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Trying to understand a scary experience

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Vero

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Hello! It's the first time I'm posting on these forums and just by reading your stories I could relate a lot. :)
Maybe you could give me some insights about an experience I had a while ago: I was sharing the story of my life with someone (a mentor but not a therapist, never went to therapy) and we started talking about my relationship with my parents. I always knew my dad would scare me sometimes when he would lose his temper, but I thought it was not a big deal. However, during the conversation I remembered an event that happend 6 years ago, a scene of physical violence against my sibling that I didn't watched with my own eyes, but I was in another room when it occured and I could hear it going on. At that time, I had alsolutely no reaction to it, not even later when I was told the graphic details about the event. Anyway, while I was sharing the story now, 6 years later, I suddenly realized the magnitude of what happend and a feeling of terror came over me. My whole body started shaking uncontrollably, to the point that I could litteraly feel my heart moving and shaking inside my chest, I thought it was going to burst. What was going through my mind was: after all, I do care about what happend, oh my, I cant believe I can hear myself shaking, when will I stop, someone is watching me... It was like a split between my mind where I knew that I'm in a safe place, that nobody is hurting me, etc and the emotional part of me and my body that were totally out of control. Finally, after I dont know how long, I stoped shaking and I felt like I came back to the present moment. It was the first and only time something like this happend to me and I dont know what it was, maybe a flashback...? I have struggled with anxiety before, but never lost control in this way... Maybe it was my mind trying to process the event, but I am not sure...
 
Welcome :)

Sounds like it could be a flashback, if you read up about them does the description fit?

Possibly look into panic attack too?
 
Sounds like you had a horrible memory surface and had a proportionate and perfectly understandable horrible emotional response to it, especially now that you can reflect upon it with an adult mind and the information you now have about the details of what happened.
 
Welcome :)

Sounds like it could be a flashback, if you read up about them does the description fit?

Possibly look into panic attack too?
I think the description of a flashback fits, the difference would be that I didnt relieve the experience with the feelings I had in the past, because initially I had no reaction to it. Maybe at that time it was too overwhelming to process.
 
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