Forgetting past traumas

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects many people who have gone through some sort of horrific trauma such as war, violence, terrorism, carjacking, accident, relationship break-up and so on. Many people have experienced an event they found traumatic, ranging from a violent robbery to loosing a loved one in a crash, and more than those have g one on to suffer from PTSD.

The symptoms of PTSD, including vivid flashbacks and intense physical feeling of fear, occur when some thing triggers normally unconscious memories of the original trauma. Emotional memories are stored in the deeply buried limbic area of the brain. To come to consciousness, they have to pass through neural pathways to the conscious brain above. Women have of these pathways than men, which is why they tend to be more ‘in touch’ with their feelings.

Research also shows that there are more women sufferers of PTSD than men. Concussion disrupts the process by which event memories are stored, and it’s commonly thought that people who are knocked out unconscious in accidents are unlikely to suffer PTSD. But research also finds that only those with most severe head injuries are free of PTSD symptoms.

Cognitive psychotherapy, in which thoughts of the trauma are cut off as they surface, can help cure PTSD. Counseling involves recalling, rather than forgetting the event, which makes a slower psychological recovery. If you suffer from PTSD, you will need to seek help from a psychologist or a counselor.