Have you ever entered a room and completely forgot what you came for? Or you struggled to remember the facts of a stressful time in your life? These times may seem commonplace but, when associated with trauma, are revealing something a lot deeper.
Trauma doesn’t just leave emotional remnants in its wake; it can change your brain’s method for encoding, storing, processing, and recalling memories. Whether it is dealing with fragmented recollections of flashbacks or those completely absent memories, trauma can reconstruct your brain’s relationship to the past.
In this blog, we will look at how trauma shape’s memory, how this happens, and what you can do to start to heal and take back control.
What is Trauma?
Trauma can be defined as a response to an emotional experience relating to an extremely stressful or disturbing event. Trauma can come from a one-time experience (such as an assault, or a natural disaster) or prolonged, repeated exposure to stress (domestic violence, or childhood neglect). Different people will experience their trauma in different ways, depending on their emotional resilience, support, their age, and their neurobiology.
Psychological trauma can often lead to long-lasting, adverse effects on the emotional, mental, and even physical, functioning of an individual. One of the more perplexing, and major adverse effects of trauma, is its effect on memory.
How Trauma Affects the Brain and Memory
The brain being a very adaptable organ can become out of balance when traumatic events are experienced pushing the brain into survival mode.Â
The amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex are the three main areas of the brain that are distorted by trauma.Â
- The amygdala is the brain’s alarm system which gets activated during trauma, allowing the emotional sensory memories influenced by fear to become hyper-seasoned.Â
- The hippocampus is responsible for processing and encoding memories, and it will actually shrink during chronic stress. When this happens, it makes it reduce the brain’s ability to accurately distinguish between past experiences and present reality thereby contributing to flashbacks.Â
- This action often overrides the prefrontal cortex which is responsible for reasoning, regulation of emotions, and decision-making throughout trauma. Subsequently, combining these effects on the human brain makes traumatic events feel alive, and vivid.
Trauma Impacts Four Type of Memory
Trauma can affect the brain in deep ways by affecting four types of memory: semantic, episodic, emotional, and procedural.Â
- Semantic memory, or general knowledge and facts, can be impacted when the trauma makes it difficult for the brain to connect and work together. This form of memory engages the temporal and inferior parietal lobes.Â
- Episodic memory, which is involved in autobiographical events (ex. remembering the details of an accident while also remembering who was there), can develop fragmentation. This memory function operates through the hippocampus.Â
- Emotional memory, or how we store the emotions attached to that experience, can become overly sensitive; for example, you can experience shame and/or anxiety now without remembering the original event – this process is mediated by the amygdala.Â
- Procedural memory, type of memory for automatically learned habits (e.g. riding a bike), can also be changed. Trauma may cause alterations in body posture movements or body movements, as well as pain or numbness. This type of memory engages the striatum.Â
Collectively, all of these disrupted memory forms demonstrate how trauma can impact not only what we remember but how we feel and function in everyday life.
Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) encompasses a serious mental health condition that can emerge from experiencing, or witnessing, a traumatic event. A significant feature of PTSD is memory dysregulation, where the brain may not process certain, traumatic memories appropriately.Â
For those with PTSD, they frequently will have continual, intrusive memories of the trauma, nightmares, and disturbed sleep. It is also possible for those with PTSD to have memory gaps about the traumatic event, and they will be unfamiliar with certain details.Â
Trauma reminders can also elicit emotional and/or physical symptoms, such as panic or anxiety. PTSD highlights the way in which trauma can deeply intertwined memory with emotion to the extent that moving forward, or staying anchored in the present, feels like an insurmountable obstacle.
Role of Trauma Therapy for Healing Memory
1. Therapeutic MethodÂ
There are many different treatment methods that have been designed to guide people through a safe and effective process of healing traumatic memories.Â
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is a widely used therapy to help people re-evaluate the negative thoughts and beliefs related to the trauma to develop healthier thinking and emotional responses.Â
- Somatic Experiencing, a therapeutic modality based on the body, will help to support the release of physical compression and trauma stored in the body, and support individuals to have a sense of safety and grounding in the physical body.Â
- Trauma-Focused Therapy includes a variety of specific techniques to integrate shattered memories and reduce avoidance patterns, a key part of trauma processing, in order to explore and process trauma without feeling overwhelmed.Â
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These therapies can help guide people in healing and reclaiming a sense of control.Â
2. Mindfulness and Grounding Techniques
Mindfulness and grounding techniques are very useful strategies for staying in the present moment, minimizing the emotional reactivity often associated with traumatic memories.Â
- These practices contain elements that increase awareness of the body and mind, and allow trauma survivors to distance themselves from intense feeling states.Â
- Deep breathing practices can help calm the nervous system, while body scans promote awareness of physical sensation in the body, allowing trauma survivors to find some safety.Â
- Guided visualization enables individuals to think of calm, positive images, and provides a break from unpleasant thoughts.Â
- Journaling allows individuals a level of safety to process and articulate their feelings, and reflect on their experiences, as part of their emotional processing and healing.
3. Lifestyle Changes
Lifestyle changes are critical to help recover from trauma and improve brain health.Â
- Physical activity is important in regulating stress hormones and enhancing mood.Â
- Eating a nutritious diet provides nutrients to enhance brain health and promote emotional stability.Â
- Getting enough sleep is important to the processes of memory consolidation and regulating the emotional response – two things that trauma frequently disrupts.Â
- Building safe, supportive relationships creates a feeling of connection and emotional safety that can counter the isolation and fear that often accompanies trauma.Â
- To complete the puzzle, these lifestyle changes promote the restoration of balance to the brain systems of memory and promote long-term healing.
How to Help Someone Who Is Facing Memory Loss Due to Trauma
Being there for someone who struggles with trauma and memory issues takes compassion, patience, and empathy.Â
- Be patient with the person – recovery is a process and cannot be rushed.Â
- Do not put any pressure on them to remember or speak about their experiences before they are ready to do so.Â
- Create a safe, supportive, and non-judgmental space for them to feel secure and supported while they begin to process what happened, constantly indicating that you will be a constant source of comfort.Â
- Encourage the person, if it seems appropriate and they seem overwhelmed or stuck, to seek professional help.Â
- The most important thing is to offer validation, listen without judgment, provide belief in what they share with you, and never diminish their feelings or memories.
Final Thought
Trauma can change how our brain stores and retrieves memories, and it can affect our emotional well-being and ability to function in our daily lives.Â
- Trauma can do everything from skewing memory systems to engendering emotional triggers.Â
- Its impact is significant and long-lasting, but the good news is that healing of trauma is available.Â
- Through a combination of therapy, mindfulness, changes in lifestyle, or with loving support, we can begin to live our lives again and re-store our memories.Â
If you (or someone you know) are experiencing trauma-related memory issues, contacting a trauma therapist in New York can make the difference you are looking for. The trauma therapist can assist with getting you or someone you know on their journey to healing and recovery with a professional that can provide guidance and treatment in a compassionate manner.
References
- Strange, D., & T Takarangi, M. K. (2015). Memory Distortion for Traumatic Events: The Role of Mental Imagery. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 6, 27. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2015.00027
- The National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine. (2017). How trauma impacts four different types of memory. In www.nicabm.com. https://www.naadac.org/assets/2416/2019NWRC_Michael_Bricker_Handout4.pdf
- Akbarian, F., Bajoghli, H., Haghighi, M., Kalak, N., Holsboer-Trachsler, E., & Brand, S. (2015). The effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy with respect to psychological symptoms and recovering autobiographical memory in patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Neuropsychiatric Disease and Treatment, 11, 395. https://doi.org/10.2147/NDT.S79581
- Trama and the brain. (n.d.). All Wales Traumatic Stress Quality Improvement Ini. https://traumaticstress.nhs.wales/children-and-young-people/trauma-and-the-brain/#:~:text=Impact%20of%20trauma%20on%20the%20brain%3A&text=This%20can%20significantly%20impact%20on,and%20in%20a%20planned%20way.
- Bremner, J. D. (2006). Traumatic stress: Effects on the brain. Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience, 8(4), 445. https://doi.org/10.31887/DCNS.2006.8.4/jbremner
