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What are Flashbacks?
Flashbacks are defined as the reexperiencing of a traumatic incident or intrusive memory. They may spontaneously occur throughout your day or can appear years after the incident. Reexperiencing may involve remembering the entire trauma or only pieces, such as sounds and smells. Veterans and service members who have experienced a traumatic event may encounter flashbacks to the original trauma or similar events. Flashbacks are often a symptom of posttraumatic stress disorder, but not all people with post-traumatic stress disorder have flashbacks. Any traumatic event can result in flashbacks like military combat, a training accident, or sexual trauma. If you are suffering from flashbacks, please know that you are not alone. Help is available.
Seek Care
If you are having flashbacks, it is important to talk to a mental health care provider. Flashbacks, as well as other PTSD symptoms, may be frightening, debilitating, and limit your ability to fully enjoy life. They may negatively affect how you interact with others at work, in social settings, or at home. A provider can answer your questions regarding flashbacks and help you work through them with an agreed upon course of treatment. The following individual, evidence-based, and trauma-focused therapies are recommended for PTSD treatment:
- Prolonged Exposure Therapy: This therapy involves repeatedly talking about the traumatic event in memory and describing the event in detail until your memories of it no longer feel upsetting.
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing: While thinking about or discussing your memories, you are taught to shift your focus away from the memories. For example, you may focus on eye movements or tapping instead. This can help change how you react to memories of your trauma.
- Cognitive Processing Therapy: This type of therapy teaches you skills to change your thoughts and beliefs associated with trauma, so they become less distressing. You can then begin to change how you feel and behave.
To learn about other treatment options, view Psychotherapy for Treatment of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
Medication may also be prescribed to complement treatment. To learn more about pharmacologic interventions, visit Pharmacologic Interventions for Treating Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
Take Control
While treatment can help significantly improve the occurrence of flashbacks, there are strategies you can begin to use now to better manage flashbacks in between your mental health sessions. Try these tips during or right after a flashback:
- Tell yourself you are having a flashback. Talk to yourself (literally) and note where you are now and that you are safe.
- Remind yourself that the traumatic event is over. It happened in the past and you are in the present.
- Help yourself stay present by using your five senses. Look around you. Walk into another room and drink a glass of water. Speak with a loved one you trust.
- Know what makes you feel secure. For example, wrapping a warm blanket around yourself, practicing breathing or relaxation exercises, or calling a friend.
- Learn the triggers that lead to your flashback. After a flashback, use a notebook to write down what happened right before, what you heard and how you felt.
- There are also various mental health mobile apps that can support you through your symptoms.
If you or a loved one needs additional support, contact the Psychological Health Resource Center 24/7 to confidentially speak with trained health resource consultants. You can contact this supportive service at 866-966-1020 or use their 24/7 live chat.
Additional Resources:
Sources:
- National Center for PTSD. (2023, March 30). Coping with Traumatic Stress Reactions. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. https://www.ptsd.va.gov/gethelp/coping_stress_reactions.asp
- Sciarrino NA, & Myers US. (2023). If it’s offered, will they come? Practical considerations when offering intensive PTSD treatment in an outpatient Veterans Affairs PTSD clinic. Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic, 87(1), 46–62. https://doi.org/10.1521/bumc.2023.87.1.46
- Smith GP, & Hartelius G. (2020). Resolution of Dissociated Ego States Relieves Flashback-Related Symptoms in Combat-Related PTSD: A Brief Mindfulness Based Intervention. Military Psychology: The Official Journal of the Division of Military Psychology, American Psychological Association, 32(2), 135–148. https://doi.org/10.1080/08995605.2019.1654292
- Stingl, M., Hanewald, B., Kruse, J., & Sack, M. (2021). Positive side effects in trauma-focusing PTSD treatment: Reduction of attendant symptoms and enhancement of affective and structural regulation. Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research, Practice, and Policy, 13(6), 713–721. https://doi.org/10.1037/tra0000700
- Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense. (2023). VA/DOD clinical practice guideline for the management of posttraumatic stress disorder and acute stress disorder. (Version 4.0). https://www.healthquality.va.gov/guidelines/MH/ptsd/VADoDPTSDCPGFinal012418.pdf
Updated June 2024
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Last Updated: June 26, 2024