# Anxiety Disorders > Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) >  >  PTSD: I don't remember...

## Vert1go

I have for the longest time freaked out with any sexual, molestation, or rape scene in a movie. I literally sweat, cant breath, shaking, instantly pist and screaming for someone to change the channel or stop the movie. I also have issues handling any type of torture to anyone on tv or movies. I know that those things haunt me in my dreams and even day dreams but I honestly don't remember anything ever happening to me. My therapist thinks that I may have been molested and wanted to do hypmotization to find out but he told me that it would make it all surface again. I so far have declined because if I am haunted by these things and I have no memory then how much will it haunt me to remember? Would you want to know? or would you stay in your own little unknown world like I have chose to do?

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## Mute

Your story have given me shivers  ::(: 

I think you should try the hypmotization, bring it all up to the sufferance and let it out. Things like this, not knowing, can really harm you. Once you know, you will cope with it better, and figure out whats really going on with you.

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## synthesis

I know my past trauma is so affecting me and my functioning that I don't really have a choice but to address it. I think it depends how much it affects your life, like you mentioned nightmares? and I'm guessing you try to avoid triggers on tv/film too.

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## CityofAngels

I'd do the hypno thing, but not rush into it. Maybe wait for a time when you can take time off from work and stuff.

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## takethebiscuit

This is very dangerous and your therapist has acted unethically. They had no business suggesting that you may have been abused. They are an authority figure and know their ideas carry weight. Your symptoms are obviously frightening for you to have experienced. Yet they do not necessarily mean you have been abused in the past. Using hypnosis to attempt regression is a legal and ethical nightmare. The potential for the creation of false memories is high and seeking to do regression in these circumstances might actually constitute a form of abuse. 

Your therapist told you it "might all surface again..." sorry to be frank but your therapist is acting ridiculously unethically. They are already assuming that molestation has taken place when they have no evidence to base their assumption on. They are already assuming something may surface which presupposes something is hidden to begin with. 

You are better off discussing this with your doctor.

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## Antidote

I agree with takethebiscuit. Hypnosis is controversial these days because there's a risk of false memories being created. That your therapist offers it at all kind of makes me suspicious of their credibility. I'm also sensitive to the scenes in movies you described. Just because you react with distress does not necessarily mean you have been abused. Some people just get traumatised easily and develop acute stress reactions. I for instance have to avoid watching gory or violent news headlines because it traumatises me anything from a few days to a few months.

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## Chantellabella

Flashbacks and memories can be difficult to figure out. My therapist explained to me that memories are from the perspective of a child (if it happened when you were young). Therefore a memory might be a perception of something that happened. 

To give you an example. When my youngest son was 2 we got into a car accident. When we asked him to tell us what happened, he said, "somebody sneezed then the car got pushed." That morning a guy was fixing the roof next door and he kept sneezing. My 2 year old's memory though was only able to put two distinctive things about the day together. 

My therapist who is a trauma specialist says that our memories will also do that. We might put 2 things together and have a totally different picture than what exactly happened. Rather than focus on the details, we focus on the feelings. The feelings had to have come from somewhere. The flashbacks and nightmares too. 

So what she has me do is just stay with the feelings and cry or be scared and talk about it, which is what that child who experienced it needed to do way back when. If my son did not have the chance to talk about it, and suddenly began to have flashbacks of the day, he might experience the fear as an adult and not understand why sneezing and being pushed is such a trigger for him. Does that make sense?

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## fllady61

> I have for the longest time freaked out with any sexual, molestation, or rape scene in a movie. I literally sweat, cant breath, shaking, instantly pist and screaming for someone to change the channel or stop the movie. I also have issues handling any type of torture to anyone on tv or movies. I know that those things haunt me in my dreams and even day dreams but I honestly don't remember anything ever happening to me. My therapist thinks that I may have been molested and wanted to do hypmotization to find out but he told me that it would make it all surface again. I so far have declined because if I am haunted by these things and I have no memory then how much will it haunt me to remember? Would you want to know? or would you stay in your own little unknown world like I have chose to do?



Try speaking with your parents.  See if they remember anything.  You have to start with where it may have started.  If they refuse to talk to you, if you have a grandparent that you were close to and shared things with, then they may have a clue.   I would not do hypnosis because it can backfire on you.  I have found things out about my past before 3rd grade that I try to put in the background and not think about.  But occasionally those memories of what I learned come back to haunt me.

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## findingmyway

Vertigo, 
There's no perfect answer to thst question but ims good you are seeing a counselor. I don't agree with her giving you suggestions about what may have happened. That needs to be your discovery. It took lots of years for most of my truth to surface...and here it is years later when my first terroriing experience came to light. One of my counselors told me not to force any memories and I hsven't. I try to take it a day at a time, keep breathing, ask for help when I need it and and love myself through it. Take care.

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