People who are struggling with PTSD are not the only people who experience involuntary memories. In fact, involuntary memories are a pretty normal part of being human; but the involuntary memories of PTSD are very different. The types of involuntary memory are the topic of this weeks blog.
Whenever I smell Chantilly Lace I think of my great grandmother. I can see her stove top coffee percolator and hear her telling me that “polite young ladies don’t ask their elders age.” This is an example of an involuntary autobiographical memory. Not chosen, but not necessarily unpleasant. Remembering her like this always brings a smile to my heart.
After I give a presentation, while I’m driving home I will replay every mistake I made. I will replay every “uhm” and every poor word choice. I’ll even try to get myself to let it go, just to find myself replaying my worse mistakes again a moment later. This is an example of an Intrusive memory. Not chosen, and not pleasant.
A flashback, the third type of involuntary memory, is a very different experience. Like the first two types of involuntary memories, flashbacks occur spontaneously. Flashbacks also have one very unique aspect –re-experiencing. When an individual is experiencing a flashback, they are not standing in today looking back at the memory. During a flashback they are, partially or fully, in the memory.
The brain behaves very differently during a flashback than it does during other two types of memory. During the other two types of memory the areas of the brain responsible for episodic memory (personal experience stories), emotional processing and emotion are all highly activated. Those are not the areas of the brain that are most active during a flashback. During a flashback the areas responsible for vision, visual memory, arousal, and motor activation are all highly activated. But the area of the brain responsible for higher processing is deactivated and the brains attention is turned inward to the point of closing out most of the world around us. This doesn’t happen during the other types of memory, which is why I can still drive home while remembering my grandmother or beating myself up for my less than perfect presentation but should not be driving during a flashback.
While Involuntary autobiographical and intrusive memories are a pretty normal part of life, flashbacks are only experienced by people struggling with traumatic events and PTSD. If you think you may be experiencing flashbacks, there is hope. Flashback memories can be resolved.
I am an EMDR trained therapist in Austin Texas. I specialize in working with PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), CSA (Childhood Sexual Abuse) and generally helping adults heal trauma. If you are ready to start your healing journey, please contact me or a trauma therapist near you.
A difficult childhood or traumatic event does not have to ruin your adult life. Contact me to schedule your free 30 minute consultation.
Please describe the difference between flashbacks and Co-conscience memory or Co-conscious reliving of the event. The difference between watching a movie and being the movie? My PCP does not believe me.
So co-conscious is a term often used by people with dissociative disorders (including people with DID). Not all Psychiatrists believe DID actually exists. I would expect that this not believing may also be a problem for PCPs. If your PCP doesn’t believe your disorder exists, it may be wise to seek treatment elsewhere. It really sucks when people who are supposed to be caring for us don’t believe us.
I’m a CSA survivor with PTSD and I’m trying to understand what I’m experiencing. All of a sudden I’m remembering an event from childhood that I only ever knew bits and pieces of due to dissociation but now the holes are filled in, telling me the reason I didn’t remember more was due to trauma that happened. Now I have a more complete picture, but I just got all of this information with no images, wasn’t reliving it… so was this a flashback or involuntary memory? It felt like the information was just downloaded right into my brain. Any help is appreciated.
Our brains are amazing and also very hard to understand. When we dissociate from a childhood trauma it can come back at some future point that I explain as our brain has decided that we can handle it now. If our brain can decide to give us back an awful memory it seems reasonable that it can also deliver that information in whatever way it chooses. The important thing is to heal yourself from those experiences.
I’m amazed, I must say. Rarely do I encounter a blog that’s both educative and engaging, and let me tell you, you’ve hit the nail on the head. The problem is an issue that too few people are speaking intelligently about. Now i’m very happy I stumbled across this in my search for something concerning this.|
The term “flashback” is being used in the contexts of PTBS and drug use. Am I correct that the term is the same, the subjective quality appears to be similar but they’re factually very different?
I am not well enough informed on PTBS to speak to them being similar or not. My understanding of drug flashbacks is that they a re-experience of the chemically induced state, which would make them similar to trauma flashbacks in that they are a re-experiencing. They could be very different if the original and/or re-experiencing are not traumatic or unpleasant.
Is there a term for involuntary terror images that didn’t happen? Also I have resigned myself to being strong no matter my past. I could write a series of books about my life. The whole gambit. Literal terror started at 18 months up to over 50 yes old. I won’t live long enough to recover. However I am interested in an answe to this.
I would need some more information before I could answer your question. For example if you were almost in a car crash and you’re now experiencing vivid thoughts of what could have happened, that would be different from having terrifying and surreal images of events that couldn’t have happened (possibly because they’re set in unreal locations – outer space or another time). Please fee free to schedule a consultation to talk about this more in depth. Also you may be right that all your trauma can’t be healed, but that doesn’t mean healing isn’t worth doing. Life can be improved.
I wanted to draft you a tiny note to help thank you as before for those beautiful tactics you’ve discussed on this website. It has been quite seriously generous with you in giving unhampered precisely what a few individuals could have offered for sale as an ebook to help with making some money for themselves, even more so given that you might well have tried it in case you decided. The tricks additionally served to provide a great way to recognize that most people have a similar zeal similar to my own to figure out more on the subject of this problem. Certainly there are a lot more enjoyable sessions ahead for those who take a look at your site.