Blog Archives

Why Remember?

Posted on December 9, 2011 by sheryl

Because you’re on this healing journey, you know that your life has been compromised by your trauma, even though you may not remember all the details of what happened.  An important phase of trauma recovery is the desensitization phase.  This is your opportunity to take the keys to your life back from the trauma, and begin to navigate where and when you drive your life forward.  If those memories have been locked away behind that trauma membrane, it is important that you find a professional who can help you get some skills with symptom management in place before diving into the deep end of your story.

This is a right time to get professional support as this initial memory process often feels like the trauma happened just yesterday, and feeling like it happens over and over each time you tell and remember the story.  In some ways that is true. The body believes everything the mind tells it, and when you’re recalling an aspect of the trauma, the body can get flooded with the same “cocktails of emotion” [Dr. Candice Pert] that flooded your body when the event happened.

A professional who is a knowledgeable trauma therapist will listen these stories without either challenging them or asking question that take you into parts of your trauma that you aren’t ready to move toward.  The therapist won’t be concerned if everything you remember happened in exactly the way you remember or not, only that you are safe in your process of remembering.  Keep these five points in mind (from Dr. Donald Meichenbaum).

  1. Remembering is a reconstructive process, not merely a retrieval of a record of past experience.  People generally forget more than they remember.
  2. Your memories can be influenced and distorted over time; there is research that suggests that all memories of traumatic and pleasant experience get distorted over time.
  3. Reconstructing a memory from sensory data stored in that implicit memory does not bring up everything in exact detail.
  4. It is possible, at times, to believe strongly in memories that are inaccurate.  This is why the advise to all people – “Don’t’ believe everything your mind tells you”.
  5. It is not necessary for you to remember everything about a traumatic event exactly as it happened.  What is important is to recover enough information so you can process the memory and put it and its emotions body sensations and thoughts into your past.

Be gentle with yourself.  You are stepping out with enormous courage and I applaud you for the strength that is in you.  To your healing journey, your way, in your own time.

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Trauma and Memory, Part I

Posted on December 7, 2011 by sheryl

The role of memory in trauma recovery is a complex process that often feels downright dangerous to a person on a healing path.  In this three part series, I will talk first about the different types of memories and why the trauma memory process is distinct from other processes. Secondly, I’ll talk about why people forget.  Thirdly, you’ll find a discussion of why try to remember at all.

While our understanding of how the brain works is still evolving, right now, we talk about short-term memory and long-term memory.  Short-term memory includes items that are remembered quickly, like a person’s name you just met, and then forgotten just as quickly. For me, it seems like nano-seconds between when someone introduces himself or herself and I forget what their name is.  Through a process of association and rehearsal this short-term memory can be moved to long-term; “Your name is Susie, my sister is Susie, you’re like my sister in that you have long hair Susie Susie Susie.”

Long-term memory is a continuous storage of information, including what we might call unconscious.  This type of memory is of two types.  First is the explicit (facts, concepts, ideas).  This is the type of memory that a student relies on to pass exams at the end of a term or of an entire study. It is also the type of memory that allows a trauma victim remember the traumatic event in a cohesive way, and helps you find your way home.

Implicit memory is the second type of long term memory and is the one of particular interest here.  Implicit memories are stored as pictures and feelings and not so much verbal.  Often traumatic memories are stored this way.  Many sights, sounds, smells, or other cues get associated with the trauma and become mysterious triggers to an internal fight, flight or freeze response.  Body centered approaches to trauma recovery, such as the work of Peter Levine or Babette Rothschild work to release memories “from the body”.  These approaches tap into this implicit memory process and allow the body and the mind to heal.  It is because of this storage of the memory in an area of the brain that imprints sights, sounds, smells, that PTSD is sometimes called a problem “of memory gone awry”.  This is why you might know how your triggers connected to the trauma and at other times those connections are harder to recognize.  This is why you may have trouble making sense of your PTS symptoms and their triggers.

You can find the right way for you to access these memories and stop their control of your life.  Trust yourself and your own unfolding.

Posted in Frozen in Fear, PTSD, Trauma | Tagged , | Leave a comment