I agree, you can definitely get ptsd from emotional abuse. A lot of literature also says that when a person experiences both emotional and physical abuse, it's the emotional abuse that has the biggest impact. As for flashbacks, there are many ways to experience them. It's not only seeing an interior film of past events. It can also be emotions or physical sensations. I have more of those than "seeing" interior films or stills. Especially with emotional flashbacks it may be hard to understand what it is and why it happens until you realize you have ptsd. It's typically very strong emotions that comes suddenly and don't fit into the situation you're in. BUT - I have trouble understanding sometimes what is an emotional flashback and what is "just" anxiety or depression...