Memories and PTSD
Due to everything stated previously about memories formation during particularly stressful and traumatic situations, people who suffer with PTSD are frequently troubled by their memory. Either the intensified traumatic memories haunt the victim and they can constantly and repeatedly visit and recall them, and also experience them during nightmares, becoming overwhelmed by the memory and the experience, placing them back in time like they are experiencing it then and now (flashbacks). But also, many struggle with the fact they can’t access the memories, but feel the deep association with the emotions connected to them. Due to the fact they can’t access the memories they find it harder the escape the trauma loop they are stuck in. Without them knowing it they are experiencing traumatic events repeatedly. Also, even though they are not consciously aware of the memory they can still be triggered by specific details, such as objects, events, people, noises and touch.
The brain may go through the process of encoding the memories of the event, however the brain may feel it necessary to hide the memories away so the victim won’t be traumatised from them. But in the end this can be more traumatising to the victim. These suppressed memories cause damage because the person may not understand why they are feeling certain emotions, and also it is then hard to process the trauma. Due to the way the mind encodes trauma, it may take a long time, and it may be impossible to recover a memory fully.
By recovering the memories you are then able to work through the emotions and memories, and able to get help to be able to understand why you are feeling certain ways. This is important in the therapy and recovery from PTSD and trauma. However this is a widely debated topic among the scientific and psychology communities, and become widely controversial. However the main focus was on child abuse, and how therapists can manipulate memories and in many ways implant memories. However from personal experience, I knew the memories were there, but I didn’t want to see them, I didn’t want to remember them. Or because the time-line was so fragmented due to how traumatic memories are encoded it took a long time for me to put those fragments into order, to see a coherent narrative to realise what had happened to me.
Bibliography
American Psychiatric Association (2020) What is Posttraumatic Stress Disorder? Available at: https://www.psychiatry.org/patients-families/ptsd/what-is-ptsd (Accessed: 25 March 2021)
Department of Justice Canada (2019) The Impact of Trauma on Adult Sexual Assault Victims PART III – How Trauma Affects Memory and Recall Available at: https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/rp-pr/jr/trauma/p4.html (Accessed: 24 March 2021)
McManus S, Bebbington P, Jenkins R, Brugha T. (eds.) (2016) Mental health and wellbeing in England: Adult Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2014. Leeds: NHS Digital Available at: https://webarchive.nationalarchives.gov.uk/20180328140249/http://digital.nhs.uk/catalogue/PUB21748 (Accessed: 25 March 2021)
Vista Pines Health (no date) PTSD and Memory | The Science of Traumatic Memories Available at: https://vistapineshealth.com/services/ptsd-treatment/memory/ (Accessed: 25 March 2021)
Northwestern University (2015) How traumatic memories hide in the brain, and how to retrieve them: Special brain mechanism discovered to store stress-related, unconscious memories Science Daily 17 August Available at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150817132325.htm (Accessed: 25 March 2021)