How the brain protects us from traumatic memories

The experiences that we live throughout 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 "cure" of these can be complex. These memories can appear 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 experienced episodes of physical or emotional abuse, or has not received the necessary care from their attachment figures, it is possible that later on they suffer psychological consequences. However, part of the "blame" for this damage is the same mechanism that the brain uses to protect us from difficult situations. Let's see.

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

The blocked memories

Faced with certain harmful and traumatic experiences, at the physiological level, there is an alteration in the brain structures, as well as a great affectation at the emotional level. There are times when an event appears and we do not know how to handle it and we are inundated 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 his life collected, organized and processed in folders. But, when an event overtakes us, the experiences lived are stored in other different memory networks. Memories related to the overwhelming negative experience have been blocked and fragmented, as if they had been frozen, isolated from the rest of the organized folders. It occurs with these memories that we have not had the opportunity to process, since our brain has wanted to help us separating them from our day to day, because otherwise it would generate a very intense emotion difficult to bear.

But... what happen? Well, for this help that our brain provides us we pay a price, since at a given moment these experiences will be activated by a trigger stimulus, that is, a new experience or situation that makes us re-experience what happened previously unconsciously, and everything comes out to the light. Sometimes they are small things that we cannot control but that make us feel like we are really reliving that moment.

Although most memories end up being forgotten, those that refer to these types of experiences are too intense to be simply forgotten, but they are not. sufficiently contextualized and linked to our predominant beliefs, ideas and values ​​to be part of that network of memories through which we move with normal.

• Related article: "Emotional memory: what is it and what is its biological basis?"

An example of a traumatic memory

Perhaps with this example it can be better understood. Imagine a 7-year-old boy who had a car accident with his parents. The 3 were very serious but finally they could get ahead. At home there was no talk about what happened, not only about the accident, but also about the slow recovery afterwards in which his lives were in danger. There has been no opportunity to explain to the child what happened, so that he could understand that experience and integrate it into his perception of reality.

This event is filed in the brain, but it is saved without being associated with the thoughts that accompanied it that day and during the following days. In addition, the brain, which is very good to us and always wants to protect us, secures this event deep within itself so that this child can continue with his normal life.

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

What happens is that from a painful experience for the person, the information is stored in the brain in a dysfunctional way. When archived 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 and can adopt two different ways of working. It can become a hypervigilant brain, that is, the brain is constantly alert, even to 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 take a form contrary to hypervigilance, that is, it can be underactive. In these situations it becomes blocked, and many of the memories related to that disturbing event may not be remembered. This process will allow the individual to tell the event in a neutral way without emotional charge, such as separating from it.

Advantages and disadvantages of this protection

That our brain protects us in this way can be very advantageous, since it frees us from suffering and allows us to continue with our lives, but the truth is that 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 when you begin to feel some anxiety and do not know why. Possibly you have experienced something that has led you to that hidden memory of the past, so if you do not work on it, the effect of this memory can appear again and again.

Sometimes, it is very difficult to detect that the damage of the past is still in the present, since as I have previously explained emotions, and sometimes memories too, 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.