See also: Trauma
For some people, aspects of traumatic moments may come back unexpectedly in the present. They might feel an unexplained terror, experience physical pain or sensations, or feel trapped remembering the event as though it were happening on loop inside their head.
This is called a flashback, and movies often get them wrong; a flashback doesn’t have to be a hallucinatory experience, nor does it have to involve all five senses at once if the senses are involved.
Flashbacks can include:
- Strong emotions that may not make sense in the present moment: anger, fear, grief, etc.
- Physical sensations: pain, pressure, restriction, discomfort, etc.
- Intrusive images/memories of trauma (note: it is possible to be unable to remember what happened after the flashback)
- Frightened or negative thoughts that aren’t linked to the present moment
- High physical tension
- Increased dissociation: feeling like your body, the world, etc. isn’t real or is numbed
Flashbacks are often caused by triggers, which are present-day reminders of trauma, but not always.
While avoiding triggers can help reduce flashbacks, it does not help resolve the underlying trauma, and in some cases avoidance may make it worse (source one, source two).
What Are Flashbacks?
Flashbacks are intense and involuntary memories that make a person feel as though they are reliving a traumatic event.
These memories can be visual, meaning a person sees all or parts of the event in their mind, but they can also be emotions a person felt during the event, or physical sensations they experienced during the event.
Flashbacks can affect people in many ways and vary in intensity. Some are brief or mild, while others can last longer, or make a person lose awareness of their current surroundings.
Flashbacks vs. memories
There is a difference between having a flashback and simply remembering something that happened in the past. The main distinction is whether a person feels connected to the present moment.
A person recalling a memory of the past knows that the memory is a past event, but a person having a flashback will feel, physically or emotionally, like they are there again.
The same is true for the emotions a memory conjures up. If a person has a flashback, they will typically experience very strong emotions that are just as intense as they were during the original event.
In contrast, the emotions a person feels when they remember something will typically not be as intense, or if they are, this intensity may change or fade over time.
What does a flashback feel like?
An emotional flashback may cause:
- strong and sudden emotions that occur in response to a trigger, or reminder of the traumatic event
- emotions that feel how it felt to experience the event
- confusion, if a person knows these feelings are not proportionate to the situation
A somatic flashback may cause:
- physical pain or pressure
- breathlessness
- sweating
- a rapid pulse
- smelling specific odors
- hearing certain sounds
- tasting certain flavors
Some people with somatic flashbacks may also replay the memory in their minds, replay only certain parts, or see still images. The images may be in the right or wrong order, with parts that are faster or slower.
People who experience flashbacks or PTSD may also show signs of avoidance. This is when a person avoids their triggers, even if this means going out of their way to do so in order to avoid experiencing symptoms.
Amy Murnan, What are flashbacks, and what do they feel like?, 2023
Types of Flashbacks
Visual flashbacks are where the traumatic events of the past come as pictures and images, like a video playing as if you are back, reliving events of the past and feeling like it’s happening now.
Somatic flashbacks are when sensations and feelings of pain, discomfort, and tension occur in the body due to physically re-experiencing the past traumatic event.
Emotional flashbacks are when you feel intense emotions of panic, anger, fear, shame, or despair brought about by a trigger that takes you back emotionally to a past traumatic event.
Louise Elcross, What PTSD Flashbacks Feel Like for Me, 2025