What do your flashbacks look like to others?

[Candyfloss]

I'm just curious as to what you guys experience... I freeze in a ball and hyperventilate

 

[Ronin]

To others? Usually nothing.

Some times a second too long looks, when its something layered / to multi events.

 

[Warrior Chicken]

Same as @Ronin usually nothing....but mission control module gets activated and I take control of things around me.
So, if you’re near, you’ll likely get tasked with something or instructed on something relevant to the moment/flashback but you’ll just think “what the hell, Warrior Chicken is super bossy right now”
Very very few people know I have ptsd. So hiding symptoms is essential. Even for those that know......gotta stay invisible!

 

[grit]

What an interesting question...I never thought about it that way.
I would say probably none to others at work and with friends but around my husband when I am most relaxed, sounds like tourette syndrome vocalization - I just sigh very loud and almost shake like a wet dog. I know this because my very laid back husband would often asked me what was that? and I would be like....shame babe just shaking off shame!

 

[Mee]

I think they look like I am day dreaming to most people. Some thing my therapist said made me think of something my husband read though; about a ‘trauma face’ where the face sort of ‘flattens’. I’m not sure which book / resource this was in. Flattened face, wandering eyes. My husband compares it to when cats flatten their ears.

 

[Friday]

It depends on what kind of flashback I’m having.

If it’s a single sense flashback, like smelling smoke or death? No one notices anything, unless I’m prowling about looking for the source of a smell that isn’t real. Or turning my head in response to a sound I’m the only one that hears, or flinching in sudden pain, shading eyes that are responding to light that isn’t real, etc. That one tripped one of my doctors out, at one point, because my pupils pinpointed and dilated in an alarming way. (Like if someone was using a light stick to test pupilary reaction, but there wasn’t anyone doing so. Ended up with my ass getting tested for seizures, but nope. The neurologist thought it was cool as f*ck, because I could trigger the reaction on purpose. Neurologists and physiological psychologists find quirky things cool. I rather like both as a group.)

Full immersion flashbacks tend to look either like I’m zoning out / thousand yard stare... or suddenly sick; breaking out in a sweat, shaking, etc. Unless I’ve laid down to ride them out.

The in between ones where it’s the past is overlaid over the present? My posture changes, my accent changes, my word choice changes, etc.

Shrug. So it’s all highly variable, depending on content.

 

[flowerapple]

Most people don’t notice it when it happens. Very few people don’t know I have PTSD, and I plan on keeping it that way. If people do notice something, they may ask if I’m stressed or something, especially if it’s one where I’m still conscious of the present, because I’m better able to try and control my reactions. I would just tell them that I didn’t sleep well last night or I haven’t eaten all day or something like that. Most times when i think one is going to happen I will leave and go off somewhere by myself, so no one will see, and so no one will frighten me if I don’t manage to calm down before it happens.

When I’m having full-on flashback, I tend to zone out and just stare blankly and I would have this frozen expressionless face. Sometimes my legs will shake but it’s not really obvious, so it tends to go unnoticed most of the time. I only found out about the leg shaking because my T told me about it.

I guess a better way to say this, is that people might notice but they might just brush it off, or maybe ask if I’m stressed or something, but it doesn’t look obvious that I’m having one. To people who know about my PTSD, they are more likely to recognize it, but it just looks like I’m staring blankly at something, like I’m daydreaming or thinking about something, to them. My T is most likely to notice it though, I guess because she knows what she’s looking for and how to recognize it and stuff like that. But in general, I would say people are either oblivious to it or they notice it but think it’s because I’m hungry or stressed.

If it’s a smell that triggers it, like for example, the smell of freshly cut grass is a huge trigger for me, or seeing someone who looks like one of my abusers, I would look sick and distressed. I will feel nauseous (unrelated - sometimes to the point where I think I might vomit, but for some reason I can’t), and go pale, sometimes I’ll get dizzy and feel weak (like maybe my blood pressure is falling or something, although I don’t get why that would happen because I thought the opposite is what’s supposed to happen), I also will either freeze or try to leave where I am. I would say that flashbacks caused by smells or by seeing someone who looks like one of my abusers are the ones people will notice, because I also have a physical reaction to it.

 

[willhealeventually]

When I have flashbacks, they are visuals of body features zoomed in. I visibly flinch or talk to myself to reset. Usually these are triggered by some movie scene or something someone says. Or if someone resembles an abuser I had.
I also have emotional flashbacks, triggered by events. My ptsd lens will interpret a threat, and I will relive the feelings of fear, helpless, confusion.
As someone said before, I try to hide everything. At work, I overstrategize every interaction to prepare for all possible outcomes.
If I feel my kids are being wronged, I become a mindless beast. I have no fear protecting them - I am also in that moment protecting myself in the past.
Flashbacks are a challenge daily because they distort reality. It’s difficult to live with.

 

[willhealeventually]

Reading other comments, I realized that zoning out is a key part to my flashbacks too. My kids have often gotten me out of a trance like state - “mom, are you listening?” Or “mom, are you ok?” In hindsight, I can feel how that has happened over the years but I didn’t know what it was. I’ve gotten feedback that my face looks visibly distressed and I am otherwise disconnecting, or I look completely gone.

 

[Skywatcher]

I look zoned out, I assume. Depending on the age I was with that particular flashback, my body will react differently. If I’m quite young I find my body language a bit “young” like I’ll be in therapy and notice that I was chewing on my thumb or completely covered in my blanket. My body also seems to be in protective positioning like my legs clinch together or I sort of curl up. When I’m older it is more of a spacey stare. Usually frozen.

 

[Sideways]

If I’m having the flashback, I go all space cadet.

If one of my younger parts is having a flashback? Things can get pretty cray-cray. We’ve mostly worked through that... Mostly!

 

[Jade-]

This is an interesting thread because all the things I have read so far are what I call reactions to being triggered, not flashbacks.

I always say I don't really have flashbacks anymore.That's because I don't have experiences where I am reliving my traumas anymore. When I did,yes people noticed because I would be believing the past was happening in the present.Once it happened at work and my coworkers freaked out and didn't know how to help me and my boss wanted to take me to the hospital. My husband would know when I was having a flashback because he would try to help me through them.

Maybe I am wrong in my understanding of what exactly flashbacks are?

But people do tend to notice when I have been what I call "triggered" sometimes because I shake or get extremely paranoid and feel so unsafe.Sometimes I think people are dead,sometimes I think people will abuse me,etc etc etc. And then sometimes people don't notice at all.It just depends on how badly I've been "triggered".