isitme
06-13-2007, 12:09 PM
Another persons post has got me thinking, (again)!
Is there a difference between the two?
If so, can someone explain how each differ because I find it quite confusing? :confused:
Thanks in advance.
Is there a difference between the two?
If so, can someone explain how each differ because I find it quite confusing? :confused:
Thanks in advance.
Sponsor
ICC
06-13-2007, 12:15 PM
Hi isitme....nice to see you. Flashbacks are flashes of the trauma itself. Remembering, seeing it all over again.
Dissociation is actually the mind leaving the body because the mind cannot handle the pain of an event. It's a coping mechanism for some. I can only explain this from my point. Death, viewings, funerals , loss of loved ones will make me dissociate because of my daughter's death. One of my major traumas. I dissociated the night she died and have ever since in certain situations.
Did I make sense?
ICC
Dissociation is actually the mind leaving the body because the mind cannot handle the pain of an event. It's a coping mechanism for some. I can only explain this from my point. Death, viewings, funerals , loss of loved ones will make me dissociate because of my daughter's death. One of my major traumas. I dissociated the night she died and have ever since in certain situations.
Did I make sense?
ICC
isitme
06-14-2007, 05:20 AM
Thanks icc. The flashbacks. There is no 1 defining moment of trauma!!!!!!!!!!! so with a trigger, (or even without, I think), allsorts of past events run though my mind. It's 1 big jumbled mess at times. Disassociation - I'm still not too sure on that 1!:confused: You've said, the event caused the disassociation the first time. Since then triggers have caused it. Maybe I should never have asked or I've not asked the question right! I'll be back when I can think straight!:confused:
stick2013
06-14-2007, 06:41 AM
isitme,
Flashbacks......Something will trigger it, and it brings you right back in time. It's your mind going back. It's like you are there again and it's happening all over again. You can smell the same smells, feel the same feelings, feel the pain even, the fear, everything is back again.
There can also be the ones that drive me batty. I only see what I call Clips of movies, or pictures of just 1 thing of the trauma. It will play in my head over and over and over.
disassociation.. Harder to explain....For me.....Time stops.....I usually disassociate when I am driving. ((((((NOT GOOD))))) I don't remember driving from point a. to point b. But I remember what I was thinking about. Usually the trauma. Something has triggered me to do it too. Usually a thought about the trauma. A thought about one of my triggers. If I am in a bad way emotionally, it happens.
Ok so I really didn't explain it very good. I am sorry....
Hugs,
Sid
Flashbacks......Something will trigger it, and it brings you right back in time. It's your mind going back. It's like you are there again and it's happening all over again. You can smell the same smells, feel the same feelings, feel the pain even, the fear, everything is back again.
There can also be the ones that drive me batty. I only see what I call Clips of movies, or pictures of just 1 thing of the trauma. It will play in my head over and over and over.
disassociation.. Harder to explain....For me.....Time stops.....I usually disassociate when I am driving. ((((((NOT GOOD))))) I don't remember driving from point a. to point b. But I remember what I was thinking about. Usually the trauma. Something has triggered me to do it too. Usually a thought about the trauma. A thought about one of my triggers. If I am in a bad way emotionally, it happens.
Ok so I really didn't explain it very good. I am sorry....
Hugs,
Sid
dustoffkid
06-14-2007, 08:16 AM
I know that I get flashbacks (one of my strongest symptoms, along with insomnia-one can trigger the other, and vice versa), but I don't dissociate. It's amazing what the human organism does to protect itself.
Lost_in_Time
06-14-2007, 12:01 PM
I agree with the above. Flashbacks for me are just memories. I use that analogy too...they're like movies playing in my head that I'm watching (and feeling of course, too). If its a new memory, it can be quite devastating watching them, not knowing how the movie is going to end. Dissassociation, which I never really thought I did until talking to the T, is when I am not me. I may blackout and not remember what happened during that period. Sometimes in therapy when telling him about a memory I digress and become a little girl again, talking in her voice, body language changes....I think this is a form of dissassociation, too.......I am not me, I am her and I don't even know it........Sometimes when I cut, I just "wake up" and I've cut and I didn't even know I was doing it....my mind had disassociated and I wasn't "me"....
Probably doesn't make sense....but the point is, I can have flashbacks, receiving memories, without becoming unaware of what I am doing....
Probably doesn't make sense....but the point is, I can have flashbacks, receiving memories, without becoming unaware of what I am doing....
stick2013
06-14-2007, 05:42 PM
Lost,
Like I said I DRIVE and I disassociate.. Now that is a scary thing to do....
Sid
Like I said I DRIVE and I disassociate.. Now that is a scary thing to do....
Sid
sammy68uk
06-15-2007, 04:47 AM
For me, flashbacks mean something that has me re-experiencing the original trauma in either visual terms ( something I can see as a memory ), or sensation terms ( I feel the same physical responses as I did at the time of the trauma ) or both.
The endless cycle of repetitive unpleasant memories and dwelling on thoughts I’ve heard termed “intrusive thoughts” which seems a pretty good description to me. These are the ones that pop up unbidden and take my attention from the here and now. These are not full flashbacks in that they are not causing any reaction in me other than to overwhelm my ability to concentrate on anything else. In such times, I’m useless at work, and don’t like to drive as I cant concentrate.
I think it’s important to try and differentiate between the two, as they are separate symptoms... It’s hard to say which one I find more disturbing. A flashback can be over for me in a relatively short space of time, i.e. the images or sensations are gone quickly ( luckily ), but they tend to set off a chain of intrusive thoughts that I have no control over, and can last for days before I can forget about them.
The most common flashbacks I get are sensory. For example, walking past a group of young men can often leave me in a state of extreme fear. I feel everything I did all those years ago... I see images of the fight and my hands start to hurt. Or recently, I watched footage on the news of one of our soldiers baling out of a burning personnel carrier into a baying mob in Iraq, and Suddenly I was running out of the house completely freaked out and terrified. Another one is that I see the eyes of my friend staring out of the windsheild of the car as it is surrounded by a mob... it's almost like a horror movie when they zoom in the camera to show only someone's eyes.
I'd intended to post this last night, but I didnt feel "right"... Something confirmed by my wife just before bedtime when she asked if it was just her I was mad at or the whole world... This morning it's all the more apparent. My head is filled with intrusive thoughts. Sadness about the deaths of friends. Memories prompted by all the talk of the end of the Falklands war (not a veteran of that conflict, but the national rememberance of our war dead is a bad trigger for me... ), memories of how 2 years ago I was in Holland with the intention of running off with a woman who has PTSD and how it all came crashing down... Something has suddenly triggered off a huge amount of these emotions and the feeling it gives me is that I feel raw... no other description for it. These are intrusive thoughts for me at their worst. They overwhelm my senses, make me irritable, and push me to the edge of depression. These are the times when I'll usually take a drink or 5 to take the edge off. I dont know if this sounds familiar to anyone, but that's my take on the flashback question....
Mark.
The endless cycle of repetitive unpleasant memories and dwelling on thoughts I’ve heard termed “intrusive thoughts” which seems a pretty good description to me. These are the ones that pop up unbidden and take my attention from the here and now. These are not full flashbacks in that they are not causing any reaction in me other than to overwhelm my ability to concentrate on anything else. In such times, I’m useless at work, and don’t like to drive as I cant concentrate.
I think it’s important to try and differentiate between the two, as they are separate symptoms... It’s hard to say which one I find more disturbing. A flashback can be over for me in a relatively short space of time, i.e. the images or sensations are gone quickly ( luckily ), but they tend to set off a chain of intrusive thoughts that I have no control over, and can last for days before I can forget about them.
The most common flashbacks I get are sensory. For example, walking past a group of young men can often leave me in a state of extreme fear. I feel everything I did all those years ago... I see images of the fight and my hands start to hurt. Or recently, I watched footage on the news of one of our soldiers baling out of a burning personnel carrier into a baying mob in Iraq, and Suddenly I was running out of the house completely freaked out and terrified. Another one is that I see the eyes of my friend staring out of the windsheild of the car as it is surrounded by a mob... it's almost like a horror movie when they zoom in the camera to show only someone's eyes.
I'd intended to post this last night, but I didnt feel "right"... Something confirmed by my wife just before bedtime when she asked if it was just her I was mad at or the whole world... This morning it's all the more apparent. My head is filled with intrusive thoughts. Sadness about the deaths of friends. Memories prompted by all the talk of the end of the Falklands war (not a veteran of that conflict, but the national rememberance of our war dead is a bad trigger for me... ), memories of how 2 years ago I was in Holland with the intention of running off with a woman who has PTSD and how it all came crashing down... Something has suddenly triggered off a huge amount of these emotions and the feeling it gives me is that I feel raw... no other description for it. These are intrusive thoughts for me at their worst. They overwhelm my senses, make me irritable, and push me to the edge of depression. These are the times when I'll usually take a drink or 5 to take the edge off. I dont know if this sounds familiar to anyone, but that's my take on the flashback question....
Mark.
isitme
06-15-2007, 05:30 AM
Thank you all for responding. I can relate to what many of you have said, unfortunately! This may sound mad..........I don't feel I should be in this boat. So many of you have gone thought such bad ordeals and in comparision, I don't feel worthy of even having ptsd. But I'm here and can relate to everyones symptoms. Intrusive thoughts - I get full of them. THat's how I am right now. It completely numbs me. I feel stuck in cement. I don't feel me at all............and then I return after a few days to my normal self, wondering where the time has gone, lost in my thoughts. It may not sound it, but I feel less confused than yesterday!
dustoffkid
06-15-2007, 07:28 AM
So many of you have gone thought such bad ordeals and in comparision, I don't feel worthy of even having ptsd.
Honey, there is no such thing as "worthy," and everyone who has it deserves the attention that we give here. We all have different experiences- a couple of us have combat-related, others have it caused by sexual or domestic violence, for others still it is an extreme form of grief- all of us have this friggin' thing, and all of us are worthy.
Isitme, we are all on your side (and each others'), so PTSD your heart out if you want to! :D
Hugs,
Dustoff
Honey, there is no such thing as "worthy," and everyone who has it deserves the attention that we give here. We all have different experiences- a couple of us have combat-related, others have it caused by sexual or domestic violence, for others still it is an extreme form of grief- all of us have this friggin' thing, and all of us are worthy.
Isitme, we are all on your side (and each others'), so PTSD your heart out if you want to! :D
Hugs,
Dustoff
sammy68uk
06-15-2007, 10:26 AM
So many of you have gone thought such bad ordeals and in comparision, I don't feel worthy of even having ptsd.
Honey, there is no such thing as "worthy," and everyone who has it deserves the attention that we give here. We all have different experiences- a couple of us have combat-related, others have it caused by sexual or domestic violence, for others still it is an extreme form of grief- all of us have this friggin' thing, and all of us are worthy.
Isitme, we are all on your side (and each others'), so PTSD your heart out if you want to! :D
Hugs,
Dustoff
Great response Dustoff... couldnt have said it better in a year's worth of trying.
Isitme, trauma comparison is a sure way to misery. We've all got PTSD, and that's what we have in common. That's our bond. It dont matter the how's and wherefores of how you got it. Some folks on here have more knowledge about specific trauma's than others... that's the benefit of being here. There is a lot of experience and we'll all be able to relate to your PTSD symptoms, but even better, someone will probably have experience with your personal trauma and can offer support specific to your situation.
I'll be thinking of you.
Mark.
Honey, there is no such thing as "worthy," and everyone who has it deserves the attention that we give here. We all have different experiences- a couple of us have combat-related, others have it caused by sexual or domestic violence, for others still it is an extreme form of grief- all of us have this friggin' thing, and all of us are worthy.
Isitme, we are all on your side (and each others'), so PTSD your heart out if you want to! :D
Hugs,
Dustoff
Great response Dustoff... couldnt have said it better in a year's worth of trying.
Isitme, trauma comparison is a sure way to misery. We've all got PTSD, and that's what we have in common. That's our bond. It dont matter the how's and wherefores of how you got it. Some folks on here have more knowledge about specific trauma's than others... that's the benefit of being here. There is a lot of experience and we'll all be able to relate to your PTSD symptoms, but even better, someone will probably have experience with your personal trauma and can offer support specific to your situation.
I'll be thinking of you.
Mark.
ICC
06-15-2007, 11:02 AM
isitme.....I'm right behind Dustoff and Mark. Although we have PTSD for several different reasons the symptoms are the same. Most of us have so many similar personality traits it amazes me. Stick around. Maybe it's time you stayed with the group again for awhile. We're all here for you.,
Hugs,
ICC
Hugs,
ICC