Everyone has bad experiences in their lives. In the same way, everyone has good and pleasant experiences too. What it is that sets the two apart? What is it that makes normal memories different from traumatic memories?
These are great questions, and they may be ones that you’d like the answer to. If you’re suffering from a traumatic memory, you may have wished more than once that you could just stop thinking about it. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple, and it’s all because of the way both types of memories are organized in the brain.
The Organization of Normal Memories
Normal memories or those that are benign are usually organized in a specific way. People may have strong feelings about them, and most of these feelings are pleasant. When they’re asked to give specifics on these memories, they can do so without a problem. However, the specific pieces of them aren’t always positive.
Some examples of normal memories might include:
- The birth of a child
- Graduating from high school or college
- Getting your driver’s license
- Getting married
- Winning in a championship game
If you ask someone to retell a story from their life that involves a specific memory, they can usually do so easily if it was a positive experience. The story will have a beginning, middle and an end. It’s organized, and it makes complete sense. More than that, it’s deemed a memory, which means it’s something that happened in the past. However, there will be some details left out. That’s because the brain hasn’t registered them as being all that important.
The Disorganization of Traumatic Memories
Studies have shown that traumatic memories are quite the opposite. They’re not organized at all, and they’re not even always understood to be in the past. Also, details that might have been forgotten with normal memories are suddenly remembered vividly.
For example, for someone who has been a victim of rape, they may remember the color of the rapist’s shirt that day. They may remember how their breath smelled, or that they had tattoos on their arm. Other details about the incident can become fuzzy. They might remember what happened, but not the order it happened in.
There are additional characteristics that go along with traumatic memories. People are very likely to:
- Have been unable to talk about what had happened right after the event.
- Experience flashbacks of the event frequently.
- Feel overwhelmed at times by everything from their emotions to certain sounds and smells.
This occurs because of what takes place in the brain when a traumatic event is occurring. It’s not able to make sense of what is going on at the time. Fragments are pieced together, and it takes time before people are able to come to terms with what happened to them.
If you’re a victim of trauma, these negative memories may be haunting for you. Maybe you’ve tried to “let it go” just because everyone you know has advised you to. The problem is that it’s just not that easy. You need to know that trauma therapy can help you.
If you’re in need of trauma therapy, I can provide you with that. Please contact me to make an appointment.
