Do you get sudden flashbacks from your life ?

[GeneLovesJezebel]

I frequently get flashbacks of things I did years ago, things that I’m maybe embarrassed about now. I cringe and have to force it out of my mind.
Anyone else, or is it just me ?

Not just you. Happens to me all the time.

All the time! Just try not to dwell.

Weirdly though, I do have quite a significant phobia (I take medication to keep the intrusive thoughts at bay), but I don't know why I have it at all. Fairly regularly my brain will drop the very faintest hint that something horrible happened (a sound or a smell or a thought will take me to a very dark place for a moment, like the world is ending and there's no point in living), but never long enough for me to grasp it. I'm 50 and I suppose I'll never know what started it all.

Sorry, this should be lighthearted I'm sure!

Yes all the time! Usually when I’m stressed or anxious

All the time. Drives me absolutely nuts. Out of the blue memories that bear no relevance to what I’m doing at the time! I swear my brain hates me…

Me too, the flashbacks are always negative never the good memories, they just zap through and leave me feeling really down.I’ve pinpointed that they occur when I’m feeling anxious about something and multiply the issue I’m dealing with at the time.

I wouldn’t mind, but the person involved will have long since forgotten what I’m internally cringing about !

Sometimes and rather strangely they are usually things I had completely forgotten about.

Apparently it’s an important survival tool - strong negative emotion associated with dangerous/unpleasant actions to make sure we don’t do them again. But it’s still horrible - I’m in my 60s and have to give my head a wobble about stupid things I did as a teenager.

Yes absolutely, quite often actually. Usually when I'm in bed trying to drop off to sleep. Fuck me I've been such a twat in the past😳😳

Yes I do, not always pleasant, sometimes scary. I've learned to face and acknowledge them, and let the thought fade away. It's a bit visualising a horrible thought entering one ear, moving to brain where it can be seen and felt, then wafting out of the other ear.

We are more than our past, it's the here and now that matters.

Ohhhhhhhh yes

But not as much or hardly ever anymore since I stopped caring

Yes, I get them regularly. I've taught myself to say "No" firmly and loudly if I'm alone. If I'm somewhere that I can't say it out loud, I say it loudly in my head (otherwise it will become the next embarrassing memory ). It works for me.

Yes me too. I hate it.

Yes same here. I am training to be a counsellor and this brings all sorts of hidden embarrassments and disappointments flooding back

Yes, probably 5-10 times daily this happens.

Sometimes and rather strangely they are usually things I had completely forgotten about.
Yes! I got a flashback about the phone my parents had in the 1980s. If you had asked me to describe it, I wouldn't have been able to but then I saw it in a flashback exactly as it was. The brain is weird.

Yes daily and then I have to cringe in embarrassment all over again!

I'd love to stop doing it!

Yes mine are a mix though of good and bad, mostly bad though. It will just enter my head when it's not even remotely connected to the thing I'm doing

Yep. Mine usually involves my dd when she was a toddler and I was not particularly mature as a parent. She is now a very well adjusted young woman with a good career and we have a really close relationship. However, it doesnt stop me beating myself up for not being the 'ideal' mum twenty odd years ago.