[MyFathersGirl]

I heard on Dr Drew tonight that drinking too much can trigger flashbacks. How many drinks have you had before a flashback? I keep having nagging thoughts about my dad, or it could be a babysitter or someone else that I have no suspicion about. I'm tired of knowing something happened because of issues now but not knowing what. Now I will be able to find out for sure what happened if I find out how much to drink.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

I would highly advise against purposely triggering a flashback through alcohol. I have unintentionally been there. You cant handle those memories when you are drunk, your emotions go all over the place. Im always a happy drinker but when alcohol effects me in that sense, it changes everything. Even when i was safe in bed with my fiance it triggered a huge panic attack. Other times, i have done things and said things i never would have. When you drink, it really intensifies your emotions. You dont think clearly. Just the little upsetting things can really effect you, something more serious could put you really down and could cause you to hurt yourself. I know not knowing can be hard, but kowing under those circumstances is a bad idea. And alcohol never brought back memories from a blackout, only memories i forgot over time

[MyFathersGirl]

Thanks for the response. Yeah I called Loveline which is another show Dr. Drew in on last night to ask what I asked here and he basically said the same thing. He told me that it doesn't happen all the time and what he was talking about was with addicts going through treatment. He also reminded me from another part of the show that you don't have to have an explicit memory to get treatment and even if I did have an explicit memory any therapist worth anything wouldn't make me talk about it and go back there because it's not about that, it's about taking care of the effects that it has on the regulation of emotions and other areas of your life and to find a counselor that specializes in trauma and they could help me. He also told me like you said not to go around trying to trigger flashbacks because then on top of the other issues that I have because then that would trigger PTSD on top of everything else. I'm glad I gave him a call but I swear he's going to get tired of me. Between his HLN show and Loveline I've talked to him five times just since last Wednesday. His producers assured me though that that's not the case and I can tell that he genuinely cares. They don't normally ask follow up questions but since I've talked to him a lot over the past year between the two shows he knows there is a lot of stuff going on and after I asked my question about how many drinks to trigger a flashback he asked if I was doing okay otherwise and told me to take care of myself which I really appreciated.

[PurpleFlyingMonkeys]

I'm glad you are rejecting this idea, and that you have someone to call when you are in that state of thinking. I was concerned for you, I am very happy to see that you will not be triggering flashbacks intentionally, that's very unhealthy. Take good care of yourself