How to Heal Emotional Flashbacks After Child Abuse

Adult survivors of child abuse often struggle with emotional flashbacks. An emotional flashback happens when something in your life today triggers an out of proportion emotional reaction based upon something that happened in the past. For example, someone who was beaten routinely as a child for being late to dinner might become extremely stressed and depressed at being five minutes late to a meeting, even when the person who had to wait was not bothered by the delay. Emotional flashbacks can be distressing because the child abuse survivor might recognize that she is overreacting to the situation but be unable to stop the overpowering emotional response. Here is how to heal emotional flashbacks.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Challenging

1. Recognize when you are overreacting to a situation. If most people are not bothered by a situation that causes a strong reaction in you, take notice.
2. Identify the cause of the strong emotional reaction. For example, if your abuser used to beat you for being late to dinner, then the strong emotions you experience anytime you are late are probably related.
3. Accept that your reaction is rational. While becoming stressed or depressed is an overreaction to the current situation, it is an understandable reaction to the trauma you experienced. Rather than beat yourself up for overreacting, have compassion for the wounded inner child who still has emotional wounds that need healing.
4. Connect the emotions back to the original trauma. Allow yourself to go back to that painful place in time in which the trauma was inflicted. Relive the trauma long enough to express the emotions that should have been expressed when the trauma happened. Cry, punch pillow or take other action to express the emotions while thinking about the original trauma.
5. Comfort yourself. Tell yourself that it was not OK for your abuser to beat you for being late to dinner. You were just a child, and you should have been permitted to make mistakes. Reassure your wounded inner child that she will never again be beaten for being late.
6. Take a cooling-off period when you are triggered. After doing all of the above steps, take a cooling off period the next time you have an emotional flashback. Instead of reacting, stop and ask yourself if your reaction is about today's circumstances or if it is residue from your childhood. Recognizing an emotional flashback as it happens helps you to heal the pain without overreacting to today's situation.

Tips & Warnings

• If you have not actively focused on healing from your abusive childhood, you might have trouble identifying the initial trauma that is fueling the emotional flashbacks.
• Finding a qualified therapist with experience in counseling people with your abuse history is an important part of healing from child abuse. Your therapist can provide you with additional tools for healing emotional flashbacks.

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