September 6, 2021
This article will attempt to explore what it is like to have an emotional flashback and the 13 steps to manage them proposed by Dr. Pete Walker.
A Short Recap of Emotional Flashbacks
Before we delve deeper into our topics for this piece, we must take a moment to recap the definition of emotional flashbacks.
Flashbacks are definable and connectable to a singular traumatic event and include a reliving of the event through the five senses. In a flashback, survivors are transported back in time to relive the trauma with all its sights, smells, sounds, and feelings.
Emotional flashbacks are different. They seem disconnected from the current existence of the survivor and include the triggering of emotions instead of the five senses. Emotional flashbacks are like having a nightmare while you are awake.
Survivors experiencing emotional flashbacks are stranded in the feelings of being in danger, hopelessness, and helplessness that they felt in the actual traumatic events. If, for example, the survivor as a child was physically traumatized, they certainly would have felt anger, rage, and hopelessness at the same time. However, since they were only a helpless child, they could not escape or change their situation.
As an adult, this same survivor might be triggered by a situation that somehow connects with those emotions, but instead of remembering the incident as in a flashback, they experience all the agonizing emotions that went along with the traumatic experience even though they are safe today.
Emotional flashbacks are a symptom of complex post-traumatic stress disorder.
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