Can horrible flashbacks really lessen if I talk about my problems?

Question

I'm curious and maybe a little pessimistic.

Answer 1

I am assuming you are referring to the type of flashbacks associated with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Going to therapy and "talking about them" helps because it helps you desensitize yourself to the memory and learn that you are okay and safe now. It is difficult, but basically, in facing your fear through reliving it, then you help yourself dissipate the anxiety.

This is a simplistic explanation. Edna Foa is an expert in PTSD. I am not sure if you are the type of person who likes to read up on such things. David Barlow is also an expert in the treatment of anxiety and has self-help books available.

Answer 2

Talking about your problem with flashbacks with a Counselor can be very beneficial toward your healing. The healing is a process, and while you begin to speak of these issues, you may initially feel more upset for a while. As your mind and emotions process the facts and the feeling and fears associated with your flashbacks, you will eventually feel separated from those memories. You will begin to recognize today to be today, and that yesterday cannot hurt you, and will not return. The further you distance yourself, with the help of the counselor, the more freedom you will experience from the memories and the flashbacks.

Answer 3

Yes, talking about them can and does lessen the severity and the recurrance of them. Talking with a qualified professional is best and will likely yeild the best results.

Keeping these things inside you, you're talking in monologue, which only increases the severity and intensity of negative images/thoughts. Talking about them is like shedding light on a dark corner. Things become clear, and the reason for the flashbacks, etc. disappear.

Answer 4

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Answer 5

Not really. You re-live them every time you talk about them.

If you want to get rid of them (and I had one too; head on crash at 90 mph, not my fault), take up serious daily aerobics.

I started doing jumping jacks when I woke up in the morning. As I did more and more, the images got less and less. And I got stronger and healthier. I no longer have any horrifying dreams.

Here is what I do; when I get to work, I do 100 jumping jacks. I do them in groups of 10, pause, 10 pause, etc.
At break; 100 more.
At lunch; 100 more.
2nd break; 100 more.
When I get home; 100 more.
I feel GREAT all the time. And no, I did not start out doing 500 a day. I did 3 the first day and felt like I was dying...

Hope this helps.

Answer 6

It works for lot's of people. I however was not one of those persons. I however wasn't one of those persons. I couldn't bring myself to tell a stranger such intimate details of my life and I couldn't tell someone close because I was afraid of "the look" in the future from them. I found much relief in journaling my feelings and writing what had happened to me. After each writing I would do a burning of the paper as a symbolic gestures of letting these things go. I hope you find what works for you and good luck.

Answer 7

Try hypnosis as well
better yet, therapy guided hypnosis

Answer 8

Don't know about talking, but it does make for some weird sleeping.

Answer 9

I can't answer for you, but I think it is a possibility, talking, time, processing it, grieving over what awful things happened, and learning how to live differntly with coping methods. I think there may be days where you will feel better and like you are healed, but may not be completely healed from it. If you have not been opening up about the events before, then getting them out in the open with someone you can trust and learning how to handle being triggered and how not to be triggered may help. Also maybe you can take some medicine to help if you need it.

I think it depends on what the individual needs and even what each traumatic situation is for that individual (because one situation can affect someone negatively in one way and another traumatic situation might need to be to be worked on in a different way). Kind of like for one person medicine a may work one way, while for another that medicine might not have the same effects, and then when those people's bodies change for weight or hormonal reasons the medication reactions and needs may change too. I've had lots of traumas I've shared and talked about. For some people, it can be reopening old wounds (and keeping that person there) each time it is brought up, while for others getting it out can help them in the healing process.

I think it has to do with grieving and processing the event while learning how to adjust.

Just last night, I was answering someone, and all of a sudden I had a flash back to when my mother's body was discovered, something I don't like to remember. For me I think part of the healing process is time, but also for me, I don't think my memories and whatnots will ever go away completely and that I may have to face the fact that I may never 100% recover from the traumas but have to learn to deal with them. I've gone through bullying for several years (to the point of getting severe depression and being threatened), and when I lost my baby and almost died, I had nightmares, one of which had a school bully in it and he smelled like the infection chasing me, just like the old days when I had nightmares or night terrors of him.
I did not get counseling for my bullying. I did go through a Bible study about the loss of my child. I felt better at first by the time the class ended, but then I tucked it away. I tried to put the memories away and hide her pictures. Also some other traumatic events have happened, and just when I think I have been healed, they resurface, if not the flashbacks and being there in the past (or the past coming to revisit my present), then just memories of what happened and these terrible feelings I have from the experience or experiences. Sometimes just the feeling of dread or terror comes up, and I have actually been able to trace which trauma caused the feeling of dread and terror about my child getting attacked when I do a certain activity (shower). At first I couldn't figure it out, but then I began to remember what happened when I was a girl.
I went to a website where there were people who survived all forms of abuse and talked about their problems. Well you have to be really careful on this website not to "trigger" someone. I don't think talking about their problems really lessened their flashbacks, as not only were they on the website but also some of them were on medications and had therapists. But maybe, in some way, they felt that was a support system for them, and maybe it did help them to have therapists to talk to, meds to help them feel better, and people on line and in person to talk with.
I think for me it helps me to be able to try to help other people. It kind of helps me get my mind off my problems, and I feel good about caring about other people, and if they are helped, then they are better off. I like to help people.
Maybe what you could do is if you have not started talking about the reason(s) for your flashbacks, then try it with someone you can really trust. Also one of my psychologists I was seeing in another city taught me how to meditate to the Bible with imagery and how to do imagery on my own. She also wanted me to keep a journal and noticed how the writings changed over time, keeping track of how I felt and just what popped in my head, loose writings, about 30 minutes each day. Nowadays I don't do these things; I usually don't make time for that. But I remember feeling a sense of peace.
I have also had good positive flashbacks so strong I can sense and taste them. What you can try to do is make for yourself good images and memories that later, when you flashback, you can expose yourself to a trigger that brings up the more common positive memories. Try doing research on aromatherapy for example. Figure out what's triggering the horrible flashbacks, and use that to your advantage. If it's taste, then use that to lead you. If it's something by sight, or sound, use that. Something to stop your brain in its tracks and give it a gentle "jolt" to something pleasant. Experiement with scented candles. If you are triggered by candles to something bad, then you can try satchets of scented bags, scented pine cones, perfumes, candies, oils, and so on.
While you are being exposed to the scents, try to make good experiences or make it into a positive experience for yourself.

You can use music that is calming and peaceful (if not Christian music, then Celtic or light classical and so on). Find a safe calming place in your house, turn the lights down low (or turn on a dimmer calming light that you like), put on some serene music, and have a catch phrase on hand that you can use (like Bible or maybe something positive you thought about to calm yourself or something someone told you). You can also try to redo what happened to you, and turn it around in your imagination to something positive. I've done this before, but I don't think it worked for me, because I ended up wanting something I did not have (anymore). There are noise makers too that you can buy at Wal-mart if you live in the states. They have ocean sounds, bird sounds, water sounds, thunderstorms, a beating heart, white noise, and so on. I bought mine for I think it was about $14 to $20. I use mine to sleep to, though, so the noises I turn it to block the actual birds outside.
If you have a reverse tape player you'd rather use, you can buy music or make your own tapes with your voice on it, and when it gets to the end, it can flip over to the other side. When I was a teen, I used to take up martial arts and I learned how to breathe to those movements, and I used to go to my bedroom and listen to Lion King's Hakunna Matatta and other songs on the soundtrack and imagine things to that amongst other c.d.s and tapes.

Making positive memories and positive flashbacks to outweigh the bad ones and to help bring your mind around to a different state, talking about it, journaling, time, medications, learning new coping mechanisms, and allowing yourself to go through the grieving process (whichever way it works for you) can possibly help.
Try to figure out for what works best for you. If you haven't tried the suggestions, what have you got to lose, but time, maybe some money. If it doesn't help and you try it for a while (months or years), then you can toss it or change it around to suit your needs. But for some people the flashbacks will not lessen but the techniques can help them just make it through the day, whereas for others talking and finding other ways to cope does help lessen.