Emotional flashbacks and triggers

• Card 1

  An emotional flashback is a sudden, intense wave of feeling — often shame, fear, grief or panic — that echoes an earlier experience, without a clear visual memory attached. Unlike the flashbacks often shown in films, there may be no image at all, just an overwhelming feeling that seems to come from nowhere.

• Card 2

  People sometimes describe

  • Feeling suddenly small, young, or powerless
  • A rush of shame or fear that feels far bigger than the moment calls for
  • An urge to hide, disappear, defend, or people-please, seemingly out of proportion
  • Being told 'you're overreacting' and later wondering the same thing

• Card 3

  Triggers are the cues — a tone of voice, a smell, a type of silence, a specific phrase — that the nervous system has linked with past danger. They don't need to make logical sense to feel very real.

  There's a dedicated Emotional Flashbacks module with more detail, grounding tools and a closer look at triggers, linked at the end of this page.

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