Has anyone else experienced this?

I don't know what this is, honestly. I'm just trying to see if anyone else has experienced it, and if so can help me explain it to my psychologist.

For background bc I think this might be related, I'm recently (a month) discharged from a 5 month inpatient and just got discharged 2 days ago from a day program outpatient.

Basically, I've realized that whenever I hallucinate, hear unexpected sounds, see people do certain things that distress me/things I can't process well, think certain thoughts, and get reminded of things that happened while I was inpatient, I flinch terribly. I scrunch up in that defensive position you'd see a child do when scared. Like, I bring my arms up to block my chest and pull in my legs to block my stomach. It's completely involuntary, and it's really annoying/distressing because I feel so ? panicked in the moment, but then the panic goes away a few seconds/minutes later and it's replaced with confusion.

If anyone has experienced this or something like this, I'd really appreciate input. Or, even if someone has an idea of what this might relate to. Disclaimer: Not asking for help diagnosing anything, just help figuring out what this might relate to

Im sorry you are going through this. I myself feel defensive often when I hear noises or people talking loud around me but not to me. I just started my blog and I will eventually talk about my experience. Right now I am in the process of telling my story. My blog is *mod edit*. I wish you the best God bless.

That sounds awful...That sounds like a sort of PTSD flashback or something similar. We had a friend in high school that had similar episodes - I won't go into the details, but that does match quite a bit.