Support for Experiencing Flashbacks and Trauma

What are flashbacks?

When we experience trauma, our nervous system survival or stress response can stay turned on. This means that we are unable to return to a feeling of calm, even when the danger is no longer there. When this happens our body and brain are flooded with stress hormones and this can make us hypervigilant, looking out for danger and keeps us in survival mode .

Not only does it mean that we can’t return to a state of calm, but it also means that we can’t return to a state of restoration. It means that we spend a lot of energy of simply surviving. This leaves us with little capacity to explore, play and learn. It also makes it harder for us to engage socially and in the community around us. Our internal systems are busy making sure we are safe.

Flashbacks

Flashbacks are fragmented and uninvited memories being replayed and re-experienced . Flashbacks can be really frightening as they are the sudden reliving of trauma memories. Some experiences we have, can trigger flashbacks. Not all survivors experience flashbacks, however for those that do, flashbacks can have significant impacts, until they are resolved.

Flashbacks can come with strong feelings such as fear and panic. They can also come with strong sensations and body movements. You can experience similar thoughts, emotions and sensations that occurred during the traumatic event, as though it is happening now, and not in the past. For some of us, flashbacks may be experienced as dissociation - feeling disconnected from yourself or your surroundings.

It is not always possible to ‘reason’ traumatised people out of feeling overwhelmed when their bodies are experiencing strong somatic (body-based) responses. We may need to connect with our body to process and integrate the memory.

We can settle our trauma responses with practice, and with the right support over time.