I equated PTSD with flashbacks too but rarely had them or so I thought until I started paying close attention to my moods. When I started documenting my mood state in an effort to stop my SI I realized that I was having what I started thinking of as emotional flashbacks. The emotion I was feeling was not properly connected to the stituation the triggered it. Being able to seperate the anger as old anger or new (real) anger has helped me to express it better. Not long ago my credit card company raised my interest rates "just because they could". This triggered major emotion in me. Some of it was justified anger but most of it was that old anger. Being able to seperate it out made it possible to get through it without injuring myself. I would say out loud what was old and what was new. I sounded like a mental freak but it worked. I sure did want to cut though. Sigh.
Carrie

<font color=green>But the implicit and usually unconscious bargain we make with ourselves is that, yes, we want to be healed, we want to be made whole, we're willing to go some distance, but we're not willing to question the fundamental assumptions upon which our way of life has been built, both personally and societally.--Bill Plotkin, Soulcraft