Flashbacks

LegacyUser

I'm not sure i can call them flashbacks but something similar.

Recently I've been having a lot of "flashbacks" on embarrassing memories or just moments i'm not proud of. I've tried pushing them away or trying to accept them (which admittedly is rather hard) and just laugh it off and be ok with it but they seem to keep coming.

These are the moments where you want the world to swallow you up or you look back thinking "i can't believe i did that."

It only lasts a split second but i remember everything rather vividly and it's bad to the point that i'd physically flinch or get agitated. It's not really a huge issue but it's rather odd that it just started happening. Of course if i'm in public, it can seem rather odd to people.

Anyone ever have this happen?

hightower1

Yeah, happens me a lot. Can be embarrassing moments , traumatizing or just generally bad memories. Only happens me when I try sleep so most nights spending 2 + hours trying to nod off is harsh. Lots of sick days over it but sure cant explain this to the boss now can I !

tenchi-fan

sounds like you're a bit neurotic.

you should be asking yourself why those things bother you after all this time, when you should really just laugh them off... some of them probably shouldn't have bothered you so much to begin with!

It might help to take some time out and actually look back at those events when you're listening to some feel-good music, and just say to yourself "that really isn't a big deal" or "i've come a long way since then"

that way if they do come into your head unexpectedly (maybe when you're feeling a bit insecure) they won't have such an affect on you.

Ickle Magoo

Perhaps write down the flashback and then try to find a positive. If that hadn't happened you wouldn't have met X or gone to Y or whatever and then you can be glad they happened instead of just embarrassed or ashamed?

Best of luck

SugarHigh

This happens me a food bit when I'm feeling anxious anyway. I wouldn't get them for months but when something stressful is going on in my life I start getting these and the memories go as far back to when I was 8.

It's a hard thing to fix but just try and sort out anything you might be stressed over or anxious about in your life and try not to be too hard on yourself because no one else is judging you for these things because their is probably no one else who even remembers they happened.

tbh

it happens to me a fair bit too, not so much as I get older I have to say. The way I dealt with it is this - you're never going to be able to eliminate them altogether, so you may as well try to turn them into something positive.

Usually the flashbacks I get fall into two categories: things I've done that I'm ashamed of, and things I've done that have made me feel stupid in public.

for both, I try to look at the situation I found myself in, and identify what happened to get me there - had I been drinking, was it arrogance or laziness, or was it just bad luck (very few of those!) and try to figure out what I would do if I find myself in a similar situation in future.

You can't change your past, and in your past you made what you thought was the right decision based on the information available to you at the time. You now have further information - hindsight, they call it, earned at the cost of experiencing the consequences, good or bad.
Use that information to help you live your life in a way that makes you less ashamed and more relaxed - and therefore happier - and you can see the value in a guilty conscience

or if you're not into self-examination, whenever you experience them, think of five times when you felt really proud of yourself, and give yourself a minute to really remember it, and you'll find the bad feelings vanish quite quickly.

LegacyUser

i get this an awful lot i'd be sitting on my own and one of them would pop into my head and i sit there cringing to myself, and get very anxious. they're very intrusive and very upsetting, and trying to forget about them dosnt happen. Ive thought about going to doctor to get an prescribed xanax or some other similar anti anxiety tablet but its not a really a route id like to go down if i could help it. ive been told to try get some perspective in that what would i think if was the outsider and heard someone else had done the things i'd done and i do my best to do this when they happen. ive no other advise really except to say your not on your own!