What Physical Reactions Do You Have To A Flashback?

[Alaska_Fears]

I've realized that different people have different flashback symptoms. I for one normally tense up, and stare off into the distance, involuntarily shaking my head and blinking really hard. If it's really bad, my entire body starts like twitching. What about you?

 

[katz]

When I was growing up, when a memory came to the surface, I would lose my sense of speech. I knew what was happening, so I would just give my friends a simple signal to let them know to wait just a minute. It would usually disappear in just a minute or so. I also would get the "tingles" in my butt. Like when you get the chills. I can remember getting these when I was very young.
Sometimes I would find myself wanting to leave the room or people that are near me. I would go to the bathroom where I could lock myself in and feel safe and in control of the situation till it passed. That was quite a while ago. Now, when I feel it, I look around me and find out what set me off. I am also reassuring myself that I'm safe and in control. Within a few minutes, the memory has ended. Some are worse or longer then others. I just keep saying to myself that I'm safe and that it is in the past and over.

 

[LiveLongandProsper]

i daze off and get a really angry look on my face. really intense. usually i can pull myself out of it, but it lingers for a while and i'm a little testy for a bit.

the worse ones i start to shake, feel really cold and sick, then cry. i had one in an english class once and had to lock myself in a bathroom stall while i cried for ten minutes. i shook for two days, and had anxiety attacks for a week after. i also get physically ill, i'm diabetic and my blood sugar becomes uncontrollable and i am sick for a while.

 

[Melp283]

I can't seem to follow what others are saying, get really dizzy, heart pounding, confused, and can't speak. Almost like someone just hit me over the head and I'm trying to make sense of what just happened.

 

[stargazer]

I cannot think and I cannot do simple, simple things. Last night in a bad flash I could not make the microwave work. I want sugar and then I feel so tired and sick. If it is terrible like last night, I hold my head in my hands and sob.

 

[Friday]

Don't know. I'm really not here for them.

 

[Anrish]

My heart is beating very fast, my muscles are tense and I start to tremble. I can't think straight, my head hurts and sometimes I even hyperventilate.

 

[Kintsugi]

I shake and hyperventilate usually.

My flashbacks used to almost always come after a short period of dissociation. I could feel the dissociation washing over me like a high. I knew what was happening when I felt unable to move or blink, when noises became faint. I don't experience this as out-of-body so much as my whole consciousness, my whole self, rushing inwards ever further, retreating somewhere inside myself.

Then, when I arrive, the memories begin, and when I come out of it, I am tense, shaking, and most usually hyperventilating.

 

[Leigh925]

Rapid heart beat, shaking, dizziness sometimes if they are bad enough nausea and then throwing up. Muscle cramps and sometimes pain in certain areas of my body.

I can't think. I can't take in what people are saying to be. My brain feels like it is moving in slow motion and then when it is over.....severe exhaustion.

I hate them so much!

 

[stargazer]

I am flashing or panicking almost every day now. Got a flash today that pulled me back to a bad time. Instant urge to cry with a big headache moving in. Now I am sick to my stomach and feel empty like a latex balloon. I write for my job and make spelling errors. Stupid. Enter the critic. Muscles popping. Of course it is Christmas and I have to see that bad one. I am being forced to do this because "... she is your mother. She is old and sick. It all happened long ago, nobody remembers it. You are her daughter...." I hate her voice, her smell, all the mannerisms that compose her. When my father died, I felt so relieved. Here comes Guilt. After all they were my parents. I want to leave my whole family. Pls pray for me, lift me up, think of me. I used to love Christmas; but it is only something to be endured now. What a coil.

 

[Ellabella44]

it depends on what the experience is. friday was a bad one, mouth dry, fearful, shaking, trying not to cry, cant speak, very tense, moving automatically, and of all the silly things im trying to climb deeper into myself, to run away from what im seeing further inside, but im locked in the experience and cant get out for what seemed like the longest time.

 

[Ladyghosthunter]

Being a sensitive, I went to my first session with my new counselor and she started to shake. She knew I was "blessed" with this ability and for the first time, I could say everything I wanted to say with no hiding, animosity, preaching or anything. I cried and cried and told her what I remembered and she said to get it all out. I told her how sick I was physically because of all of this pain I carried inside and that I was tired of 45 years carrying luggage too heavy for me to carry anymore. It was refreshing that she held my hand, told me not to cross my arms, and get it all out.
Speaking of which, I told my asshole uncle Happy New Year and I saw a picture of him. Boy, what a change. He looked like a bum and I'm sure that either he was playing the part in some play or else the truth finally hit him about me. I haven't talked to him in three years and I just reached out one time. I don't need to talk to him again.