Are nightmares considered emotional flashbacks?

Question

I was diagnosed very recently with CPTSD and I don't know very much about it. I have lots of nightmares, they intensify a bit when I take antidepressants or anything for insomnia and they get really vivid and strong, to the point that I wake up really distraught and sobbing. I don't exactly relive the same moments that I lived in my childhood but I do dream about similar situations, changing people and places, a lot of times making me worried about the future. These dreams also exacerbate when I find/remember something about a situation in my childhood that comes to light. Are these emotional flashbacks? or some other thing.

Is not really that important for me to know if they fall or not in the same category but I'd like to know more about it. Also I would like to know more or less if you present something similar and how do you cope with it.

in CPTSDby alajita

100%

1mo

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Littl3PinkRidingHood

1mo

I don't know for sure if they're emotional flashbacks, but they're definitely something similar. I notice myself having nightmares more when my stress is current. When I address whatever is causing me stress, or the stressful time passes naturally, I find that that nightmares go away with the stress.

For example, I used to have awful nightmares about work when I had a really bad boss who exacerbated my CPTSD symptoms. When I left the job, the nightmare ceased immediately.

Another example is I've had recurring nightmares about being forced to live in a house that's swaying on its foundation, but everyone tells me it's fine and I should stay. I know in the dreams that I'll die if I stay in the house, but I stayed because everyone expected me to. Those nightmares ended the moment I left an affectionless marriage and started sleeping in my house alone.

Maybe yours are more linked to things in the past that you have some need to address in the present though?

alajita

1mo

I think, in my case, they can be both relating to the past and the present.

For example, after a close friend passed away, I had many dreams of funerals and their family. Last night, on the other hand, I had a really disturbing dream involving violent physical confrontation and threatening; the dream didn't involve anyone that had done any harm to me before, it actually didn't involve anyone I've seen in years.

alajita

1mo

ty still, it gives me some insight and I'm glad someone can share similar experiences with me

Monarch-Of-Jack

1mo

I'm not sure if they are considered emotional flashbacks. But nightmares and flashbacks are both a criterion B symptom of ptsd. An 'intrusive re-experiencing of the traumatic event'. The nightmares don't have to be about the traumatic events themselves, or portrait them accurately for that matter, but they are definitely a ptsd symptom.

Now I might not know if the nightmares themselves can be emotional flashbacks, but I do think they can trigger you to be in one, right as you wake up. The nightmare might make you remember feelings of helplessness, betrayal, pain or any traumatic feelings. Add the disorientation from waking up and I can definitely see it throwing you into a flashback.

Also I personally find it interesting that I only really feel emotions nowadays when I'm in an emotional flashback. I'm emotionally dissociated 95% of the time. Yet in my dreams, my feelings seem to be normal. Quite intense even. They are how they used to be during the time of the trauma. So the dreams definitely access something that the dissociation covers up while I'm awake.

alajita

1mo

Hi, thanks. Yes, it seems like I had a bit of a misunderstanding, I read around on some good sources about the difference and how both are symptoms of CPTSD and they said pretty much what you wrote. I'm not sure if the rush of emotions I get after I wake up are emotional flashbacks, they might be though, you gave me a lot to think about.

About the last thing you mentioned, I'm the same. I dissociate a lot, I feel all day like I'm not myself and when I have alone time or look at myself in the mirror I get a similar rush of emotions that almost seems to be coming from nowhere, it's like I remembered who I am and I can't handle it. I tend to write my thoughts a lot cause I feel it lets me get them out, it's like I'm flushing away everything that it's building up while I'm dissociating to start over again.

Thank you, take care.