Identifying intrusive memories

[writetolife]

Hey all,

I'm back with one of my characteristically complex questions. 

How do you identify intrusive memories?  I've been trying to research it, but not having a lot of luck with formal explanations that leave a lot out or personal explanations where people don't seem to know how to tell the difference between an intrusive memory and a flashback.  ( What is the difference?)  Everyone seems confused. I'm having an EF at the moment and that makes everything seem a bit more confusing yet. 

What are the signs for you that you're having an intrusive memory?

A couple of times lately I've had a weird experience where it felt like a memory just "attacked" me out of nowhere.  There was an image associated with it, but the whole thing was gone in less than a second.  I was left having only a foggy sense of what the image was and very little sense of how I knew what memory/event it was connected to or why I felt so startled.  And I'm trying to figure out what's going on.  The image was weird. It was like half-way between an image in your minds eye and something that you could actually see with your physical eyes. It felt like it was superimposed over what I was really seeing. 

Thank you, all of you awesome people.

[Dee]

I think every day of my life I have asked myself, did I think about it yesterday as I am thinking about it.  The answer has always been yes.  A few times I have gotten excited thinking no, then remember I actually did.  For me I believe an intrusive memory is when I lay in bed at night trying not to think about it.  It isn't a flashback, where I have difficulty knowing where I am and what is actually happening.  Maybe it is different for other people.  The tell, tell sign for me is when I start telling myself, don't think about it, don't think about it, don't think about it.

[Kizzie]

That's a good explanation Dee     I've found is that an EF involves a lot of emotions and is not necessarily attached to a particular memory or thought, in fact for me I most often have to dig to find out why I am feeling so intensely. 

An intrusive on the other hand doesn't seem to come with the same amount of emotion, it's more like ruminating about something, a thought or thoughts that keep popping up and like Dee says you have difficulty chasing it out of your mind.   

I don't know if this is a good example,     but for me it's like hearing a song over and over in your head (ear worms I think they're called), and listening to heavy metal full blast.

Hope this helps and doesn't end up muddying the waters further 

[Riverlad]

I can identify and agree with all the above. The intrusive memories seem to pop up without great emotion, especially initially. Then it seems to gradually unfold as EF's and all the emotions, confusion and craziness gradually drags me back to the underlying intrusive memory. Current example is the rejection by a person I care deeply about linking to a time, when as a very young child, I was in physical pain and my mother looked down to me and didn't know how to, or was unable respond. (Thankfully another lady stepped in, boy did I want to go and live with them). Now I'm beginning to link the pains of the past to the pains of today. Pain is pain though understanding it sure helps to quieten the crazies. Love your work people! Thank you.