How the brain protects us from traumatic memories

Our brain has mechanisms to protect us from bad moments, but not all are advantages.

The experiences we live through life, especially in childhood, can have a great influence on our development, and even generate negative impacts on our brain, in the form of traumas and intrusive ideas.. The "healing" of these can be complex. These memories can present themselves in the form of suffering in adulthood, and are an echo of those episodes of great intensity and emotional imprint experienced in childhood.

When someone has lived through episodes of physical or emotional abuse, or has not received the necessary care from their attachment figures, it is possible that later on they will suffer psychological sequelae. However, part of the "blame" for this damage is the same mechanism that the brain uses to protect us from complicated situations. Let's take a look at it.

• You may be interested in, "What is trauma and how does it influence our lives?"

Blocked memories

In the face of certain harmful and traumatic experiences, at a physiological level, there is an alteration in the brain structures, as well as a great affectation at an emotional level. There are times when an event appears and we do not know how to handle it and we are flooded with a strong and lasting negative emotion.

In consultation I like to ask my patients to imagine that the brain is like a computer that contains all the information, experiences and memories of their life collected, organized and processed in folders. But, when an event overtakes us, the experiences are stored in other memory networks. Memories related to the overwhelming negative experience have been blocked and fragmented, as if frozen, isolated from the rest of the organized folders. and fragmented, as if they had been frozen, isolated from the rest of the organized folders. It happens with these memories that we have not had the opportunity to process, because our brain has wanted to help us by removing them from our daily life, because otherwise it would generate a very intense emotion that would be difficult to bear.

But... what happens? Well, for this help that our brain gives us we pay a price, because at a given moment these experiences will be activated by a triggering stimulus, that is, a new experience or situation that makes us re-experience what happened before unconsciously, and everything comes to light. Sometimes they are little things that we cannot control but that make us feel as if we were really there. make us feel as if we were really reliving that moment..

While most memories are eventually forgotten, those that refer to such experiences are too intense to be simply forgotten, but are not sufficiently contextualized and linked to our prevailing beliefs, ideas and values to be part of that network of memories through which we move normally.

An example of traumatic memory.

Perhaps with this example it can be better understood. Imagine a child who at the age of 7 years had a car accident with his parents. All 3 of them were very seriously injured but were finally able to get out of it. At home they did not talk about what happened, not only about the accident, but also about the slow recovery afterwards in which their lives were in danger. There was no opportunity to explain to the child what happened, so that he could understand this experience and integrate it into his perception of reality.

This event is archived in the brain, but it is stored without being associated with the thoughts that accompanied him that day and during the following days. Moreover, the brain, which is very good to us and always wants to protect us, secludes this event deep inside it so that this child can continue with his normal life.

A few years go by and this child turns 18. His greatest illusion is to get his driver's license, but on his first day of practical class and once in the car, he begins to feel very anxious and very nervous, so much so that he does not feel able to start the car and drive, without knowing why. It is at this moment when he experiences again what happened that afternoon when he was 7 years old.

What happens is that after a painful experience for the person, the information is stored in the brain in a dysfunctional way, information is stored in the brain in a dysfunctional way.. When stored in this way, the information cannot be integrated or used by the person.

In the case of children who have suffered abuse, neglect or abandonment, the brain learns to protect itself from the abuse, neglect or abandonment.The brain learns to protect itself and can adopt two distinct modes of functioning. It can become a hypervigilant brain, that is, the brain is on constant alert, even in the face of stimuli that are not dangerous or life-threatening. Our body reacts as if something bad is happening.

But this does not stop there; our brain can also adopt a form contrary to hypervigilance, i.e., it can be hypoactivated. In these situations it becomes blocked, and we may not remember many of the memories related to that disturbing event. This process will allow the individual to recount the event in a neutral way without emotional charge, as if separating himself from it.

Advantages and disadvantages of this protection

That our brain protects us in this way can be very advantageous, since it leaves us free of suffering and allows us to continue with our life, but the truth is that in the long run it has multiple and uncomfortable consequences. in the long run it has multiple and uncomfortable consequences.

Perhaps the emotions of those who live this experience are anesthetized, or there may be moments in which they begin to feel some anxiety and do not know why. Possibly they have experienced something that has led them to this hidden memory of the past, so if they do not work on it, the effect of this memory may appear again and again.

Sometimes it is very difficult to detect that the damage of the past still continues in the present, because as I explained above, emotions, and sometimes also memories, are dissociated or blocked. But it is important to work on these experiences, since in some cases they can lead to the appearance of disorders. Remember, the past cannot be forgotten, but we can work on it so that we do not constantly re-experience it and continue to harm us.