You are what You Remember
By Patrick Glancy | July 19, 2008
You have good memories that can make you feel good to think about as well as bad memories that can make you feel bad. Everyone has these memories and everyone’s memories affect how they live.
There is a definite connection between what our memories have stored and how we generally feel. If there is very strong emotion associated with a memory, a person may tend to feel that emotion in some way, constantly, below the surface.
Memories with traumatic emotions can cause disorders like post-traumatic stress and depression. They can also cause other disruptions in your life like problems with anger, fears, and stress.
The most popular way to deal with these sorts of problems is prescription medication. But, medication only tries to help the ’symptoms’ instead of treating the ’cause’. Long term results are usually just long term symptom management.
The key to long term help with these issues would appear to be the emotional association with the memory. What would happen if that association could be erased, reduced or even changed?
A process is being researched using the medication, propranolol, which works as an “amnesia drug”. The theory is to directly disrupt the connection between our memories and the emotions associated with them.
Described in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, they talk about psychiatrists at McGill University and Harvard University using the drug to disrupt the memories of trauma victims. The drug reduces the emotional connection with the memory while leaving the conscious part of the memory.
People can still remember what happened, but get a sense of distance or detachment from the memory. How permanent this process is and any potential side effects are not discussed.
There are also ways to reduce and change the emotions associated with memories. These processes are well established and have no side-effects.
Hypnosis seems better suited for this process since, when in hypnosis, you are using the emotional part of your mind. This is particularly true with traumatic memories from childhood. When re-experiencing memories from childhood (revivification) a person often “feels” young again, rather than experiencing it with their current age and experience.
Before a hypnotist uses modern hypnosis methods with traumatic memories, they must be properly trained. With the proper training, this process is safe, rapid and reliable. Clients often notice a difference after one session.
Addressing issues in this is about gaining real, inner perspective on your past. When this is done, it creates a sense of distance from the memory. A memory that no longer influences how you feel.
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