What Do Flashbacks Look Like?

[Kae]

My flashbacks vary. If I am experiencing a flashback and I am awake and in a social situation, I tend to dissociate from everything around me. To others this may appear as though I am in a daydream or just having an ADD moment, but for me, I am experiencing an event as if it was happening before my eyes. I can see the situation/event play out as if I am watching it occur. I can smell certain scents associated with the event and I can hear what is going on during the event as if I was present; however, I am frozen in the moment both in real time as well as in the flashback I am experiencing.
Sometimes the flashback also can play out like a slideshow and every time I blink I feel as though I am watching and experiencing a different scene.
When I am sleeping my flashbacks or night terrors take on a whole different form. I have been told that I scream, hit/punch others, punch or kick pillows or the bed or walls if I am sleeping up against one, and moan and sound like I am fighting something and this all can continue for as short as a couple of minutes to hours at a time.

 

[Chimera]

This is a great question.
Flashbacks are subjective, as we all have come to understand...for me, I was a child who flew. From one nightmarish experience to another, so when I had some illusion of control over what I feared, I ran.
I always ran.
For 23 years now, I have children, running is not an option. I guess it's called dissasociation? Daydreaming...absence of mind but not body.
Lights are on but no one's home..
This wasn't profound until about 7 years ago. They knew I loved them, I showed them with my actions and decisions my love for them, my words, my passions. But I was emptied out recently, I guess I had no more reserves...I am constantly flashing back, getting trapped in those moments, yet I feel nothing at all.
I am not scared of anything anymore.

 

[Enaila]

I've never really had a flashback around anyone before. I mean I have, but they haven't been aware of it. F...

My friend and therapist tell me I go absolutely still and my breathing slows down. They say I have a blank stare. Sometimes tears roll down my cheeks.

 

[Bolt_On]

Usually when I have a flashback while I'm awake I'll curl up into the fetal position, sob, shake and mutter about not wanting to be touched or how I need someone to keep me safe. If anyone touches me whiles it's happening, the flashback gets worse and I sink deeper into it. After it's over, I'm jumpy and paranoid about the traumatic events happening again. I'll shut the windows, close the blinds, check the door to make sure it's locked and stare at it or one of the windows.

 

[Ava Jarvis]

I kinda don't know what to make of my flashbacks. I have different levels of flashbacks.

There's the full flashback. The one where the last thing I remember is whatever triggered me, and then it's like I've jumped in time. I run away. The worst one that anybody bothered to tell me about involved me calling the person who triggered me with death threats, presumably in the hopes that they would stay far away and not hurt me.

Then there are partial flashbacks of any type, and usually I remember those. They vary. They always involve being incredibly scared and feeling unsafe. And what happens when I don't remember... I keep myself isolated, so I have no idea frankly. But I do have holes in my memory that my friends online tell me about.

These days I don't run as much as have varying levels of fear reactions, I guess, like turning into a rock (freezing) or curling up somewhere and repeating some phrase to myself. If I'm online and chatting with someone when it hits I've been known to type single words over and over.

And of course, the really vivid hallucinations are very bothersome.

I can't really put things together coherently right now. -_- Looking over my planner, I've apparently been triggered three times in the past two weeks, starting with the fellow who said I needed to consider suicide, to supporting an actually suicidal friend and hanging on for my sanity for two days straight, and then a huge trigger by someone on a forum who kept triggering me and triggering me and triggering me until it all got out of control. My reaction to the last ended up being "turn into a rock."

Now I'm recovering from all that. Some days are better than others. Today is bad.

 

[klif]

I get the vision of the trauma associated with sweats, tremors(especially in the artificial limb that I lost- this is the cause of my PTSD), and sometimes I cry and moan and speak( about losing my lower leg). Sometimes I stare off into space, but sometimes I assume the fetal position and shake, or I'll duck down and cover behind something to avoid the gunfire that's going on around me.They're pretty awful and traumatic when I get them. They can last for a few minutes(rare) to several days(extremely rare). My husband tells me that I'm not violent during them, just sort of pathetically crying softly and moaning. EMDR has helped with my anxiety but not with my visions or nightmares. I'm on Minipress to help with those and I work with my therapist to help get rid of the visions and nightmares. Is anyone else on Minipress?

 

[Dissociated1]

There was a very similar discussion about a week ago. Here's the link:
https://www.myptsd.com/threads/what-does-a-flashback-look-like-on-the-outside.48167/

 

[UnKnown-Self]

Sometimes I start to cry uncontrollably. My body might start to fold in on itself is the best way I can explain it. My head goes down, my shoulders move forward kind of like they might be trying to touch each other. If I'm not already sitting And somewhere public I have to sit and my knees and legs clasp together as my feet rise on their toes and my heels will bounce really fast. I will start rocking up and back. Actually that's one of the first outer signs. I usually start tapping my forehead, a precursor to actually hitting myself in the head. If I am alone I will lie down and curl up in a ball or pace and start talking to myself and I will start hitting myself on the head hard and repeatedly cursing myself.
I might start apologizing to people if I am at work.