# Memory "flashbacks"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memory-flashbacks/717083>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [April 7, 2015, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memory-flashbacks/717083 "2015-04-07T23:17:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memory-flashbacks/717083/1 "2015-04-07T23:17:29Z")

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Do people literally feel as if they are back in time when they have a traumatic (or any other sort of) flashback, or is it just an extremely vivid memory combined with feeling the same feelings? I’ve heard people who have flashbacks lose their sense of time and space, but I’m not sure how acute or literal this is.

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**Author:** ![CheshireKat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cheshirekat/32/1207_2.png) [@CheshireKat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CheshireKat)\
**Post date:** [April 7, 2015, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memory-flashbacks/717083/2 "2015-04-07T23:56:31Z")

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nm

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**Author:** ![MorphinePoet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morphinepoet/32/7315_2.png) [@MorphinePoet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MorphinePoet)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memory-flashbacks/717083/3 "2015-04-08T13:34:41Z")

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I was playing with my girlfriend once (she was almost raped a few years ago by an ex) and I pinned her down, restraining her movement (just to tickle her; nothing violent at all) and I was very gentle. However, all of a sudden she started shivering and crying and wouldn’t talk to me all night long. The next day she tells me she lived a full flashback experience when I restrained her movement. I never experienced anything like this before, so I kept on asking her about the details of the experience and all she said was that she almost relived the experience and even asked me to go to Wikipedia and take a look at the Flashback article.

This is a part of the Wikipedia article:

> [@](#):
>
> Due to the elusive nature of involuntary recurrent memories, very little is known about the subjective experience of flashbacks. However, theorists agree that this phenomenon is in part due to the manner in which memories of specific events are initially encoded (or entered) into memory, the way in which the memory is organized, and also the way in which the individual later recalls the event.

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**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\
**Post date:** [April 8, 2015, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/memory-flashbacks/717083/4 "2015-04-08T23:29:11Z")

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> [@MorphinePoet](#):
>
> I was playing with my girlfriend once (she was almost raped a few years ago by an ex) and I pinned her down, restraining her movement (just to tickle her; nothing violent at all) and I was very gentle. However, all of a sudden she started shivering and crying and wouldn’t talk to me all night long. The next day she tells me she lived a full flashback experience when I restrained her movement. I never experienced anything like this before, so I kept on asking her about the details of the experience and all she said was that she almost relived the experience and even asked me to go to Wikipedia and take a look at the Flashback article.
> 
> This is a part of the Wikipedia article:

I wonder why sexual assault triggers these things but a simple assault usually doesn’t. Or can it? I’ve been mugged and threatened by thugs before and it definitely has changed me a little bit and made me jumpier, but the only things I’ve really “relived” are nightmares and oddly enough violence on TV.