I started watching this channel because I was seeing someone with DID. I'm no longer seeing him, but I'm learning so much about my own PTSD. This was really interesting. I was stopped in my tracks a few months ago by a flashback. I have been avoiding getting into the same situation that triggered it, but also trying to deal with it and heal and find healthy ways to not avoid that situation completely but rather be more careful about it. It will be interesting to see if I've done anything right on my own. I'm looking forward to part 2.
I don't experience, afaik, flashbacks. I do however experience what I believe is emotional flashbacks. I don't get any images or so. But I do get the feeling of sadness, fear, lonliness, anxiety, regression, crying, as well as other feelings, from nowhere that I can't explain.
I have D.I.D and everything changed when I realized flashbacks, body memories and nightmares were not trying to hurt me. They were trying to help me heal. Just like ALL parts of our system came to help us survive. It ALL comes from Love, from who we really are, something within that moves us towards greater wholeness. At some level, there is the True "I" that has been unharmed and has total acceptance of EVERYTHING with zero judgement and complete compassion. That is our understanding now and it has helped guide us in this incredibly difficult healing process.
Thank you!! i struggle with not finding enough information about intrusive memories. To me those aren't the same as flashbacks, rather these are sudden memories with many small events that together are very overwhelming. It's almost like these memories are "running in the background" while normal life continues. It might be one memory that triggers tons of other ones, or an event or smell that yanks out one, then the others show up like a tangled ball of yarn - connected, but difficult to sort through, so I'm "picking" or "sorting" while also going about my day. Nearly like the part untangling is separate from the part going to work and seeing friends. It's horrible, but therapy (PDT) hasn't been able to work through that particular symptom.
Really useful stuff. If you're going to do part 2, please can you spend some time on 'What processing is - I mean really, what it is, other than a buzzword!' Also, how you do it, and what else you can try if just talking about the past isn't working. Thanks.
We've sorted out panic attack vs flashbacks - and we do 'welcome' them in therapy - we are working with an experienced (DID) therapist - excruciating but helpful, in a safe setting, in relieving/processing trauma (avoided/suppressed/ignored them for years) - thank you for your trustworthy, experienced and 'heart-all-in' counsel Dr. Lloyd - you've helped me/us immensely - kind regards, seans (west coast of Canada)
This is making me realize that the reason my flashbacks are so infrequent these days are because my childhood trauma ended at a certain point and I was able to deal with the triggers via triggering my response over and over involuntarily while still a child until I was a teenager and had overcome the response for the most part. The flashbacks were almost always "somatic" as in they didn't feel like I was processing images, I just felt exactly the same way physically and mentally that I did when the trauma ocured.
Cause I have DID I can be so calm n collected n detached during flashback n a mum to my real life kids. It’s projected in a screen in front of my mind n face n I see it all. But it’s happening to someone else. Her. Not me. This has saved my life n I can live life unaffected by it. I can be at shops etc n no one would know I’m having intrusive flashbacks e thoughts n affect. I hide it very well n try even HARDER to be normal n act normal as result. Thank god for DID. Saved my life then n now. Always has and always will. And for that I love all my war zone parts n systems. How could I not. I owe them my life. And as a result I give them my healing safety validation love and acceptance. It’s a bitter sweet win to give to myself what caretakers did not or could not. Because we are worth it. We raised we up. And proud of it n to call all my kids teens n adults my own. ❤. They have captured my heart n soul. And obviously I have noticed the switching internally whilst typing all this. Am highly aware ❤
Thank you so much! Understanding that resisting, ignoring and running away from them only intensifies them. So the only way out is through... easier said than done... spoken by an expert in trying to ignore.
Sometimes we get memories that aren't ptsd ones too. Being put in remembrance of the great m grand things in our lives before adults hurt us so much praises be to my Lord for that. Knowing he's always been here is the greatest part
While I do tend towards avoidance, I also regularly experience unavoidable flashbacks, which typically don't lead to healing. And that's largely because in order to actually process the flashback, you have to be grounded in the present and able to access a state of nervous system regulation. That is something I'm usually incapable of doing. I made some progress with EMDR, but then I got flooded and stopped being able to process and had to stop to work on stabilization. I feel like my life is continuous trauma. Even though the abuse ended, it's like the neglect never did. I've never felt like my basic needs were all being met, like I could just rest safely and know everything was going to be okay. Because if I'm not working my ass off day in and day out, things won't be okay, as there is no one else to pick up the slack, to take care of me or my son if I can't do it. I feel like every day I have to fight to survive, because of capitalism and an ableist society. I never feel like I can just rest and take care of myself. I don't even know what I need most of the time. And I feel like I'm mostly doing it all alone. I've been doing some healing anyway over the last four years, but healing from complex trauma is a slow and difficult battle. I'm trying to work on my relationship with myself, but it's so hard because I (most likely) have OSDD. I'm also autistic, ADHD, trans, and most likely bipolar as well. Lots of comorbidities. Life is too fucking hard sometimes. And still I'm here, trying to comfort myself, trying to make space for all that anger and frustration about how hard this shit is and how it feels like it never gets better. I hate feeling so alone and helpless.
My flashbacks were once so bad that it really felt like I was back there living it all again. But taking the time to work through each one and work out what is going on has helped, having amnesia and these flashbacks are tough but vital for my healing. Looking forward to part 2👍
This whole channel is so validating, and interesting! I'm not in a system (I think) but it's obvious to me I'm traumatised. And I relate to a lot of things you talk about in relation to complex teauma and dissociation. Mainly watching these videos have helped me to avoid all of this less and to be more kind to myself when I find it hard to function in every day life. Additionally your way of speaking about these topics is full of compassion and also positive and solution oriented, but without dismissing the struggles. I've learned a lot from you!
I don't have, or have yet to have, a "normal" flash back . I have seemingly random images that come up in my head. Almost like I'm being handed a traumatic memory one piece at a time. Also, I experience invisible flashbacks. I will suddenly feel like everything has stopped, overwhelmed with fear or sadness. . I will feel like something bads about to happen, but nothing comes up. It's tiring and frustrating.
Same. Don't worry that doesn't mean your trauma wasn't that bad (if you think so yourself). Our brains just have a different way of processing the trauma and it can be equally as distressing as a full body flashback
My flashbacks can be horrible. They can be seasonal or can be triggered by an event, a sight, sound, smell etc. Grounding and Mindfulness exercises help. ❤ Looking forward to video # 2. Thanks Mike!
Right as I litterally started feeling like my life was getting better, and safer, I had a goddamn awful flashback yesterday. So this video came just in time, thank you. It really sucks though, this was a traumatic memory from my childhood that had been completely blocked out and I feel so betrayed my brain decided it's gonna stop with the amnesia 😢. I could've gone on just fine not knowing, wondering if it ever really happened to me, thinking maybe I'm a little crazy. But now it's real and I feel sick and confused. I felt like absolute shit for the rest of the night after it happened.
I wish i found this video sooner. I've been having flashbacks and panic attacks for 19 years now. I was avoiding anything that triggered me. Then it got more intense and i couldn't avoid it anymore because it hit me in the face. I just thought i was crazy. I was embarrassed and hated myself. They aren't as intense now i understand why but it still doesn't feel good. My whole body is repulsed it's really uncomfortable.
I was at home and I was mulling over balancing school and work and that triggered the flashback. It's probably why I haven't been able to go back to college.
Flashbacks are scary... i have been dealing with it lately, too much pain and anger. Trying to heal, trying to learn new coping skills. Sometime i (we) can ground, can be present, but most of the time... i (we) will get stuck in it. Emotional and somatic flashbacks are hard too, it's disorienting and exhausting. Thank you for this.
Dr. Mike, when I was dealing with flashbacks that were like being in a porn movie, I could not shut them off at first. What helped me was to isolate a section of the “movie” and to assign that section a symbolic picture. So for example, instead of seeing myself with a knife at my throat, I just pictured a knife. Instead of seeing the part of the movie where I was tied, I just pictured a cord. These still pictures were put together in my mind, sort of like a film strip. Remember those? Anyway, once the whole thing was in the form of a film strip in my mind, the movie actually shut off. And overtime, I was able to get rid of the film strip, too. I hope this helps!
This one in particular reminds me of IFS where you invite in the part that wants to avoid confrontation at all cost, and welcoming it First, asking for permission to go ahead, then asking the part what it's intention really is. Why does it believe it needs to avoid this, what it's afraid of… getting to really know + understand it Then thank the part for truly meaning to help This can free the part up, allowing it to feel heard + more satisfied
I don't have flashbacks per se, but my headspace "family" has a way of getting my attention. In 2017, before our D.I.D. DX I sleepwalked down 8 flights of stairs the fell and broke my wrist. Amelia, whom I'd not yest met, had fallen down the stairs at 4 y/o and broken her left (dominant) wrist. As I'd broken my right (dominant) wrist she taught me to be quite competent with using her wrist. Pretty cool. Btw, I'd not ever or since sleepwalked (as far as I'm aware)!
I'm so confused by my flashbacks, I keep having them about seemingly nontraumatic events, so often I can't even grasp what the trigger is. I have a yet undetermined dissociative disorder and have amnesia for most of my childhood trauma, and a lot of it happened before the age of 5. I've been thinking maybe the inaccessible trauma causes me to get triggered by regular situations, and those situations get somehow roped into the trauma, hence causing flashbacks about situations that don't seem to have anything traumatizing about them? It's exhausting to constantly get intensely triggered by anything that reminds of the everyday events or even successful interactions with people in everyday life that have turned into traumatic material, and haven't had much progress concerning these with my therapist, because I get intensely triggered so quickly without having any clue what's behind it.
Wow. I've done so much therapeutic work, and I don't think I've ever heard this framed in exactly this way, and explained so clearly and succinctly. This was really useful! Thanks!
Love the videos! I would really like to know more about how flashbacks manifest when you have alters. Often when having a flashback, I feel like I'm observing someone else experiencing it. Like many other trauma responses, it makes me feel like I'm making it up (wish I was, but no)
That is similar to my question. How do you know that the flashback isn't an alter trying to express itself and if so how do you know the difference. I too see many of them as outside myself watching it happen to 'someone else'. I know it's me but doesn't feel that way sometimes. Sometimes I'm even separate from the emotion of it so to speak. It's weird and until I realised I had DID I thought something was wrong with my ability to 'feel'. Interestingly enough I am also diagnosed PTSD from being a Child Protective Worker. These flashbacks and those related to other 'adult' traumas are more likely to be feeling based. Most of the non feeling based ones are from childhood. That said, these ones can still put me into a panic but without attachment to the feeling of the event if that makes sense. So I have to start to ask, are these flashbacks actually alters that are expressing through visions but I am protected from the 'feeling' of them by other alters?
@@Lenergyiskey358Yes! I absolutely relate to what you said. Also you got me thinking about the difference between recent and older flashbacks. Something to think about, thank you
Thank you for your incredibly informative videos. I have been diagnosed with DDNOS. I don't think i have flashbacks as other people seem to describe however. The only thing i would say could be one is a recurrent feeling that I'm dying on waking (I'm used to this now it's been going on for so long). How do people deal with flashbacks when there is no visual memory or sound memory? Just a bodily feeling which comes along with thoughts e.g 'I'm dying'. How can this be dealt with? Thank you 😊
I'm having lots of flashbacks, and they're giving me a constant headache as well as the physical pain from the event when it originally happened. It's not nice to remember, but it's awful to actually feel it again. 😔.
In my experience, flashbacks aren't always something to process. I survived going septic with a brain infection 4 years ago this past Father's Day. Every summer, I become hyper-vigilant, struggle to sleep, feel anxious and rigid. My brain and body are warning me because it thinks it could happen again. The primal part of my brain sees the pattern of life, the changing of the seasons, and knows the anniversary of that event is coming up. My brain doesn't know that there isn't a threat any longer. I cannot reason with that side of the brain. All I can do is survive the perceived threat until it passes, and my brain and body think we are out of danger. It's a harrowing experience. I have a photographic memory, so to scare me into staying awake at night (because my brain thinks I'll die if I fall asleep) images of things that scared me as a child will flash before me- like pictures of aliens standing at the foot of my bed. Once I force myself to sleep with the help of sleep aids and the hypnic jerks stop, I will wake up feeling like a survived almost dying. It's awful.
what if you can 't get a clear view of the flashback? i have one that will always come up in a medical office - - - and i know that environment isn't the place of the trauma - is has to do with light and being contained -but it's all i can find out. Meanwhile - going to doc appointments is - well , a mess. I don't have a doctor anymore , and i'm willing for any tips. Yes, i get that they are crappy, - lots of experience there.
Do you happen to know about any options for specialized DID treatment in Germany? It‘s so hard to know where to look, it seems like there aren’t any reliable places in our country that offer this. I know of a patient who’s stuck in the closed ward because he gets highly agitated and destructive, but it’s impossible to provide him with the help he needs while he’s there. I wish I could refer him to someone who is able to work with him.
Is it possible to be so avoidant or disbelieving of your own thoughts that you trick yourself into unknowing you experienced a flashback? I’m having trouble accepting that DID is me bc I don’t want to know it. Does this make sense to anyone?
Weird, I feel like I understand most of this on an intuitive level now (just through practice alone) but I might be missing something because things keep getting more intense... maybe I'm subconsciously resisting things by picking and choosing which parts of the trauma I want to confront. Also I thought because things kept getting more intense that meant I was making progress... hmmmm I might have things completely backwards here 😅
What about thosenof us whose whole life is a flashback? One big unfortunate consistency of trama. Ourr throat is hardened rn. Every thing that causes did In the dsm... apparently we had been through.
One of the commercials was for joining the US army. I tried to join the u.s. army but I couldn't because I was blind in one eye from a previous trauma event. But they wouldn't take me cuz I was imperfect. If you here in America we have these goarmy commercials about be all you can. Doesn't matter. Be intelligent and Osdd... never had a chance
I'm triggered when the root of the trauma matches the trigger. Ex: gaslighting, denial, projection, blame shifting, deflection, shaming, smearing micromanaging, and fault finding
My brain was kind of nice to me/us when amnesia began to let go. The first flashbacks about an episode would be something totally ordinary and often from my everyday life. I would begin to wonder why this flash kept repeating itself and after a while - days, weeks sometimes hours I would find my self sort of daydreaming and then the remembering/reliving would pop up. In the last hours before I would often be anxious and angry. Later I found out, that the first flashbacks about normal things like sitting on a bench shows the time when I reconnected with my body after traumas. I never totally came back. It has taken years of therapy to get to where I am now. But therapy has been meaningful and I have become a rich person with my insiders - alters. Thank you for your great work.
Lad, I enjoy the stuff you say, because it makes sense and stuff, but it's awfully distorted audio quality and hurts to listen to. Could be just me, gonna have someone else watch this too once they come around and are ready..
We've been at this point for years..... flashbacks yes! Triggers not always bad. It ok to forgive the crimes committed against you (even if you learned to forgive the crime before you found it it happened to you.) Apologies. We are very much looking forward to your next video.
I started watching this channel because I was seeing someone with DID. I'm no longer seeing him, but I'm learning so much about my own PTSD. This was really interesting. I was stopped in my tracks a few months ago by a flashback. I have been avoiding getting into the same situation that triggered it, but also trying to deal with it and heal and find healthy ways to not avoid that situation completely but rather be more careful about it. It will be interesting to see if I've done anything right on my own. I'm looking forward to part 2.
I don't experience, afaik, flashbacks. I do however experience what I believe is emotional flashbacks. I don't get any images or so. But I do get the feeling of sadness, fear, lonliness, anxiety, regression, crying, as well as other feelings, from nowhere that I can't explain.
Exactly
I have D.I.D and everything changed when I realized flashbacks, body memories and nightmares were not trying to hurt me. They were trying to help me heal. Just like ALL parts of our system came to help us survive. It ALL comes from Love, from who we really are, something within that moves us towards greater wholeness. At some level, there is the True "I" that has been unharmed and has total acceptance of EVERYTHING with zero judgement and complete compassion. That is our understanding now and it has helped guide us in this incredibly difficult healing process.
Thank you!! i struggle with not finding enough information about intrusive memories. To me those aren't the same as flashbacks, rather these are sudden memories with many small events that together are very overwhelming. It's almost like these memories are "running in the background" while normal life continues. It might be one memory that triggers tons of other ones, or an event or smell that yanks out one, then the others show up like a tangled ball of yarn - connected, but difficult to sort through, so I'm "picking" or "sorting" while also going about my day. Nearly like the part untangling is separate from the part going to work and seeing friends. It's horrible, but therapy (PDT) hasn't been able to work through that particular symptom.
Really useful stuff. If you're going to do part 2, please can you spend some time on 'What processing is - I mean really, what it is, other than a buzzword!' Also, how you do it, and what else you can try if just talking about the past isn't working. Thanks.
That’s a great question!
I hardly ever talk about my past, not even in therapy. I wonder why that is?
We've sorted out panic attack vs flashbacks - and we do 'welcome' them in therapy - we are working with an experienced (DID) therapist - excruciating but helpful, in a safe setting, in relieving/processing trauma (avoided/suppressed/ignored them for years) - thank you for your trustworthy, experienced and 'heart-all-in' counsel Dr. Lloyd - you've helped me/us immensely - kind regards, seans (west coast of Canada)
So glad to hear this, Sean - hope it continues to go well!
This is making me realize that the reason my flashbacks are so infrequent these days are because my childhood trauma ended at a certain point and I was able to deal with the triggers via triggering my response over and over involuntarily while still a child until I was a teenager and had overcome the response for the most part. The flashbacks were almost always "somatic" as in they didn't feel like I was processing images, I just felt exactly the same way physically and mentally that I did when the trauma ocured.
Cause I have DID I can be so calm n collected n detached during flashback n a mum to my real life kids. It’s projected in a screen in front of my mind n face n I see it all. But it’s happening to someone else. Her. Not me. This has saved my life n I can live life unaffected by it. I can be at shops etc n no one would know I’m having intrusive flashbacks e thoughts n affect. I hide it very well n try even HARDER to be normal n act normal as result.
Thank god for DID. Saved my life then n now. Always has and always will. And for that I love all my war zone parts n systems. How could I not.
I owe them my life. And as a result I give them my healing safety validation love and acceptance.
It’s a bitter sweet win to give to myself what caretakers did not or could not. Because we are worth it. We raised we up. And proud of it n to call all my kids teens n adults my own. ❤. They have captured my heart n soul.
And obviously I have noticed the switching internally whilst typing all this. Am highly aware ❤
Thank you so much! Understanding that resisting, ignoring and running away from them only intensifies them. So the only way out is through... easier said than done... spoken by an expert in trying to ignore.
I know, it sounds like a simple message, but certainly rarely easy!
Sometimes we get memories that aren't ptsd ones too. Being put in remembrance of the great m grand things in our lives before adults hurt us so much praises be to my Lord for that. Knowing he's always been here is the greatest part
While I do tend towards avoidance, I also regularly experience unavoidable flashbacks, which typically don't lead to healing. And that's largely because in order to actually process the flashback, you have to be grounded in the present and able to access a state of nervous system regulation. That is something I'm usually incapable of doing. I made some progress with EMDR, but then I got flooded and stopped being able to process and had to stop to work on stabilization.
I feel like my life is continuous trauma. Even though the abuse ended, it's like the neglect never did. I've never felt like my basic needs were all being met, like I could just rest safely and know everything was going to be okay. Because if I'm not working my ass off day in and day out, things won't be okay, as there is no one else to pick up the slack, to take care of me or my son if I can't do it. I feel like every day I have to fight to survive, because of capitalism and an ableist society. I never feel like I can just rest and take care of myself. I don't even know what I need most of the time. And I feel like I'm mostly doing it all alone.
I've been doing some healing anyway over the last four years, but healing from complex trauma is a slow and difficult battle. I'm trying to work on my relationship with myself, but it's so hard because I (most likely) have OSDD. I'm also autistic, ADHD, trans, and most likely bipolar as well. Lots of comorbidities. Life is too fucking hard sometimes. And still I'm here, trying to comfort myself, trying to make space for all that anger and frustration about how hard this shit is and how it feels like it never gets better. I hate feeling so alone and helpless.
My flashbacks were once so bad that it really felt like I was back there living it all again. But taking the time to work through each one and work out what is going on has helped, having amnesia and these flashbacks are tough but vital for my healing. Looking forward to part 2👍
Sounds like a lot of work, well done!
@@thectadclinic it's been really hard and still is but so worth it if I/we can get to being whole 🥰
This whole channel is so validating, and interesting! I'm not in a system (I think) but it's obvious to me I'm traumatised. And I relate to a lot of things you talk about in relation to complex teauma and dissociation.
Mainly watching these videos have helped me to avoid all of this less and to be more kind to myself when I find it hard to function in every day life.
Additionally your way of speaking about these topics is full of compassion and also positive and solution oriented, but without dismissing the struggles. I've learned a lot from you!
I don't have, or have yet to have, a "normal" flash back . I have seemingly random images that come up in my head. Almost like I'm being handed a traumatic memory one piece at a time. Also, I experience invisible flashbacks. I will suddenly feel like everything has stopped, overwhelmed with fear or sadness. . I will feel like something bads about to happen, but nothing comes up. It's tiring and frustrating.
Some flashbacks are just like that, snapshots with little context. They can be really frightening and confusing.
Same. Don't worry that doesn't mean your trauma wasn't that bad (if you think so yourself). Our brains just have a different way of processing the trauma and it can be equally as distressing as a full body flashback
My flashbacks can be horrible. They can be seasonal or can be triggered by an event, a sight, sound, smell etc. Grounding and Mindfulness exercises help. ❤ Looking forward to video # 2. Thanks Mike!
Right as I litterally started feeling like my life was getting better, and safer, I had a goddamn awful flashback yesterday. So this video came just in time, thank you. It really sucks though, this was a traumatic memory from my childhood that had been completely blocked out and I feel so betrayed my brain decided it's gonna stop with the amnesia 😢. I could've gone on just fine not knowing, wondering if it ever really happened to me, thinking maybe I'm a little crazy. But now it's real and I feel sick and confused. I felt like absolute shit for the rest of the night after it happened.
I wish i found this video sooner.
I've been having flashbacks and panic attacks for 19 years now. I was avoiding anything that triggered me. Then it got more intense and i couldn't avoid it anymore because it hit me in the face. I just thought i was crazy. I was embarrassed and hated myself. They aren't as intense now i understand why but it still doesn't feel good. My whole body is repulsed it's really uncomfortable.
I was at home and I was mulling over balancing school and work and that triggered the flashback. It's probably why I haven't been able to go back to college.
Flashbacks are scary... i have been dealing with it lately, too much pain and anger. Trying to heal, trying to learn new coping skills. Sometime i (we) can ground, can be present, but most of the time... i (we) will get stuck in it. Emotional and somatic flashbacks are hard too, it's disorienting and exhausting. Thank you for this.
Dr. Mike, when I was dealing with flashbacks that were like being in a porn movie, I could not shut them off at first. What helped me was to isolate a section of the “movie” and to assign that section a symbolic picture. So for example, instead of seeing myself with a knife at my throat, I just pictured a knife. Instead of seeing the part of the movie where I was tied, I just pictured a cord. These still pictures were put together in my mind, sort of like a film strip. Remember those? Anyway, once the whole thing was in the form of a film strip in my mind, the movie actually shut off. And overtime, I was able to get rid of the film strip, too. I hope this helps!
This one in particular reminds me of IFS where you invite in the part that wants to avoid confrontation at all cost, and welcoming it
First, asking for permission to go ahead, then asking the part what it's intention really is. Why does it believe it needs to avoid this, what it's afraid of… getting to really know + understand it
Then thank the part for truly meaning to help
This can free the part up, allowing it to feel heard + more satisfied
I don't have flashbacks per se, but my headspace "family" has a way of getting my attention. In 2017, before our D.I.D. DX I sleepwalked down 8 flights of stairs the fell and broke my wrist. Amelia, whom I'd not yest met, had fallen down the stairs at 4 y/o and broken her left (dominant) wrist. As I'd broken my right (dominant) wrist she taught me to be quite competent with using her wrist. Pretty cool. Btw, I'd not ever or since sleepwalked (as far as I'm aware)!
I'm so confused by my flashbacks, I keep having them about seemingly nontraumatic events, so often I can't even grasp what the trigger is. I have a yet undetermined dissociative disorder and have amnesia for most of my childhood trauma, and a lot of it happened before the age of 5.
I've been thinking maybe the inaccessible trauma causes me to get triggered by regular situations, and those situations get somehow roped into the trauma, hence causing flashbacks about situations that don't seem to have anything traumatizing about them? It's exhausting to constantly get intensely triggered by anything that reminds of
the everyday events or even successful interactions with people in everyday life that have turned into traumatic material, and haven't had much progress concerning these with my therapist, because I get intensely triggered so quickly without having any clue what's behind it.
Wow. I've done so much therapeutic work, and I don't think I've ever heard this framed in exactly this way, and explained so clearly and succinctly.
This was really useful! Thanks!
Love the videos! I would really like to know more about how flashbacks manifest when you have alters. Often when having a flashback, I feel like I'm observing someone else experiencing it. Like many other trauma responses, it makes me feel like I'm making it up (wish I was, but no)
Noted!
That is similar to my question. How do you know that the flashback isn't an alter trying to express itself and if so how do you know the difference. I too see many of them as outside myself watching it happen to 'someone else'. I know it's me but doesn't feel that way sometimes. Sometimes I'm even separate from the emotion of it so to speak.
It's weird and until I realised I had DID I thought something was wrong with my ability to 'feel'. Interestingly enough I am also diagnosed PTSD from being a Child Protective Worker. These flashbacks and those related to other 'adult' traumas are more likely to be feeling based.
Most of the non feeling based ones are from childhood.
That said, these ones can still put me into a panic but without attachment to the feeling of the event if that makes sense.
So I have to start to ask, are these flashbacks actually alters that are expressing through visions but I am protected from the 'feeling' of them by other alters?
@@Lenergyiskey358Yes! I absolutely relate to what you said. Also you got me thinking about the difference between recent and older flashbacks. Something to think about, thank you
@@Bexbee283 you're welcome. It's an interesting world this DID reality. Really highlights the brilliance of the brain 🤯
Thank you for your incredibly informative videos.
I have been diagnosed with DDNOS. I don't think i have flashbacks as other people seem to describe however. The only thing i would say could be one is a recurrent feeling that I'm dying on waking (I'm used to this now it's been going on for so long).
How do people deal with flashbacks when there is no visual memory or sound memory? Just a bodily feeling which comes along with thoughts e.g 'I'm dying'. How can this be dealt with?
Thank you 😊
I'm having lots of flashbacks, and they're giving me a constant headache as well as the physical pain from the event when it originally happened. It's not nice to remember, but it's awful to actually feel it again. 😔.
In my experience, flashbacks aren't always something to process. I survived going septic with a brain infection 4 years ago this past Father's Day. Every summer, I become hyper-vigilant, struggle to sleep, feel anxious and rigid. My brain and body are warning me because it thinks it could happen again. The primal part of my brain sees the pattern of life, the changing of the seasons, and knows the anniversary of that event is coming up. My brain doesn't know that there isn't a threat any longer. I cannot reason with that side of the brain. All I can do is survive the perceived threat until it passes, and my brain and body think we are out of danger. It's a harrowing experience. I have a photographic memory, so to scare me into staying awake at night (because my brain thinks I'll die if I fall asleep) images of things that scared me as a child will flash before me- like pictures of aliens standing at the foot of my bed. Once I force myself to sleep with the help of sleep aids and the hypnic jerks stop, I will wake up feeling like a survived almost dying. It's awful.
Thank you so much for your video. You explain things with such compassion and in a wholesome way. ❤
Wow, thank you!
Good to see you Dr. Mike. ((hugs))
very much looking forward to part 2 and going more in-depth with this topic! thank you again for your kind insight ♥
Very helpful way to look at these. Thank you!💜
You are so welcome!
What would be the reason someone who lived with 20 yrs of consistent abuse, hardly ever gets flasbacks or memories?
what if you can 't get a clear view of the flashback? i have one that will always come up in a medical office - - - and i know that environment isn't the place of the trauma - is has to do with light and being contained -but it's all i can find out. Meanwhile - going to doc appointments is - well , a mess. I don't have a doctor anymore , and i'm willing for any tips. Yes, i get that they are crappy, - lots of experience there.
Do you happen to know about any options for specialized DID treatment in Germany? It‘s so hard to know where to look, it seems like there aren’t any reliable places in our country that offer this. I know of a patient who’s stuck in the closed ward because he gets highly agitated and destructive, but it’s impossible to provide him with the help he needs while he’s there. I wish I could refer him to someone who is able to work with him.
Is it possible to be so avoidant or disbelieving of your own thoughts that you trick yourself into unknowing you experienced a flashback? I’m having trouble accepting that DID is me bc I don’t want to know it. Does this make sense to anyone?
Hello.Are flashbacks one of the factors that cause Agoraphobia?Also would you know of any D.I.D based therapy in Canada?Thank you.
Oh so dreams are flashbacks??
It feels like my entire life was trauma.
I keep trying to live in the present and remember what is good now
Weird, I feel like I understand most of this on an intuitive level now (just through practice alone) but I might be missing something because things keep getting more intense... maybe I'm subconsciously resisting things by picking and choosing which parts of the trauma I want to confront.
Also I thought because things kept getting more intense that meant I was making progress... hmmmm I might have things completely backwards here 😅
What about thosenof us whose whole life is a flashback? One big unfortunate consistency of trama. Ourr throat is hardened rn.
Every thing that causes did In the dsm... apparently we had been through.
There's boths a loving peace and a raging chaos in my self. I want it to pass
One of the commercials was for joining the US army. I tried to join the u.s. army but I couldn't because I was blind in one eye from a previous trauma event. But they wouldn't take me cuz I was imperfect. If you here in America we have these goarmy commercials about be all you can.
Doesn't matter. Be intelligent and Osdd... never had a chance
Specific sounds, and is a near daily occurrence.
How does one in multiple accept something like having a disorder like this?
Very rarely does acception come in synchronicity
I'm sorry that's so difficult, I can only imagine the frustration of processing on so many levels.
I'm triggered when the root of the trauma matches the trigger.
Ex: gaslighting, denial, projection, blame shifting, deflection, shaming, smearing micromanaging, and fault finding
My brain was kind of nice to me/us when amnesia began to let go. The first flashbacks about an episode would be something totally ordinary and often from my everyday life. I would begin to wonder why this flash kept repeating itself and after a while - days, weeks sometimes hours I would find my self sort of daydreaming and then the remembering/reliving would pop up. In the last hours before I would often be anxious and angry. Later I found out, that the first flashbacks about normal things like sitting on a bench shows the time when I reconnected with my body after traumas. I never totally came back. It has taken years of therapy to get to where I am now. But therapy has been meaningful and I have become a rich person with my insiders - alters.
Thank you for your great work.
Insiders. I like that 😊
Lad, I enjoy the stuff you say, because it makes sense and stuff, but it's awfully distorted audio quality and hurts to listen to.
Could be just me, gonna have someone else watch this too once they come around and are ready..
We've been at this point for years..... flashbacks yes! Triggers not always bad. It ok to forgive the crimes committed against you (even if you learned to forgive the crime before you found it it happened to you.)
Apologies. We are very much looking forward to your next video.