What do your flashbacks look like to others?

[LuckiLee]

I have no idea when J has a flashback. He will say "i just had a flashback because of abc and it felt like xyz". It usually happens because of a certain smell.

 

[Sideways]

Feeling or tasting a tongue in my mouth,

Right - so this is a perfect example of having a flashback.

So, with the terminology: there is a trigger, which causes (among other symptoms) your flashback.

One of the longer term goals of therapy may be to get rid of these flashbacks as much as possible. So, your T would work with you to identify what has “triggered” the “flashback”.

For example, you see someone that looks like your abuser (trigger) which causes you to re-experience the sensation of a tongue in your mouth (flashback).

Which is something we do in retrospect. 2 benefits are: short term you can know that if you see someone who looks like your abuser, you can do some grounding exercises to ward off or minimise the impact of the oncoming flashback; and longer term, you can maybe do exposure therapy (for example) so that people who look like your abuser are no longer a trigger for you.

Triggers can be anything: your environment, particular words or a tone, a smell, a person, a feeling, a thought, etc. The sensory, re-living the event experience they set off is the flashback.

Triggers don’t only set off flashbacks. Triggers can set off any of your symptoms - so seeing someone who looks like your abuser (trigger) may cause you to run out of thr building you’re in at the time (flight response).

Hope that helps:)

 

[Jade-]

Thanks @Sideways .I already understood about triggers,the after effects,etc but I guess I just wasn't giving it the proper term;flashbacks.

 

[Cypress]

What @Sideways says is really helpful to understand all of this. I am trying to make definitions for these experiences, please tell me if these are not accurate.

This is a part:

The longest one lasted was 3 days.Neither my husband or my therapist could convince me a trauma wasn't happening

This is a flashback:

Feeling or tasting a tongue in my mouth, feeling hands, body pains,

This is a trigger:

you see someone that looks like your abuser

PTSD symptom:

run out of thr building you’re in at the time (

So what is the difference between a flashback and an intrusive memory?

 

[Jade-]

Just wanted to point out @Cypress that sideways said that was her experience when a part had a flashback. So that may mean the same for others that have that experience but it doesnt necessarily mean it's true of every similar experience. I'm saying this so that someone doesn't read this thread and assume they have parts if they had or have a similar experience.

IDK if that's what it was for me for sure,it's possible though. My therapist just called it a flashback when it happened.

(and now that I typed that I can see why I just assumed that's what flashbacks were.Thats what my T called it)

 

[Starfire]

Yea, JadeN that was what I considered flashbacks. But then recently read Peter Walker's book about emotional flashbacks. What ticked me off was that my T knew all about them, had seen me have them but not explained them to me. Oversimplified, it's reliving the emotion without the pictures. My T can tell if it's fear, usually, or others. To outsiders it may look like spacing out or zoning out.

 

[Sideways]

So what is the difference between a flashback and an intrusive memory?

To me? It’s sensory.

An intrusive memory, or intrusive thoughts, are like other memories and thoughts in my head, but I’m going over my trauma.

Flashbacks are sensory: I can feel it, see it, hear it, taste it or smell it.

 

[blackemerald1]

Flashbacks are sensory: I can feel it, see it, hear it, taste it or smell it.

^This is definitely key to how I determine what are my flashbacks. Mostly smell - rarely auditory, sometimes visual or touch.

But always sensory.

 

[Ronin]

... One area I dont have the same divide, would be super useful if I had. :D

I relive mindsets of Then. Mindsets, behavioral ticks, thoughts that totally dont match the now & Im so not aware are then until something clues me in, things like that.

So my stick still has the divide of, memory: aware is past, intrusive thought: harder to shake off but aware it is just a thought, flashback: relived, any senses, emotional, or mental.

 

[Sideways]

I relive mindsets of Then. Mindsets, behavioral ticks, thoughts that totally dont match the now & Im so not aware are then until something clues me in, things like that.

Do you check in with yourself when this happens to see if there’s a key underlying emotion that’s tagging along for the ride? Like, getting the mindset and behavioural tics back again, but also, perhaps, having a whole lot of fear (as an example) that you’re reliving along with that mindset?

Or is it a case of going emotionally numb?

 

[Jade-]

I found some old threads where things are explained well

Intrusive Memories Vs Flashbacks - What Is The Experience Of Each Like?

What Is A Flashback? A Flashback Is...

I do believe what I mostly experience now are intrusive memories and not flasbacks.But I do have flashbacks but didn't realize that's what they are.But they're not as often as I was thinking after reading this thread because not all of them are flashbacks

ETA: after reading the links I posted again I'm beginning to think mine aren't flashbacks at all because I always know the difference in then and now.

I guess it doesn't really matter,I am currently working on managing my experiences so that's all that matters.

 

[Ronin]

Do you check in with yourself when this happens to see if there’s a key underlying emotion that’s tagging along for the ride?

Nope, I tend to check for groups of threats I can deal with. :D

In, tracking by emotions has been something I learned somewhere in late teens, but before then? It was just one big confusing mess, so sliding down, or for others round here, its close to 0 useful information. Instead finding at least one thing I can deal with even in utter chaos & move through it gets me a way out faster.