I am attempting to find the term that describes a bizarre and terrifying experience I recently had. As background: I was the subject of a severe violent assaulted at age 12, now 30 years ago. I have very little recollection of the event, just bits and pieces. I still have recurring nightmares of this event that my husband finally videotaped because I never remember them. They show me in extreme distress, and it is very difficult for him to wake me from them.
I recently had a prolonged (hours-long) night-time episode in which I was in and out of awareness. I am still unable to remember large pieces of that episode. But apparently I became so violent that my husband began to restrain me to prevent me from injuring myself. I have periods of remembering him sitting on me and holding me down, and not understanding why, but feeling like I was in grave danger and that he was trying to hurt or even kill me. But I don't remember anything between those moments of awareness.
What are clinical terms that describe this sort of drifting in and out of what we assume was a prolonged traumatic flashback?
