Flashbacks and false memories
Does anyone replay situations over in their head? Or, to go even further, imagine situations as if they were more dangerous than they were? I’m not sure I’m explaining it well, so to give examples of each:
Today I was waiting for a friend on a station platform and they were running late for the train. Because he was in a panic he ran around people very close to the edge of the platform whilst the train was pulling in. So much so that the driver beeped very loudly at him and people shouted. He was totally fine but all day I have been replaying the situation in my head thinking that could’ve gone horribly wrong. I just have this image engrained in my head of how close he was to the edge of the platform and it keeps flashing back to me every now and again. It’s horrible!! I think I was affected by it way more than he was!
I like hiking and have hiked around coastlines and things before, sometimes very high up around steep drops. I have bad vertigo so never go close to the edge, but I often get intrusive thoughts afterwards imagining that I was too close to the edge and thinking, what if I had fallen? What if my foot had slipped? Or even gaslighting myself into thinking I was, in fact, too close to the edge and was in danger. It’s all I can focus on rather than how lovely the hike was or whatever. Very frustrating.