Do the flashbacks ever end?

Hi

I realised about a year ago that I have C-PTSD. I have flashbacks most days. When I've processed a trauma, a new one presents itself. I don't mean to dwell on the past but these traumas are very intrusive and debilitating at times. There is so much trauma I have to process. Is anybody else experiencing what I do because they have C-PTSD??

PH

My flashbacks were daily for several years, lasting long portions of each day. Then at intervals daily. Then less frequently to just when I was triggered and the occasional "random" ones. Fifteen years later I seldom have flashbacks. When this started I didn't imagine I could improve to this level. I lived through hell and my pdoc didn't know if I could ever reach this level but the human mind is resilient.

Where Yoda is on the journey through terror sounds similar to where I'm headed, though I'm not quite there yet.

I do have flashbacks still every now and then but I am much more numb to them now.
They are the same flashbacks I had before, though, and there are many memories that haven't surfaced yet. One has and it was new to me and very emotional but it slid back into my subconcious.
But like Yoda I have learned that the human mind is amazingly resilient.
I now know that if that one returns (the emotions were not processed) or if others surface (i want them to to clear out the cobwebs in my head) that I'll be at peace with them in the end.

For me, Purple Heart, experiencing the flashbacks was necessary in order to reach a place of hope and healing.
Hang in there.

hi ph,
I have flashbacks too. whenever an anniversary date of when my parents past away or when my dad did the hideous act on me or some bad memory comes into my mind , my ptsd symptoms comes back to me . I call my therapist to help me out with it. she tells me to write down in my journal so that we can discuss it in session with her and me together in session .







Diagnosis: Anxiety and depression
meds : Cymbalta 90mgs at night
Vistrail 2 25 mgs daily for anxiety prn
50 mgs at night for insomnia

I have C-PTSD and a lot of flashbacks. They have been getting worse and my therapy ended abruptly. Unfortunately, they continue but now without support. The flashbacks are common, maybe not every day, but with mine, sometimes it's hard to know for sure if it's a flashback. I will find myself doing repetitive behaviors that gave me comfort as a child, or sometimes they are more typical types of flashbacks, I guess. The flashbacks are totally debilitating.

Yes. I have many intrusive thoughts daily. I've been formally diagnosed with C-PTSD. The problem thoughts have not gone away - I've been suffering for many years now.

Current research and studies all agree that the only consistent & effective treatments for C-PTSD are medication and therapies that go beyond talk therapy. Therapies like EMDR, Neurofeedback and ECT.

Bessel VanDer Kolk, as far as I'm concerned, is the leading expert on C-PTSD offers interesting explainations in his work as to why talk therapy doesn't provide much relief for flashbacks and nightmares.

I've had 30 years of talk therapy, every medication available, ECT, rTMS, Ketamine and other therapies (I'm not a candidate for EMDR) and all had failed to offer any improvement for my symptoms of C-PTSD.

However, when I tried Neurofeedback 2-years ago for anxiety I was AMAZED that my nightmares completely stopped. After 30-years of consistent, real and terrifying nightmares as well as profound flashbacks that I thought would be with me forever... GONE! I have not had even one nightmare since!

I really hope others who suffer like I have, will have access to effective treatment like Neurofeedback- I don't know for sure but if I had found this treatment sooner, I may have avoided being on Benzodiazapines for the last 12-years which has, I believe, damaged my brain chemistry and worsened my depression.

Thanks people for your great responses!! I've tried EMDR with some success. But I agree to some extent (although not totally) that talk therapy can have its limitations. It does help sometimes for me as I may need validation and when someone is empathetic I feel very happy deep within. I do inner-child work, re-parenting, doing things for the child within that he missed out on. I will look into Neurofeedback. When I have a flashback that is very intense (like a few moments ago), I need to lie on the bed as it is very debilitating. My plans for the day, other thoughts go by the wayside as I relive the nightmare. But this is also therapeutic as it allows me to connect with the enormity of that particular flashback - the intense painful emotions and hellish conditions. It can take around an hour to do this process, sometimes 2 hours. But some of the more intense flashbacks can leave me in bed the whole day!! And its quite amazing that at the same time I'm able to work full-time! I don't know how I do it sometimes. I'd like to get into a relationship but my fear is that the past will sabotage the relationship. I hope one day I will be free of the flashbacks. I pray.

PH

purple heart and others i hope you all can get better. i have some type of PTSD from traumatic instances in my life but was never diagnosed with it. i am on meds that do help. i get the images in my head every day of the several car accidents i was in and sexual abuse sufferred as a child. how does one go about being diagnosed with PTSD?

Do you have a pdoc or T you can talk to? They can diagnose you.

Complex PTSD isn't in the DSM, so my understanding is that it amounts to an unofficial diagnosis. I don't dabble in PTSD itself, but that would have to come from a pdoc or a T.

If you haven't looked at this, here's a good website:
Complex PTSD - PTSD: National Center for PTSD

Hi avlady

I basically self-diagnosed myself since as someone said it isn't on the DSM. I read a lot of stuff about it and realised that I do have multiple traumas caused by multiple abusers. PTSD alone is based on one serious traumatic event.

C-PTSD goes further because is a lot more painful and upsetting for the individual I believe due to the multiple traumatic events.

PH

Do they end? For some, yes. Mind have greatly decreased. However, most are emotional flashbacks. I only had a few month period of visual flashbacks around the time I was diagnosed with PTSD.

Not always true - I have PTSD from multiple events, one during my childhood and the rest when I was about 13-14. I don't have C-PTSD.

I was raped & molested by a physician from ages 3-10.
Three years later--at age 13--I began having Holocaust Nightmares.
They have continued for over 30 years.
In many of them the Third Reich officers are raping me,
or I am watching them rape others (who are teenagers).

My therapist diagnosed me with C-PTSD from both of these traumas.

I haven't been on a date in over a decade now.
Each time I try to be with someone in an intimate relationship--
they turn into the doctor who raped me as a child,
or the Third Reich officer raping me. I simply get those panic attacks
whenever I try to be intimate with someone.

People also innocently trigger the attacks.
It isn't just during intimacy.
I have no warning that they are going to hit.
I'm not thinking about what the doctor did to me,
or what I have witnessed in my nightmares...they simply hit me
like a bomb, or emotional hot flash. They don't seem to care where I am at:
teaching class, having dinner, at the mall or at the grocery store--
they just attack me.

I stopped trying to have close friendships.
I also stopped trying to have an intimate relationship over 10 years ago.

Most of the friends that I did have throughout the years
simply drift away...after witnessing too many of my attacks.

I'm not sure what the moral to this life IS.
I didn't sign any contract agreeing to be on this planet.
We were all forced upon it by 2 other people's creation.

My first, official memory is of the doctor molesting me in his office.

Most of the time when I have those PTSD panic attacks--
I think I make myself feel worse...I am always thinking when I am
having them...that I KNOW that other people are having them TOO.
And, I know that other people were molested, raped and abused
just like me...as a child. And I cry some more...Because I know
that this world is so horrible...that it isn't JUST ME that is in this
predicament.

I live a life of isolation.
I am a Professor of Graphic Design.
I basically got fired in 2011 from my full-tenure track position
because I had one of those PTSD attacks in class.
I was lecturing and I looked up and saw my students flicker back and forth
in their chairs from student to concentration camp victim...it had never
happened like that before...I simply ran out of the class and locked myself
downstairs in one of the bathroom stalls...I think forever.

I am currently taking a break from teaching & am in Israel
this year working on another grad degree--MA in Holocaust Education.

The panic attacks have gotten worse.
And, I assumed that they would...I'm the student again.

I keep praying to God.
Can he fix me in the Holy Land?

Hi

Just revisiting this. Just spoke to my old T. He is surprised that I still have flashbacks after 4 years. Does anyone else have ongoing, persistent flashbacks over a long period of time?? Mine seem to never end and I've had tonnes of therapy! I got the impression my case is unique to him. He said I may be 'creating memories' but I told him I have severe psycho-somatic sensations that tell me of a trauma and also experience involuntary flashbacks most days. I see images and have emotional reactions to them. I don't seek to be stuck in the past but I keep getting caught in it. Thoughts?

PH

I hate triggers..knocks me down for days sometimes. Then it starts to pile up.

Mine started to go and be less intrusive the more I let them in and offloaded them on my therapist.
I started off trying to fight them, literally fighting with myself daily to 'be normal' my job needs me to be normal, my kid needs me to be normal, my friends need me to be normal, I need me to be normal.....That was when they ramped up the most and the fighting was the worst. I felt as though I was two people in one body.
By normal I mean, holding my **** together and being there for others.
Not letting the inner crap escape onto others or cause external issue.
I was an internal wreck.
The therapist gave me a place to dump, I am still dumping flashbacks there and talking through them and what they mean and what those experiences did to me at the time. None of this is neat and tidy. (Lots of snot and tears)
I have got so that I can do this now when I get one outside therapy. Instead of fighting it now I examine it for legitimacy, is there a real threat? Am I OK or in real danger? OK nope on both, then it becomes, Why am I remembering this now, can I put it on hold until later or do I need a five minute time out to explore this a bit more and make myself OK with this memory and physical reaction.
I am getting better at grabbing a flashback and working with it, less inclined to stuff it back in its box and soldier on until beer time after work.
I was self medicating the daily fight with flashbacks after work with beer.
Not a great choice but it got me through until I plucked up the courage to go to a therapist.
I was very scared to go to a therapist because some of my trauma was from being sexually abused by social services as a child. I made the step, but boy did it take a big tantrum and a big intervention from my younger brother to get me there.
My younger brother was not abused by social workers, it was our family of origin only for him so he hit therapy way before me. I was his care giver for years, holding it all in, being 'normal' playing 'mom'
Now he has returned the favour by being the only person brave enough to intervene on Ms '**** together or die' and insist I need to offload the held in trauma.
I'm in therapy thanks to him and yes the flashbacks are way less but also way less awful when they do surface.
I couldn't see beyond the fight. I now see the value of examination and talking about it with a professional in offloading toxic stuff.

stopped trying to have close friendships.
I also stopped trying to have an intimate relationship over 10 years ago.

I think withdrawal is a sign that you are ready to turn in and face things that have wounded you and not just limp along pretending to be fine. I found that I withdrew for a three years, became closer and closer to myself and eventually was forced by the pain towards the right help and it was professional.

You come across very brave and very ready to face your injuries. I was abused by social workers this stopped me reaching out to 'institutional support' for many many years. I think you have hit the same payload with doctor abuse. Perhaps this is the final step for you to take, to set about finding a therapist who is a kind and trustworthy soul and who can take on your abuse compassionately and gently. With understanding that the trauma was based in what is meant to be a caregiving profession. Take heart and much much love, I feel your pain, I was as a child who was raped by a social worker who was meant to be caring for me after domestic violence and brutality from parents.

It is NOT an easy one to overcome especially because trust has been shattered at the deepest and most profound level. My advice is to proceed cautiously to reach out for help & to get some support on board as you do so. A trusted friend or woman's service counsellor who will accompany you to your first counselling sessions could be a bridge to you finding a much needed safe place to begin to heal.

I am sending you a great big hug and I wish I could be that friend because I have been where you are now and I know how hard this is xxxx