Do You Have Momentary Flashbacks?

Jules

Jules

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Does some little insignificant time in your life come back to you momentarily?

It’s not triggered by anything. You just remember it.

I feel like I’m having more of these. Today I was folding laundry and a memory of a rest stop along the Columbia River popped up. It was just a short flash. This would have been 10+ years ago. Sometimes it’s something from my youth.
 
Absolutely. Not all are bad instances but some are truly grotesque. We lost our youngest child when he was 17, and even after more than 25 years I recall vivid images of him. Because our relationship was very healthy most of them are positive and keep his spirit ever warm in my life.

I also have very bad memories from combat in Vietnam. Fortunately a lot of effort and communication with other vets and psychologists I have come to except those things as part of my past that I will live with without choice. One piece of advice was simple and clear. It's not going away, just own it without trying to tamp it down. A stranger asked me when I was there, 'last night'. It's just there.
 
Rider77 said:
Absolutely. Not all are bad instances but some are truly grotesque. We lost our youngest child when he was 17, and even after more than 25 years I recall vivid images of him. Because our relationship was very healthy most of them are positive and keep his spirit ever warm in my life.

I also have very bad memories from combat in Vietnam. Fortunately a lot of effort and communication with other vets and psychologists I have come to except those things as part of my past that I will live with without choice. One piece of advice was simple and clear. It's not going away, just own it without trying to tamp it down. A stranger asked me when I was there, 'last night'. It's just there.
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Similar to something I posted awhile back- "the past never passes".. ?
 
For me, a song I hear triggers a flashback. It is all about music for me. My only real quiet time is when I spend time in our courtyard. Today, "California Dreamin" was in my head. It's usually "Summer Breeze" when I look at the jasmine. When I hear some songs, they put me right back into a place/time that I remember vividly.
 
Does anyone here have flashbacks to something that DIDN'T happen?

I have a vivid memory that pops up occasionally of a trip to Moscow I took with my mother. The problem is that I didn't take a trip to Moscow with my mother. I haven't taken a trip to Moscow with anyone. I've never been to Russia.

It's so vivid, though. I can describe the hotel we stayed in. I know what we were wearing. I can remember the plane trip.

And, no, I've never used LSD, so it's not THAT kind of flashback. Just your garden-variety flashback except there's no garden.
 
seadoug said:
For me, a song I hear triggers a flashback. It is all about music for me. My only real quiet time is when I spend time in our courtyard. Today, "California Dreamin" was in my head. It's usually "Summer Breeze" when I look at the jasmine. When I hear some songs, they put me right back into a place/time that I remember vividly.
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First time I heard California Dreaming was when I was in Monterey 1966 on a pass after checking in at Fort Ord for Infantry Training.
 
Yes, I do have them. When it first started happening, it was unnerving because the phrase "life flashing before my eyes" came to mind. It's like things were locked away in my brain and are being released now. (Not bad things, just bits of my life.)

It's rare that there will be something that seems like a memory but didn't actually happen. I figured that one out, though... those were actually pieces of dreams I've had.
 
This came on in the grocery store. Instantly and momentarily I flashed back to a time before Facebook and social media when you didn't know where old friends were or what they were doing. Only in your wildest dreams.
Now, those fantasies are gone. You can see about anyone now. And we're all old. 🙄

 
Absolutely!

Someday you’ll probably see me sitting alone in the corner of a nursing home staring off into space with a wistful little smile on my face and a tear in my eye.
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Naturally said:
Weirdest ones for me are not what I would call flashbacks.
Just something that triggers a moment in memory that I can't quite place.
A moment that just seems familiar but fleeting.
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This describes mine, but I had these when I was younger too. They are just parts of our past. Our brains remember them when something jogs them loose. I doesn't require much of a jog, and it may be caused by a mental connection we are not aware of, so they seem to come out of nowhere, but I think they are caused by something current.
 
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