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forgetmenot
MVP
flashbacks can be memories can be emotions felt I think what ever the flashback is i think you had to have experianced it or you would not have flashback i hope that makes sense. I guess if it was a false memory of something someone instilled in you i guess that to could be flashed back
Really feel for those who experience these. 
I have flashback for many different reasons and stimuli
Firstly the most common is my mind is else where I am doing the dishes, driving or staring into space usually on my own and for some reason a very vivid horrible moment from my past will appear in my head as if I am living and breathing that moment again
At times it can be a smell a sound or the likes an example for me was I cleared out a bag which contained a belt that my dad used to wear and as soon as the buckle clinked I was consumed by fear and memories of listening for that belt noise in the mornings.
I also find when I am stressed and in desperate need to be alone mood or feel particularly vulnerable, I will get flash backs and I think these are more tied to how I feel at that point, I feel ways I do not want to feel, I am maybe even angry at people I should not be just because they are near me and at that point self loathing and criticism will flood in bringing memories I don't want.
Nightmares can also bring flashbacks with them... like a daymare really like a residual disturbance from dreaming about something related to past events.
And simply sometimes there is no reason whatsoever for the flashback and this in it's self makes me more prone to them for a while as it unnerves me.
The part I find hardest about flashbacks is not only the interrupted presence of a thought or image I would rather not be having but also the lingering very real (yet invisible to others) sensations and emotions I am forced to feel, they reduce me to that 8 year old again sometimes.
I'd like to think one day they will go away, with therapy the impact and intensity for the most part has lessened but I can live with them now and even tell my partner now and then that I have had one and that's why I am being "weird".
Firstly the most common is my mind is else where I am doing the dishes, driving or staring into space usually on my own and for some reason a very vivid horrible moment from my past will appear in my head as if I am living and breathing that moment again
At times it can be a smell a sound or the likes an example for me was I cleared out a bag which contained a belt that my dad used to wear and as soon as the buckle clinked I was consumed by fear and memories of listening for that belt noise in the mornings.
I also find when I am stressed and in desperate need to be alone mood or feel particularly vulnerable, I will get flash backs and I think these are more tied to how I feel at that point, I feel ways I do not want to feel, I am maybe even angry at people I should not be just because they are near me and at that point self loathing and criticism will flood in bringing memories I don't want.
Nightmares can also bring flashbacks with them... like a daymare really like a residual disturbance from dreaming about something related to past events.
And simply sometimes there is no reason whatsoever for the flashback and this in it's self makes me more prone to them for a while as it unnerves me.
The part I find hardest about flashbacks is not only the interrupted presence of a thought or image I would rather not be having but also the lingering very real (yet invisible to others) sensations and emotions I am forced to feel, they reduce me to that 8 year old again sometimes.
I'd like to think one day they will go away, with therapy the impact and intensity for the most part has lessened but I can live with them now and even tell my partner now and then that I have had one and that's why I am being "weird".
I experienced a flashback out in public. I'm not sure what triggered it.
I have had them before,but this was different. I literally felt like I was re-living a horrible experience,but I have no memory of that event at all.
---------- Post Merged at 02:26 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 01:46 PM ----------
It just seems odd to have a flashback of something I don't remember.I'm not sure if I should trust it as 'fact' or not.
I have had them before,but this was different. I literally felt like I was re-living a horrible experience,but I have no memory of that event at all.
---------- Post Merged at 02:26 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 01:46 PM ----------
It just seems odd to have a flashback of something I don't remember.I'm not sure if I should trust it as 'fact' or not.
I don't believe it was something that was instilled in me. But I also find it hard to believe or accept that it was an actual event that I was re-living. I tried to convince myself that it wasn't a flashback,that it was something else,like a psychic event or just a fluke.
I also have tried to pretend this flashback never happened at all,but it keeps creeping back in my mind when I am trying to sleep at night.
I definitely experienced something. I can't keep pretending that I didn't. But I'm also having a hard time believing it was real.
David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
The flashback doesn't necessarily represent an actual experience. Memory is not a videotape. Memory is reconstructive. But a flashback can be triggered by something that reminds you of or make you feel something like something that actually happened to you.
What does it represent then?
---------- Post Merged at 07:13 PM ---------- Previous Post was at 07:11 PM ----------
I don't understand where what I was re-living came from.
David Baxter PhD
Late Founder
I don't either. I'm just suggesting some possibilities for you having a "flashback" to something you don't remember, which on the face of it is a contradiction in terms.
Exactly my point.
It certainly seems to have unnerved you which for me is the main thing to deal with, with a flashback.
I used to be unnerved but learned just to let them be... which is not easy especially when one has stirred something deep within in you, as this seems to have.
But unless that connection or reason reveals itself there is nothing more you can dwell on other than the flashback it's self which0 is a waste of thought really.
I used to be unnerved but learned just to let them be... which is not easy especially when one has stirred something deep within in you, as this seems to have.
But unless that connection or reason reveals itself there is nothing more you can dwell on other than the flashback it's self which0 is a waste of thought really.
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