Emotional Flashback: What Is An Emotional Flashback?

What someone may find, that’s if they were to take a step back and to reflect on their life, is that there are moments when they end up feeling completely overwhelmed by how they feel. When this takes place, it could seem as though they have absolutely no reason to feel as they do.

However, someone could experience life this way and not take a step back and reflect on what is going on. It could be said that it won’t be much of a surprise if this takes place, considering how intense these moments are going to be.

Too Much To Handle

As a result of this, one could just do the best that they can to carry on with their life when they are not being wiped out by how they feel. Nonetheless, irrespective of whether one does or doesn’t reflect on what is going on, they are still likely to suffer.

They could settle down, and before long and out of nowhere, they could end up feeling extremely emotional. Living in this way is going to be anything but enjoyable; in fact, one could have moments when they tell themselves that they no longer want to be on this earth anymore.

A Half-Life

To try to stop themselves from feeling so emotionally unstable, they might live their life in a way that is designed to stop their being from being flooded with arousal. This could mean that they no longer go to certain places or go too far away from where they live.

There could be certain environments that they can’t stay in for very long and they could also avoid certain types of people. Naturally, this is going to make it difficult for them to grow and expand, and to express who they truly are.

A Massive Difference

So when they are triggered and their inner world is all over the place, it is likely to be a challenge for them to think clearly. It could be as if the thinking part of their brain has completely disappeared.

Therefore, although they will look like an adult, they won’t feel like an adult when all this is going on. If they were to describe how they feel, they could say that they feel like a scared and powerless child.

A Closer Look

When it comes to how they feel when they are emotionally overwhelmed, there could be a number of different feelings that they experience. They could feel helpless, hopeless and as though they have no control.

Additionally, they could feel intense shame, fear and even terror. It might not stop there, though, as there can also be different sensations in their body and their body could end up freezing up, for instance.

Total Confusion

If one was to think about what happens before they feel so overwhelmed, to try to get an understanding of what is going on, they might not be able to remember anything. These feelings, then, are going to appear to come out of nowhere.

At this point, they might wonder if there is something inherently wrong with them and if something inside them is just playing up. They might start to question if they are missing something that other people have.

What Is Going On?

If they do come to this conclusion, they could find that they end up experiencing even more shame. But, while they could believe that what is going on is a sign that they are faulty, this is not going to be the case.

The reason that what is going on seems so confusing is likely to be because they are only aware of a small part of what is going on. Thus, if they were able to see the complete picture, so to speak, it would all make sense.

The Missing Element

The feelings that they experience, along with how their body responds, are likely to be a consequence of different moments in their life that they can’t remember. This can show that their mind has blocked out the memories and/or that some/all of what took place happened before their brain was developed enough to remember, which will result in them only being in touch with the effect of what happened, not the cause.

Without this vital piece of information, it is going to be natural for what is going on to make no sense whatsoever. With this information, what is taking place will start to make more sense.

Early Trauma

To go even further, there is the chance that their childhood was anything but nurturing. Perhaps this was a time in their life when they were abused and/or neglected and thereby, didn’t receive the love, care and attunement that they needed to grow and develop.

The years will have passed, and they will have lost touch with what took place, but the feelings, sensations and survival responses that they experienced will still be with them. And when the effect of what took place is triggered, it will be like they have gone back to that time in their life again.

Awareness

One way of looking at this would be to say that they will be regressing when this happens; another way of looking at it would be to say that their inner child will have taken over. This part of them will be in a lot of pain and will desperately want to be seen and heard.
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Regardless of what one can relate to, they are going to be carrying trauma that will need to be resolved and emotional wounds that will need to be healed. This is something that can take place with the assistance of a therapist or a healer.