WHAT IS A FLASHBACK?
The use of the term flashback, for a vivid image or sequence of images occurring while a patient is awake, first appeared in the substance abuse literature; it referred to altered states of awareness caused by drug use, especially LSD. Although the term was introduced as a metaphor, the content of flashbacks began to be treated as historically accurate in the sexual abuse and trauma literature. There is no evidence, however, that flashbacks are historically accurate. Fred Frankel, M.D. (1994) has noted that “Contextual factors such as expectation, in addition to the suggestibility of patients and the social construct of role-playing, influence in a crucial way the creating and content of flashbacks.” Simply stated, a flashback is not proof that abuse occurred.
A flashback is a dissociated memory that returns to consciousness. It can be a smell, a taste, a sound, a picture, an emotion, or all these things together. It can last a moment, or linger on for weeks. People describe smelling alcohol or perfume when none is present, hearing a phrase over and over again in their heads, feeling panic or dread for no logical reason, or seeing pictures, like snapshots or movies behind their eyes. All these are fragmented memories rising up into consciousness. They can be extremely vivid and can appear to be happening in the present. The more fragments come together at the same time, the more intense the flashback. Flashbacks are terrifying if you don’t know what they are, and if you don’t realize they will eventually stop. Experiencing flashbacks doesn’t mean you are going crazy – it means that you are at a point in your life when you are able to deal with things that you couldn’t cope with earlier. They tend to lose their intensity when you have assembl
