- Hey, everybody.
Today I'm gonna answer the question
so many of you have been asking.
And that is, why do we have flashbacks?
But make sure you stay tuned till the end
because I have an exciting announcement and a giveaway.
Yay, yay, yay!
So stay tuned.
(upbeat drums)
Like I said, today we're gonna answer the question,
why do we have flashbacks?
But before I get into the real reasons why we have them,
I want you to first understand what flashbacks are.
A flashback is when we are pulled back
into a traumatic event,
meaning in our mind, it feels like we're back there.
It can feel like it's happening to us all over again.
We, for all intents and purposes,
feel like we are like time traveling.
We're back in that event, and it's happening to us again.
And the reason that these happen is due to triggers.
This is usually something within our five senses,
meaning we smell something, like a similar smell
to the time when that happened.
Maybe we're outside and we smell pine trees
and that triggers it.
It could be a sound, someone's voice, potentially.
It can be a lot of different things like that.
And that's why a lot of people feel like
they happen out of nowhere,
because we might not know which sense triggered it
because our body responded without our mind
even knowing what was happening.
And the one thing I want you to hear
with this video is that if these go untreated
they can get worse, meaning they can happen
with more frequency and they can last longer.
So please, please, please reach out
to a mental health professional in your area
and get help sooner rather than later.
And now to get in to the nitty gritty
of why we actually have flashbacks.
Something that was interesting for me to learn
when I was researching for this video
is that we have two types of memories.
And I talked about this with Alexa a little bit
in some of our trauma videos.
I will link those in the description
if you want to watch those.
But, we have two types of memories.
One, being non-traumatic, meaning nothing scary happens.
We don't fear for our life or someone else's life.
We're kinda just going about our day.
If you've seen the movie Inside Out,
remember all these little memories are being made
into these perfect little marbles.
They're rolled down the chute
and they're filed away accordingly.
I like to think of it almost like
we're making stories in our day,
and we're filing them in a filing cabinet.
Like, the story of my trip to the beach.
My memory is writing down all the things
that happened and that I remember from the day.
It puts those papers in that file
and it puts that file in a folder.
That's non-traumatic memory.
It's easy to tell a story to myself later.
I remember it.
It's so clear.
The things that were important and that happened
that day I can easily recall because they're in order
the way that it happened.
And some things that weren't important
like maybe what kind of car we drove
or what color shirt I was wearing,
those things might fall by the wayside,
because those little details aren't important
to our story.
But overall, we have a complete cohesive story
in relation to non-traumatic memory.
Now here's why we have flashbacks.
We're gonna talk about traumatic memory
and the reasons why this is different
and why flashbacks occur.
Traumatic memory is when we're going about our day,
do-do-do-do-do,
and we encounter something that is so overwhelming,
so scary, so frightening, that our brain
can't process it because it's like,
"What the hell is going on?
"Oh my god!"
And it's just too much, right?
Traumas can feel like things are happening too fast.
We can feel frozen, like we can't even help ourselves.
We can try to run and get caught.
There can be so much going on
that our brain, frankly, can't process it.
And so instead of non-traumatic memory,
when it decides what's important and what's not
and it's able to write it down in a story,
"Today I went to the beach,"
it is like scribbles--
"Scary, a car, a tree."
It's scribbling down anything it can think of
and it's like, the papers--
It's like they're thrown through a shredder
over your whole filing cabinet.
All the drawers are open and the paper's going everywhere.
The way that I describe it with that Inside Out reference
is like those marbles are like smashed
on the ground, and the splinters fly everywhere.
That is why we have flashbacks.
If the paper or the splinters have flown everywhere,
they're over other memories.
They're in other pockets that they're
not supposed to be in.
When we're going about our day,
when we're recalling some information,
we smell something similar.
We think of something similar.
Boom! We have a flashback.
We've hit that splinter.
We've run into that little slice of paper,
and it brings us back to that traumatic memory
that we've tried to hide away or not deal with
and just kind of shake it down to the bottom
and shut the drawers.
I hope that gives you an idea of kind of why
they happen and why they feel like they come
out of nowhere, because essentially we don't know
where all those bits and pieces have landed.
We don't know when we're gonna trip up over them,
when we might encounter a part or a little splinter
or a little particle of that memory,
and it can send us--
Boom, right back there.
And just so you know, the most common symptoms of trauma
are hypervigilance, which means we're always on edge.
Every door slam, every quick movement,
we're always looking out because we always
fear for our safety.
The next, and it kinda rolls off that and you can see why,
is avoidance.
We don't want to be in situations
that make us kinda scared.
We don't want to talk about that traumatic thing
because it feels so overwhelming.
The next is flashbacks, what we're talking about right now.
And the last one is dissociation,
which if you remember my videos with Alexa,
we talk about fight or flight,
feeling like we wanna run.
We're hypervigilant.
We're on edge.
But then the other side, when we go down to freeze,
is when we dissociate.
That's when our body's like, poof!
Or I feel like our brain is pulling the parachute.
It's like, "I can't handle this.
"Bye."
It's too much.
It's too overwhelming.
So those are some of the most common symptoms of trauma.
And if you find yourself experiencing any of these things,
the good news is there is help available,
and there are people out there who are just waiting
to help you process through the trauma and get better.
So if you have the ability to see a trauma specialist,
that's my number one recommendation.
Not just the therapist but a trauma specialist,
meaning a therapist who actually specializes
in this sort of thing so that they can help you
walk carefully and gingerly through your filing cabinet
or through the area where you keep all your marbles
and help you pick up all those pieces of paper
and tape them back together or gather all the splinters
and glue it back into that marble.
And yes, there's gonna be times where it feels
overwhelming and we do go into the dissociation
or we have a flashback.
But knowing that you have a safe person there
to help you keep grounded,
to slow down if they're going too fast,
to be that voice that maybe you hear
when you aren't really present anymore
and help pull you back into the room,
it's important to have that person there.
And that's why it's so pivotal to work
with a trauma specialist.
There's also EMDR.
It's another type of trauma therapy.
I'll link my video to it in the description,
but that can be super helpful as well.
There's also medication options.
I know not everyone wants to take medication,
and that's not always the best remedy.
But sometimes when we're drowning in the symptoms
and we just can't get any work done in therapy
'cause we can't even talk about it,
we have a flashback all the time,
our anxiety's through the roof,
there can be some medications
that can assist you with that.
So please, if that's where you're at,
talk to a psychiatrist.
Talk to a doctor in your area
and figure out what's the right fit for you.
But honestly, I think working with a trauma specialist
is best because they know how to pace.
They can tell when you're dissociating.
They're usually very comforting, very warm people
and they can help you slowly put your story together,
so that we don't feel like we're tripping over things
that cause flashbacks.
Because that thing, trust me, with the right work
and the right therapist, that horrible thing
that happened doesn't have to have power
over us anymore.
And it won't have power.
And we won't have flashbacks anymore.
You can actually make them go away.
So if you're hurting, please reach out.
Help is available.
And like I said, stay tuned to till the end
because I have an exciting announcement
and a giveaway.
The anxiety workbook is coming out.
Ta-dah!
I have submitted it for approval.
And if, by the time this video comes live,
Apple has been like, "This is amazing,"
then click the link at the top of the description
and go and purchase it and check it out.
I'm hopeful that the approval process isn't long
but it'll come out this week for sure.
And as a thank you for your patience,
because you've been so patient waiting
for the anxiety workbook to come out,
Zuru has sent me 15 fidget toys.
You know, these super cool cubes
that everybody's loving.
I would love to send these to 15 people.
Let me know in the comments and I will reach out to you,
get your address, and I'd love to send
these beautiful, beautiful fidget toys your way,
because I know that it's really helpful
with those of us who struggle with anxiety.
I hope you found this video helpful.
Let me know in the comments if I missed anything.
Are there other techniques and tools
that have helped you with your flashbacks,
help you overcome that?
Let us know.
And I will see you next time.
Bye.