Imagine you are sitting in a big movie theatre watching a movie you have been waiting so long to see. The lights dim and off you go as the plot begins. The main character starts to have a Flashback about his childhood. The script includes the Flashback so that the viewer has context about the character and their history. You have that “AhHa” moment and you now understand why the plot is proceeding in a certain direction, it is telling a story.
I love having Flashbacks of my teenage years and being so carefree with my friends, full of beach days and long nights driving around singing to our favorite tunes. I am smiling right now just thinking about those precious times of my life. A song comes on the radio and immediately you have a Flashback to the day you got your first car and that song was playing on the radio. Flashbacks, keep us in touch with the memories and the feels that happy times have given us. I like to look at it as if there is a little wrapped gift in my brain and sometimes I get to open that gift and remember such beautiful times.
Flashbacks can also be of a repressed memory or a time when you experienced a trauma. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder PTSD, can also be categorized as a Flashback. PTSD, is a trauma that we have experienced recently or in our past. Many times these memories can be pushed back in the deep and dark parts of our brain. The brain is such an amazing machine. Not only does it keep our bodies functioning but it holds a montage of memories and experiences that have occurred in our life time. Unfortunately, these memories are not always a pretty wrapped gift hiding in our brain waiting to be opened. Sometimes these repressed memories rear their ugly head at the most inappropriate times in our lives or experiences.
Grief, abuse, physical trauma, emotional trauma and tragic events become part of our minds and can be deeply embedded in the dark places of our brains. There is usually a Trigger when this Flashback or PTSD moment occurs. A Trigger is something that ignites the trauma as if it was happening to you again in the present. I live in Parkland, Florida where the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting occurred. Though it has been five years since the massacre, I still have Flashbacks from that day and the months to follow. To this day whenever I hear a helicopter, a siren or a car backfire, I jump and I am immediately brought back to that tragic day. This is an example of a Flashback due to trauma.
Many people are aware of the triggers that bring them back to a trauma. However, there are times where something occurs and immediately you are triggered but are not aware of why that situation triggered you. Sometimes there may not be a reason or it could just be the way someone’s voice sounded or the way you are feeling in a moment. The first step you must take is to absorb the way you are feelings and try to identify why you are back in trauma mode. Maybe, you crawl up into a ball trying to hide yourself. The same way you did when you were a kid when you would hear your parents fight. This response may have been caused by somebody raising their voice around you and immediately you are transported to being that little kid again. This is a Flashback or PTSD. Once you identify where these feelings are coming from it is time to start your Grounding Techniques. I like to have a mental tool box full of coping skills that I can utilize when I have a Flashback to help ground me.
Grounding Techniques that you can use are taking a long hot shower, focusing on the temperature, the water on your skin, the smell of the soap and the calming nature of the water. Fill a bowl with water and ice cubes and splash the water on your face or you can place your hands into the icy water grounding yourself. If you are out and you don’t have these facilities available to you I want you to focus on your five senses. Sight, touch, smell, taste and sound. No matter where you are when you have a Flashback you can ignite your five senses. Look around you and focus on an object (sight), take a deep breathe and focus on the aromas(smell), feel the environment around you(touch), put a piece of gum in your mouth(taste) and listen to all of the noises circling around you(sound). Utilizing your five senses this way are Grounding yourself and moving away from the immediate trauma response that you just had.
Working with clients for many years I acknowledge that trauma is not an easy situation to handle in the moment it is happening. Nothing in life comes easy when we are struggling but we must dig deep and utilize the coping skills that we hold in our own personal tool chest. These skills are your weapon to combat traumatic memories and allow you to live a fully functional life. It may take time and a lot of effort on your part for these coping skills to be accessible to you. Like much in life it takes practice. Repeating the task many times brings you back to the here and now when experiencing a Flashback. Some Flashbacks may come frequently or maybe you haven’t had one in years and all of a sudden you find yourself experiencing the trauma all over again. It is imperative that you have your coping skills right there in your brain ready to fight back.
If you are having Flashbacks frequently or are finding yourself having a hard time coping with the trauma response, please seek out professional help by a therapist or a physician. In the meantime reach out to a friend, family or a co-worker to process your trauma response so that they can help ground you and you can gain control of your reality. We are all subject to trauma in our lives, sometimes it can’t be avoided but we can help ourselves get through the trauma. I tell myself that this is the Fabric of My Life. The memories and traumas make me who I am today. I will continue to evolve and move forward. Repeat to yourself “I will not allow memories and trauma control or disrupt my life again.” The power is there for you to always fight back so that next time you can kick that Flashback right in the ass! GROUND YOURSELF
POSITIVE THOUGHTS CREATE POSITIVE ENERGY
GO OUT AND EXPLORE ALL OF THE WIDE OPEN SPACES IN YOUR WORLD
CIAO
ILISE
