Remembering your childhood sexual abuse helps you get to know who you really are. It's not important to remember everything. What is important is understanding the effects of the abuse on your life.

Some researchers say that everything that happens to us, every sensation of pain or pleasure, every sound and conversation, every action we take, every smell and taste, is recorded and stored within our brain as memory. Others say all memory is at cellular level -- in the body.

Some memories are immediately available to us while others are more distant, stored far back in our minds as though in a deep freezer. You will only remember what happened to you when your psyche is primed. In other words, when you are strong enough and able to cope with the reality of what happened in your life.

Flashbacks are like instant replays of the past – seconds-long snapshots that burst without warning into your ordinary thoughts. They are triggered by something in the present – a smell, sound, taste, touch, a sensation in your body, or visual reminders. You may experience bodily sensations, visual images or both.

Anything can trigger a flashback or memory:

Touch – by a friend, lover or stranger

Smell – after-shave, perfume, tobacco or alcohol, mustiness, bad breath, food

Taste – toothpaste, soap in your mouth, vomit, blood, food or beverage

Sound – footsteps outside the door, telephone ringing, emergency alarm, a child crying

Visual reminders – rings, fat fingers, shoe laces, ceiling lights, baldness, eyeglasses

The list is literally endless.

If you have body pain such as uterine cramps or other repeated physical symptoms accompanying body memories, it's important to get a medical doctor to check you out. You should rule out anything being medically wrong.

After the flashback subsides you may feel disoriented for a while. Remember to breathe. Sip a glass of water. Wash your face and wrists with cool water. Rinse out your mouth. Brush your hair.




SUGGESTION: Do something to honor what you've accomplished.