Why do i have flashbacks

To keep us safe and to allow us to either fight back, run away or play dead our brain becomes flooded with the stress hormone, cortisol. This in turn kills off all of the dendrites, therefore stopping the frontal lobe and the cerebellum from communicating. This might seem bizarre but what it means is that when face with a trauma your brain does not want to be doing higher levels of functioning; wondering about what emotions are coming up, planning or even trying to make sense of the situation.

All it wants you to do is fight, flee, or play dead. This works perfectly in keeping us safe or minimising the damage of the trauma. However, in doing so it causes one key problem. You now have a memory that has been formed in the cerebellum when it should be stored in your frontal lobe. After the dendrite connections have died off from the cortisol it can take up six weeks for them to grow back.

But at that point we have a memory that is too large to fit down this pathway. In some situations though, the normal processes that store our experiences into memory can go wrong. After experiencing a distressing event, people can develop memory disturbances where they re-experience the event in the form of flashbacks — distressing vivid images that involuntarily enter consciousness, as happens in post-traumatic stress disorder.

Our latest study shows that a distressing experience has opposite effects in two different parts of the brain: the amygdala and the hippocampus. The amygdala, a region of the brain involved in emotion, seemed to strongly encode the negative content of an experience while the hippocampus, which is involved in storing new memories, is only weakly activated.

When remembering something from the past, we can bring to mind what we were doing, the people we were with, and where the event took place. An important aspect of memory is that these separate pieces of information are bound together as a single memory so that all of it can easily be recalled at a later time. But when experiencing a distressing event, the normal processes that help to integrate this information in memory can be disrupted. The hippocampus is crucial for forming these associations so that all parts of a memory can be later retrieved as a single event and damage to this brain region can stop a person from forming new memories.

What do you smell? Listen to the noises around you, or turn on music. What do you hear? Eat or drink something you enjoy. Focus on the flavor. What do you taste? Hold something cold, like a piece of ice, or hot, like a mug of tea. What does it feel like? Recognize what would make you feel safer.

Wrap yourself in a blanket, or go into a room by yourself and close the door. Do whatever it takes for you to feel secure. How do I prevent flashbacks? You may be able to take steps to prevent future flashbacks by identifying warning signs and triggers: Be aware of the warning signs. Identify what experiences trigger your flashbacks. Facebook Youtube Twitter. Home Health conditions Nightmares and flashbacks. Nightmares and flashbacks Many people seek counselling because they are experiencing constant reminders of a traumatic event in the form of flashbacks and nightmares.

Important things to remember People who have experienced a traumatic event often experience flashbacks and nightmares. You are not going crazy. There are some things you can do that can help you manage these reminders of the trauma. Flashbacks Flashbacks occur when we are triggered to remember what has happened. Identifying your triggers can help you to know why a flashback may occur.

A trigger is something that causes us to subconsciously switch into a flashback. It can be something like seeing someone who looks like the assailant, hearing a word or a phrase that reminds you of the event, driving past the area where the trauma happened, birthdays or anniversaries, childbirth, or television shows. It can be anything. People have their own trigger or triggers that are unique to them. This means that your mind is still processing the trauma and trying to make sense of things.

Human memory is not like a computer memory where things are straightforward and in a line, it is interwoven with emotion, thoughts and experiences. It is used to help you remain in the here and now and not feel like you are reliving the trauma.