This can sometimes be like watching a video of what happened, but flashbacks do not necessarily involve seeing images, or reliving events from start to finish. You might experience any of the following: seeing full or partial images of what happened. noticing sounds, smells or tastes connected to the trauma.
During a flashback, you may feel like you're living through the trauma again. Flashbacks are more than a memory — they can also involve the emotional and physical sensations you felt during a traumatic event. For example, if you were sexually abused, you might feel as though your abuser is physically there with you.
Frozen, wide-eyed stare, clenched or fluttering eyes. Inability to make eye contact. Dysregulated, uncontrollable flood of emotions, such as crying, screaming, shaking (panic) Calling out for help, repeatedly saying “no” or trying to run away.
Self-talk during a flashback can be part of your grounding or be used to keep you calm and steady while you employ other techniques. It can be hard to access your grounding skills (or other tools) if you're in a panic and can't remember what's even happening to you or who you are.
Flashbacks can last for just a few seconds, or continue for several hours or even days. You can read some tips on how to cope with flashbacks on our page on self-care for PTSD.
During a flashback, you may see an image or a memory of the past. During an emotional flashback, however, there is no visual aspect. The person experiencing the emotional flashback relives emotions created by past trauma.
People with PTSD have intense, disturbing thoughts and feelings related to their experience that last long after the traumatic event has ended. They may relive the event through flashbacks or nightmares; they may feel sadness, fear or anger; and they may feel detached or estranged from other people.
Stress results in acute and chronic changes in neurochemical systems and specific brain regions, which result in longterm changes in brain “circuits,” involved in the stress response. Brain regions that are felt to play an important role in PTSD include hippocampus, amygdala, and medial prefrontal cortex.
Intrusive memories
Recurrent, unwanted distressing memories of the traumatic event. Reliving the traumatic event as if it were happening again (flashbacks) Upsetting dreams or nightmares about the traumatic event. Severe emotional distress or physical reactions to something that reminds you of the traumatic event.
Flashbacks sometimes feel as though they come out of nowhere, but there are often early physical or emotional warning signs. These signs could include a change in mood, feeling pressure in your chest, or suddenly sweating. Becoming aware of the early signs of flashbacks may help you manage or prevent them.
Re-experiencing symptoms include:
Experiencing flashbacks—reliving the traumatic event, including physical symptoms such as a racing heart or sweating. Having recurring memories or dreams related to the event. Having distressing thoughts. Experiencing physical signs of stress.
More rarely, however, such apparent recollections may be false, in which case the occurrence of a flashback may lead to them being incorrectly labelled as true.
Case reports have described the presence of pain flashbacks in patients with PTSD. Pain flashbacks are forms of somatosensory memory in which pain experienced at the time of a trauma is re-experienced when triggered later, despite the apparent absence of persisting injury.
When someone experiences nightmares from PTSD, they can seem very real to them. They might feel like they are back in a situation that is not safe, the traumatic experience that caused the disruption in the first place. Symptoms can keep them awake or unable to fall asleep for long periods of time.
It's quite another to commit to discussing it with someone else. The truth about trauma therapy is that it may make you feel worse at times. Trauma shatters a person's sense of safety, so it's vital to find a mental health professional you feel comfortable sharing with and trust to lead you through the healing process.
Symptoms of PTSD
Re-living the traumatic event through unwanted and recurring memories, flashbacks or vivid nightmares. There may be intense emotional or physical reactions when reminded of the event including sweating, heart palpitations, anxiety or panic.
In many cases these powerful memories of past experiences are closely linked with traumatic events, but they can also present as a positive memory where an event is fantasised or romanticised.
The main difference is that PTSD occurs because of a singular traumatic incident. The complex subtype results from long-term traumatic circumstances. Its connection to interpersonal trauma also causes lasting relationship issues.
Here is another example of flashback as a memory: A woman is about to get married. As she puts on her veil, she remembers her fiancé three years before, swearing he would make her his wife someday. A tear comes to her eye and she prepares to walk down the aisle.
So, does PTSD ever go away? No, but with effective evidence-based treatment, symptoms can be managed well and can remain dormant for years, even decades. But because the trauma that evokes the symptoms will never go away, there is a possibility for those symptoms to be “triggered” again in the future.
A PTSD trigger is anything—a person, place, thing, or situation—that reminds you of your traumatic experience. PTSD triggers can be internal (flashbacks, visions, nightmares, intrusive thoughts) or external (sights, sounds, weather, smells, touch, or anything else in the environment).