Do flashbacks affect my recovery?

So long as you don't dwell on them, there's not much you can do. They'll come, and hopefully they'll also pass. For me the most difficult part was around day 45 of my first successful reboot. I was fresh out of a flatline, and was bombarded with them for a few days straight. Things did eventually calm down though, by day 50 if memory serves.

 

Best to treat flashbacks like dreams.That is,regard them as mental housecleaning rather than evidence that the reboot isn't working.Just acknowledge them and let them pass without assigning them any meaning.If you want to know more details,please check out 《Your Brain On Porn》from Gary Wilson.

 

I believe this is normal if you are referring to the watched videos, in the beginning I also had this but then it passed little by little, I recommend you to reflect on them.

 

Flashbacks are actually a sign of recovery, as are sexualized dreams - it means that your mind is purging out the poison, albeit it passes across your visual filed of imagination in the purge process, just as it entered in. Hence, let the memories purge - sometimes on multiple occasions. As long as you don't submit to them and reinforce them by acting on them, recovery is taking place very much because of them. Your brain is rewiring in a recovered manner to the same stimuli previously wired for the addict self. Best wishes!

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Definitely not relapse - if anything, just the opposite. Recovery and healing are taking place. Think of a heroin addict coming off of heroin. His mind and body instantly get worse. He gets sick - much pain and grueling vomiting from all the years of ingesting poison. Similarly, your mind is only expunging/vomiting the porn that it ingested contrary to its better health. By not acting on it, you're rewiring your brain in a healthy way this round. Your experience is on the right track!

 

Distract yourself, if possible, with other activity: exercise, watch a movie, work, crossword puzzle, etc. If that is not effective, just sit with it, neither encouraging nor inviting it - just look at it as if outside of yourself looking in, as if at a stranger. Don't fret or worry - but even laugh at it if you think it's pathetic and not even worth your time. If it persists, just continue your day until it passes. If it causes suffering of mind and/or body, just bear it out calmly. Don't fret or stress or burn out your will power, but allow the pain and feel the pain, if necessary. It's okay to feel sorrow even. Maybe ask yourself, Would you want to trade the pain/stress of this for terminal cancer or some other disease? Would you trade this ordeal with a captive being tortured by a foreign militia? Healthy brain rewiring is occurring during the ordeal, as you're not acting on it with addictive behaviors, e.g., P or MO, but responding with appropriate behavior - ignoring it or doing nothing in response. Just stick it out, and it will weaken and go away for a time - it may or may not resurface again. If it does, just rinse, repeat as above.

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You are worrying too much about classifying them as a relapse or not. They are inevitable and normal, and they will keep coming back until you get stronger and they get weaker. Expect, accept, and be patient.

 

I wouldn't consider them a relapse in any way.

You cannot control whether or not a flashback shows up.

You can control weather or not to dwell on it.

My recommendation is prepare something to distract you whenever you get a flashback. I used to drop down and do a few pushups whenever I got flashbacks... Just something to change what's occupying my mind

 

Ignore them, with time they will get weaker and go away. Stay strong and keep going!

 

If you didn't intentionally fantasize, you have nothing worry about. Don't worry and stay calm, and once again... ignore them.