Tagged With "Flashbacks"

Flashback Halting Guide: 10 Tips to Halt Flashbacks for Yourself or a Loved One. Includes a link to a printable Flashback Halting Guide

With all the health care changes and challenges in today’s society, going to the doctor or dentist is difficult enough for the average person. With a history of childhood or adolescent sexual trauma, a medical appointment can become re-traumatizing if not handled with care by the survivor and provider. Think about it, some other adult is making decisions on the survivor’s behalf, touching their body, has their hands in the survivor’s mouth rendering them unable to make their needs known or...

These tips are so simple that anyone can use them almost anywhere. And I really like the brief descriptions of what flashbacks are and how they manifest -- I learned a lot in the list alone! Such a helpful post. Thank you for sharing it here, Robyn!

Very helpful article, thank you. One of my friends records on her smartphone any meeting with a doctor where a procedure or diagnosis is explained, which I think is so useful as trauma history or not, we often forget the details of what the doctor said.

Lara... This is great article and thorough in addressing the issues sexual abuse survivors face with their medical needs. I'm a psychotherapist with an expertise in childhood sexual abuse and have seen first-hand the anxieties survivors face anticipating medical appointments. I've helped survivors with this by teaching relaxation and visualization techniques to use during exams. You're right that their trauma-based fears and anxiety keep many from getting the preventive care and other...

Excellent article. And oh-so-true. I know when I was searching for a new doctor, I specifically started inquiring if the physician took a holistic approach to healing as I did not want someone who simply wanted to throw a pill at my symptoms in order to make them go away. After all, masking the symptoms was something I had experienced for over twenty-five years as I tried to wrestle my panic attacks. Once I started respecting my needs on a holistic level, that's when true healing and symptom...

Lara, this article is so valuable. As you point out, medical appointments are difficult but necessary -- I am guessing it's not uncommon for those who've experienced trauma to avoid seeking medical care and exams because of anxiety and fearfulness over a physical exam (or even triggering questions or comments). This guide could make a real difference in a lot of trauma survivors' lives. Thank you.

It was Pete Walker, an M.A. in psychoanalysis, who first coined the phrase emotional flashback to describe the gut-wrenching experience of reliving the helplessness and dissociation caused by trauma. In his book, Complex PTSD: From Surviving to Thriving , Walker describes many aspects of emotional flashbacks and how the inner critic holds people hostage. I shall be referencing this book throughout this work. In this piece, we shall examine how the inner critic and toxic shame create the...

Emotional flashbacks take a horrendous toll on those who experience them. To feel like you are in danger with all the emotions that accompany it, fear, anxiety, startle, and a myriad of other feelings without understanding where they are coming from is both frightening and debilitating. This piece will delve deeper into emotional flashbacks and methods to defeat them.

There is growth through trauma. Hard as it is, there IS growth through trauma. Very often, we do not see it at the time. It is not until we reflect on what happened and find possible reasons why we faced a flashback or responded so badly to a trigger. I have been forcing myself to attend the Royal Commission Inquiry into Abuse in Care hearings because I wanted to discover WHY professionals working in our State institutions would cause harm to children and youth. I wanted to discover WHY they...