Do you ever have flashbacks of childhood memories?

[Pottersciderbar82]

I’ve just out of nowhere had a very disturbing flashback.
I don’t consider that my childhood affected me enough to impact my day to day. Much of it is forgotten or buried, but that knocked me quite off guard.

It seems that I am affected much more than I thought.

Is this unusual or do you have flashbacks of, if so, how do you manage them?

I do. How old are you? I’m 45 and I have a 10 year old child; I find that becoming a parent dredged up a lot of things that I thought weren’t important.

I thought I had dealt with my CSA and that it had had no lasting impact on my adult life. I went to therapy for an entirely different issue in my late 40s, something that was going on in my present, and it emerged that no, I hadn’t. It (and the response of other adults) had been key to ongoing problems I’d never connected to it. And yes to flashbacks. Not often.

How do you manage them in the moment?

It stopped me in my tracks and took a while for me to recover as I felt instantly back there, the overwhelming sensation of shame and discomfort, sadness and helplessness took time to fade.

I get flashbacks about two things that happened to me as a child. As an adult I question if they were abuse, but it was done by children of the same age as me. This has got worse during peri, and I wonder if it’s anxiety doing it.

If you can afford therapy I'd highly recommend it. Clearly there are things that happened that you would benefit from processing. It might feel scary but ultimately the way you will manage this is through allowing yourself to feel and understand what happened in a safe and supportive setting. Flashbacks are a sign that there is something that needs to be addressed. We are good at suppressing things and it can be ultimately very positive to work through them.

Ooh no. Not opening that can of cow shit. Best locked away forever.