I struggle with this a lot. I have PTSD for 2 separate traumas. One of them was from when I was a teenager so my memories of that situation are clear and I know when I'm having a flashback for that. And honestly I've found that trauma so much easier to cope with because I remember it. The one that I really struggle with is the severe, chronic abuse that took place when I was 4 and 5. The memories are far less clear and very incomplete. So the flashbacks for those are much harder to explain. They're more emotional and physical. I get an overwhelming sense of feeling extremely vulnerable, confused, and terrified. I also feel small and weak and very much like a child. In fact, my fiancé says I even look like a child when they happen and that I'm unreachable. But sometimes it's straight physical. Like tonight I had shivered and immediately afterwards I whimpered like a little kid. It was completely involuntary and rather shocking. Or I start shaking and my muscles get super tense like I'm being pinned down. The unsettling part is that I have to mental or emotional connection/cause to it so they feel random and hit out of the blue. They're so confusing and I'm learning they are a precursor for a panic attack. When I've tried explaining it to my psychiatrist she just doesn't get it. She keeps asking if when they happen I'm reliving the trauma. I don't know. I think so? I can't remember most of it, I'm just dealing with the aftereffects.