn't what I needed, I needed to work through the flashback and talk through it. It took awhile but we slowly learned what I was forgetting about what happened and as we worked through it, that specific flashback became less and less often (but opened up the door for me to remember a lot more, so be careful).

So, I recommend talking through whatever the flashbacks are with your therapist. Write them down. I have something I am working on that is apart of something called "containment" that is used in treating PTSD and it's where you make a "strong box" and then put your memories/feelings in it until you can talk through them in therapy. Maybe you could talk to your therapist about doing something like this. Definitely see a therapist and get a professional opinion but this is what has been helping me.