Flashbacks Self Help Guide

What is a flashback?

Flashbacks are active memories of a traumatic event and they can make you feel as though the trauma you experienced is happening all over again.

Flashbacks can take many forms:

Visual Memories: Images, three dimensional technicolour images, black and white, foggy or clear.

Auditory Memories: Sounds like music, breathing, doors shutting, footsteps.

Emotional Memories: Feelings of distress, hopelessness, rage, terror, dread, danger or a complete lack of feelings (numbness).

Body Memories: Physical sensations including pain, nausea, gagging sensation, difficulty swallowing, feeling restricted, difficulty breathing.

Sensory Memories: Experiences such as particular smells or tastes.

Why do they happen?

Part of the brain, called the hippocampus is the part that focuses on memory. If someone experiences something traumatic:

• A part of the brain called the amygdala takes over.
• The amygdala becomes heightened and pulls all its resources to it.
• Therefore, the hippocampus does not work correctly and does not store the memory as it should.

So when flashbacks occur, this is the brains way of remembering the details of what happened.

Anything can trigger a flashback to occur, such as: a smell, a colour, a sound, a feeling of a particular object or even a piece of clothing.

What can help?

Many people work out their own way of coping with flashbacks, but here are some ideas that you may find useful@

• Find a safe quiet place where you can sit down
• Tell yourself that you are having a flashback, this this is a memory from the past but it is not happening now
• Try some of these ways of ‘grounding’ yourself and becoming aware of the present:
• Place your feet on the ground to remind yourself where you are now
• Look around you, notice the colours, the people, the shapes of things
• Listen to the sounds around you: the traffic, voices, the washing machine, etc.
• Try having an elastic band or bobble to hand – you can ‘ping’ it against your wrist and feel it on your skin
• Take care of your breathing: take deep breaths. You can also count to 5 as you breathe. Breathing slowly and deeply can stop the panic
• Get support if you would like it: let people close to you know about flashbacks so they can help you if you want them to
• Flashbacks are powerful experiences which drain your energy. Take time to look after yourself when you have had a flashback
• When you feel ready, write down all you can remember about the flashback and how you got through it. This can help the healing process and can remind you that you did get through it (and will again).

Remember flashbacks are a natural response to trauma and part of the healing process. They will get better.