Why does my screen go black & red light flash after I take flash photo

After I take a flash photo, my screen goes black for about 10 seconds and a red light blinks where the flash indicator is. After the 10 seconds the screen comes back and i’m able to take another photo. when I take a photo without flash the green focus light will also flash for a few seconds and I have to wait those few seconds for my photo to go away instead of being able to immediately take another photo. I read the whole manual online and didn’t see this problem in the troubleshooting. I didn’t used to have this problem when I first got the camera but stopped using it for a few months while I waited for my 2gb sim card to come in and am now having problems.