Emotional Flashbacks Healing Trauma as a Christian Mama

This episode talks about emotional flashbacks and we go over Pete Walkers 13 steps of what to do when you have an emotional flashback

Emotional flashbacks are intense emotional states activated by past trauma (e.g., fear, shame, or feeling unsafe). 

Emotional flashbacks may be hard to recognize. They can happen suddenly and it can be hard to pinpoint what caused them.

Emotional flashbacks are not typically visual or auditory. This means they can be harder to detect, and you may not know that what you’re experiencing is an emotional flashback. You might blame yourself for these feelings or think that you’re overwhelmed or emotionally dysregulated for another reason.

Psychotherapist Pete Walker who talks about this a lot says “Emotional flashbacks are sudden and often prolonged regressions (‘amygdala hijackings’) to the frightening circumstances of childhood. They are typically experienced as intense and confusing episodes of fear and/or despair – or as sorrowful and/or enraged reactions to this fear and despair.”