Opera 12.15 crashing - I think Flash player causing problem .. disable ?

I just got my opera updated to 12.15 version and also flash was upgraded recently and now my opera is crashing a lot and so do firefox. Both are my favorite browses and both are not working. Now I am confused which one is causing problem, is this due to flash upgrade of opera upgrade ?

You it gets unresponsive on flash pages and even after long wait nothing happens and then I have to forcefully close it and kabam.. all my work is gone.

Does anyone knows how can I disable flash on my opera browser ?

I know it is not good to bump so soon but anyone who can help me on this issue ?