| json_metadata | "{"app":"musing/1.1","appTags":["life","experience"],"appCategory":"life","appTitle":"Is it possible to intentionally forget a traumatic experience?","appBody":"<p>To the extent, our mind and our memory system work is wider than the sky. The storing of memories is also quite complex. The cerebrum, or forebrain, makes up the largest part of the brain, and it is covered by a sheet of neural tissue known as the cerebral cortex, which envelops the part of our brain where memories are stored.</p>\n<p>Short-term memory is generally forgotten by the brain unless there is constant repetition. Long-term memory is typically involved in retaining information for lengthier periods of time, like remembering the birth of your child.</p>\n<p>How long-term memory functions depends upon different types of memories and the different ways they work. Procedural memory, the unconscious memory of skills, for example, knowing how to ride a bike, is dependent upon repetition and practice and will operate automatically like muscle memory. Declarative memory, \"knowing what\", is a memory of facts, experiences, and events. Although your brain does typically automatically store your experiences into a form of memory, there are times where the brain forget a memory of a traumatic experience.</p>\n<p>If the brain registers an overwhelming trauma, then it can essentially block that memory in a process called dissociation or detachment from reality. In other words, the brain attempts to protect itself. Dissociation causes a lack of connection in a person's thoughts, memory and/or sense of identity and it's extremely common to experience a case of mild dissociation. A severe and more chronic form of dissociation is seen in mental illnesses and rare forms of dissociative disorders, such as dissociative identity disorder, which was once called multiple personality disorder.</p>\n<p>The same way the body can wall-off an abscess or foreign substance to protect the rest of the body, the brain can dissociate from an experience. In the midst of trauma, the brain may wander off and work to avoid memory. However, not all psyches are alike, and what may be severe trauma for one person may not be as severe for another person.</p>\n<p>A person's genetic makeup and their environment can both contribute to how the trauma is received. A history of mental illness plays a role in how trauma is received if the person shares the same genetic predisposition as the family member suffering a mental illness. Also, there is a threshold of trauma where the human brain cannot overcome without dissociation. Age, genetic factors and environment can contribute to how high that person's threshold is and how their brain responds to severe trauma.</p>","appDepth":2,"appParentPermlink":"p3qfxg6yp","appParentAuthor":"littymumma","musingAppId":"aU2p3C3a8N","musingAppVersion":"1.1","musingPostType":"answer"}" |
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