#somatic flashbacks

[unwelcome-ozian]

Do you know how reliable somatic flashbacks (body memories) are? I hope you guys are doing good

Traumatic body memories are particularly observed in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) with intrusively re-experienced traumatic life events that manifest in the form of somatic flashbacks including physical sensations such as smells, tastes, pain, haptic experiences, pressure or sweating.

Prevalence Of Pain Flashbacks In Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Arising From Exposure To Multiple Traumas Or Childhood Traumatization

Somatic Flashbacks: What You Need To Know

We’re doing alright. Thank you for asking.

Take care,

Oz

[night-wyld-system]

Survivor's guilt is hitting hard again.

It should have been me. I never should have survived. I shouldn't have recovered, I shouldn't have been able to stay alive.

Yet I know they wanted me alive. I would be a liability if I turned up dead and me being alive meant more money.

And now the somatic flashbacks over my scars are back. I hate it I hate it. He may have well branded me, that location those cutes. I wasn't the only one.

[traumasurvivorshelpingsurvivors]

Is it possible for an emotional/somatic flashback to have hypersexuality apart of it? Becoming lubricated but also having the emotional flashback part happen such as sobbing fits or rage?

Hey nonny!

That's absolutely possible. A lot of flashbacks have physical components and reactions based upon emotions and sensations. Feeling aroused or your body reacting to that somatic memory or emotional flashback via lubrication is entirely possible, and can co-exist with other feelings like rage or actions like sobbing.

-Mod Night

[ainulindaelynn]

The craziest symptom of cPTSD is the complete detachment from my own body. I don’t know if there’s a name for that, but if there’s not, there should be.

Warning: much mental health rambling ahead 😅

In a nutshell, there’s a tiny adjustment happening in my house that I’ve been genuinely excited about forever, but realized last night my body and my brain are on completely different pages about it.

Emotionally, I’ve been fine for a long time, but tonight I caught myself randomly sucking in a huge anxiety breath. I did this last week once too, while leaving my tagalong at preschool for the first time, which he was pretty upset about, and I thought it weird then too, because I felt fine at the time. Sympathetic, but personally okay.

As soon as I made the connection, I realized this is much bigger. The source (separation) and the symptoms line up perfectly with the first (ish) event of my PTSD series. Looking back, I think I’ve been experiencing a somatic flashback for a month without realizing. It started during fire season (the second event), and kicked up worse in the last week or two.

Taking stock, my circadian rhythm has been severely fucked up. Executive function is out of whack. My sense of time is funkier than usual. Body dysmorphia has spiked a little. Heartburn. My skin is acting weird. I have people I want to see, but am not responding to? My hair is falling out, ffs. The list goes on and on, but it’s all subtle. I assumed it was related to sleep and season change, but no.

My body is re-experiencing all the grief and strain of the first event in my PTSD series and somehow I have not felt it on the surface at all. Emotionally I’ve been fine. It is the strangest feeling.

I’m always grateful when I finally recognize these weird cPTSD symptoms, because now that I see what’s happening, I can wave the ‘you’re not falling apart, it just feels like it’ flag and give myself permission to listen to my body for a while. Ease back at work. Curl up and do nothing sometimes. Take naps. Meditate. Dissolve into a game when I need to. For short periods, the bare minimum can be a beautiful thing. Finding the bottom instead of fighting it, and use it to come back up in time. That’s the theory at least. It worked with catastrophizing. Just cutting myself slack and backing off for a bit.

I knew I shut myself out of my own emotional experience sometimes, but forgot the body disconnect can be so severe that I wouldn’t even feel it until I was literally gasping for air.

I still feel more like an observer than a participant, but this is a big step.

[imtheworst-imsorry]

I needed to do stuff today i needed to do schoolwork and other real life stuff and i needed to exercise and try to burn enough cals to let myself eat something but i’ve just been stuck on my chair in the living room having flashbacks and being so tense and shaking so hard i physically can’t get up and do anything, helpful or otherwise. At this point if i could get up and get myself upstairs and crawl back into bed and just write the whole day off i’d do it, even tho i wanted to get stuff done, but i can’t even do that rn. This just really fucking sucks.

[nightmaredxydreams]

we're having flashbacks on the form of somatic symptoms and its painfully annoying to the point we wanna crawl out of our skin

[lilacs-world]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA >:((

-Nova, 5 , done with life

[soibeanxgalactica]

According to my tarot app, I'm remembering all of this so I can go to my reunion and let go. Or something to that effect. I always learn a lot from my flashbacks either way. I just wish I didn't have to feel like my soul is literally being torn apart for it to happen.

[venting-town]

Hate that when I get body flashbacks I can’t even fucking swallow

Even if it’s just a drink, it’ll get stuck in my throat because my dumbass brain decides that it wants to over-react to something that isn’t even happening atm, not to mention that it hasn’t happened for over 5 years

[c0rpseductor]

im okay. but hoooly shit. being a star wars fan with a really bad choking trigger is a bit like your favorite hobby is touching the stove with no gloves on palms fully flat

[sickgraymeat]

Me: hey brain can we PLEASE try to be less crazy or at least keep it to one kind of crazy at a time I really like th—

My amygdala:

[inniave]

finally got that second opinion surgery consultation scheduled. i'd thought well maybe i can get away without it but the pain is getting worse again :/ consult is mid-may so it's just a matter of pain & ptsd management until then

[traumasurvivorshelpingsurvivors]

tw sexual assault, rape, flashbacks- looking for advice/resources please!

hi! first i want to say thank you for running this blog, its really kind of you and yall have helped me out a lot!!

on to my question, if you have sexual trauma is it normal to feel like the person is still touching you sometimes? i sometimes will just be vibing and suddenly it feels like theyre touching me again- if it is, do you have any ways to make it go away?

thank you-

benni

Hey there, Benni! Thank you so much for the kind words, I speak in behalf of all the mods when I say that knowing we've been able to help you absolutely makes our day. Now, I'll first answer your main question clearly, then we'll get to an explanation, and them some advice:

Yes, it is normal. I'd go as far as say it's normal.

A term that's already well known for people who read on trauma and trauma disorders is flashback. What is not as well known about them, though, is that there are many different kinds of flashbacks. Without getting too technical, flashbacks are re-experiencing the sensations from the traumatic event resurface: these can range from emotions, to sounds, to, yes, touch. Absolutely normal.

For advice, you can go about it in many ways. Some people try dealing with them like any other flashbacks: reminding yourself the sensations aren't real, and ride them out. Others try to define what the triggers are and avoid them. You can also experiment with grounding yourself; seeing as though they are physical sensations, stimulating your senses may help, with different textures, sensations, and stimuli. It may work!

I hope one of these help you, Benni. Good luck! - mod Hakki

[straydogged]

body pls stop,,,

[imtheworst-imsorry]

If i’m going to have flashbacks can i at least have some fucking context or any memory at all or anything besides the physical somatic flashback bits? It’s so fucking horrible, and it’s even worse bc i have no clue what my body is remembering, i just have to wait for the feeling of them on me to go away even though i can’t remember what happened, i can just feel it. I’d genuinely rather have a full-on all 5 senses vivid memory to go along with this so i at least know what happened. I just want to know what happened. And why was i so stupid that night why did i do all that stupid shit it was so out of character for me like genuinely what was going on?

[its-ticsticstics]

this is my favourite time of the year but the Trauma is making shit so hard