[(JD)]

..... about nostaligia and flashbacks. Where when ppl recall pleasant things of the past it's considered nostalgia... some things are melancholy , but things that are upsetting or triggering are considered flashbacks. Do you find a difference also?

Sure. To me, memories of the past that are warm and fuzzy is like looking at photographs. Very calm, not much movement, colorful and safe.

Flashbacks or triggers, lift me up and slam me back into a world where I'm surrounded by the smells, sounds and actions of traumatic events like they are happening at that very moment. I am gone. It may only be seconds, but I "leave."

When I have a flash back it's like whatever it is is happening right now. like one of the ones I haveis where I get this tight closed in feeling and then suddenly I can't see my kitchen, living room whatever in its place is the room of the flashback - I can actually feel the cold and see nothing but darkness and then what is happening in the flashback is happening now - the pain I felt then I feel now while the flashback is going, the same with what I hear, smell, taste and so on depending on the type of flashback I am having. It all feels real and happening now.

whereas normal memories regardless of happy sad, upsetting and or abuse related or triggers and so on there is no feeling that it is happening right now. and my body does not re experience the memory- there is no pain, no replayings sounds sights smells and so on.

There is a big difference for me.

Pleasant memories are like warm gifts or warm hugs. But flashbacks is like a strong push against a wall.

Pleasant memories are nice but short.
Flashbacks are destroyers and stays with me for a long while.

[kimmydawn]

good topic!

both affect me mentally and physically as far as reaction. It's the content of that reaction that's so different for me...much like has already been explained here.

Thanks!

KD

[greenfairy]

biggest difference for me seems to be physical. memories, like of vacations that i enjoyed or people i've loved, may make me feel warm or just happy, but don't seem to affect me as strongly. flashbacks (which i've been having more of than usual lately) overtake me completely. I can see and smell and taste and feel and its a sensory overload that leaves me reeling and emotionally exhausted.

[JustBen]

I tend to look back with a rose-colored filter on. I know that bad things happened in my past, but I choose to dwell only on good memories. I realize that for many people it's not as simple as "choosing".

I was going to add a couple of my poems to the first post here of mine about my flashbacks but its too late to edit or add so I placed them in the creative/ poetry forum. there is two together in one post and the first one is a bit graphic so please take care when reading it.

[greenfairy]

i try to do that too, to hold onto good memories and ignore the bad. my problem lately: i know what triggers my flashbacks and can choose to avoid those triggers but in doing so i'm also avoiding things that are just a part of living. i don't know what to do.

[(JD)]

I think the term de ja vu' is used for either situation: remembering and feeling like we've been there before, or something like this has happened before... whether good or bad?

I can have strong, good memories... without them being flashbacks. IDK but the term "flashback" is always connotating negative. And the term "trigger" also has the negative connotation, yet, we can be "triggered" into remembering good stuff, too.

[(JD)]

well here's another thought: I just saw an NFL film clip... which called it a flashback of course

Sometimes knowing and avoiding my triggers helps but I can't always do that like crowds. Go grocery shopping its a crowd go this that and the other thing and t heres crowds. I know I can't avoid them so I use relaxation music and a sort of breathing technique only instead of focusing on breathing I focus on my heart beating and slowing it down. I also take a variety of objects such as sketch book and watercolor pencils, a small bead bag eye pillow to feel the beads, through my fingers and paying attention to locating something different in my surroundings to keep me grounded in reality. basically bringing me back out of the panic mode when I encounter a trigger.

[kimmydawn]

so, in this discussion of the differences in nostalgia and flashbacks...

The only main differences are the content and degree of affect?

The word nostalgia even sounds soothing. Whereas, flashback sounds intense. This is so interesting to me!

I would love to get the memories/feelings/physical reaction of flashbacks to cross over...

KD

[(JD)]

The NFL clip of previous football plays gave me a better perspective. Seems ppl with PTSD have an innate ability to catastrophosize. We use the terms triggers and flashbacks, as all inclusive of what those things are. Yet it isn't so. That's "just" my feelings, which are now changing about it. Not all triggers are bad. Not all flashbacks are bad. Well, not IRL for most ppl. The bad stuff doesn't have a lock on the market of terms.

Somehow viewing it that way takes some of the power out of them. Maybe it will help my brain file the bad stuff too? (Or, as you said KD, "cross over.")

[kimmydawn]

Wow, sky! Very true. For instance, I live in Ohio. Went I went with some friends to the Bahamas, I had a massive "flashback". We stepped out of the bus at the ocean and the affect was MASSIVE! Eyes were crying, body reacting, feelings intense...ALL GOOD!

Wonderful, uplifting view!

KD

[kimmydawn]

So then I'll change the post just before this...the content has changed over...the only difference for me would be the affect. Well, shoot, that really doesn't do it either. Now I'm going to have to diffentiate between good and bad when I use the word flashback.

This has really changed my perspective as well on this.

KD

LOL It does get confusing don't it. Sometimes I would be talking to a therapist and a flashback would happen and one time it was of a time when I was on a roller coaster ride. and I looked at my therapist and said "THAT was different." and then told her what I saw and felt and we laughed. That was the one and only good one I ever had but ever since when I have a flashback when talking about them I have to write or say if it was a good one or bad one. I use the scale of easy, medium or hard. That way I dont get confused and my therapists know whats happening. Easy ones are the pictures and sounds that dont really bother me much. They are just there and happen daily. The mediums have a bit more intense feeling to them and the hard ones are the curl the toes take my breath away painful ones.

[Monty_girl]

The more I read this thread and the replies the more confused about flashbacks I become. I just really don't get it. When I have memories/ flashbacks. There are no emotions what so ever to them. I can see a memory/flashback be it good or bad. And there is nothing I feel. Am I suppose to have feelings with what I see???

For me I have always thought of my flashbacks as the tense feelings that come out of no where. Good and bad ones. There is never any rime or reason I can understand for feelings. Guess I'm just really confused about this all.
Monty

[kimmydawn]

The more I've been thinking about this (this is a cool subject), the more I realize what the difference means to me. I agree that both can be triggered. However, I generally refer to nostalgia as "taking a walk down memory lane", and a flashback as something I'm pulled into...quickly jerked back down a tunnel of doom.

I've changed my thoughts in that flashbacks can now include good. However, I would still consider a huge difference between the two as far as what degree in which it occurs.

This has really, really made me think. I've gone back and forth a couple of times too!

Good information and thoughts. It opened my previously limited thinking on the subject!

KD

not always flashbacks can come without feelings. I think of flashbacks good and bad as reliving the experience. its hard to tell that the situation that I am seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, smellig isn't relly happening in the present. Where as a non flashback memoy I can think about it like doing my dishes this morning. I know I did the dishes and I can think about how I did them but Im not reliving as if it was happening right at this moment.