Are nightmares a form of emotional flashback?
When I wake up in the morning from nightmares that relate to my past traumas, I get stuck in a persistent feeling of sadness, heaviness, emotional pain in my throat like I need to cry but I can't and feel distressed when it doesn't go away.
These feelings are me being stuck in an emotional flashback, aren't they?
Are the nightmares emotional flashbacks themselves?
I can't answer yes for sure, but I've experienced what you're talking about a lot. It's awful. It used to take me many days after the dream until I felt "normal" again and I now understand that I'd been triggered into a flashback. Like you, I wake up after these dreams with fear and shame and a heavy chest. It feels a little easier to get out of it once I go through Pete Walker's 13 steps. It may help you also if you feel like trying the exercises next time, I hope that it does x
What are these 13 steps?
He goes through the healing process more deeply in his book Surviving to Thriving (which I highly recommend), but you can find a list of the 13 steps on his website, along with other articles he has written:
http://pete-walker.com/13StepsManageFlashbacks.htm
I'm not sure but I guess so??! I get the same so can relate, my therapist has got me to write my nightmares down as I get them then either burn them or tear them up the next day without reading them back, this does actually help me with out re traumatising me.