How Trauma Affects Memory

[Kizzie]

Saw this infographic about trauma and how it affects four different types of memory on Twitter this morning and thought Id share it.  Explains a lot about my interesting memory issues.

[Elphanigh]

Thank you for sharing Kizzie. That resonates with my weird memory issues as well

[Blueberry]

Thanks for sharing! That's really interesting for me too. My traumas are quite strange in that I hardly forgot anything. I remember tons of stuff that was done to me as a kid including CSA. I didn't fragment it.

Once I started T a couple of decades ago, my semantic memory got worse. I forgot the most basic of facts. It has improved but still not good. My emotional memory has been really badly affected, probably since before I was ever in T. My procedural memory is very bad. That explains why I forget how to do basic things on the computer like a scan a document and then the how-to doesn't return to my brain for 6 weeks or something. The information is completely missing. So that latter point is especially interesting to me.

[SunnyDays]

Yes indeed,

Some of us are prescribed with some drugs that alters memory as well. Music is a great helper, try to use not-triggering music, but good memories music, our memory improves and our mood too.

[Kizzie]

I just went back to seeing a T yesterday and she talked about how trauma gets stuck in short term memory (STM) rather than being transferred to long term memory (LTM) because of the way brain works to protect us when we are overwhelmed.

Apparently, this is why when those of us with CPTSD are triggered the memory is retrieved from STM and we almost feel as though we were back in the situation.  STM keeps it 'fresh' (as though it just occurred when it may have happened decades ago), whereas LTM moves it to a distance and decreases the intensity. 

So although I did not have a good experience with EMDR (which is thought to stimulate/aid transfer memories from short to long term memory) a few years back, we are going to give it a try.   I hope it helps as I don't want to keep reliving my trauma over and over again. 

[Billy Pilgrim]

"That's really interesting for me too. My traumas are quite strange in that I hardly forgot anything. I remember tons of stuff that was done to me as a kid including CSA."

I relate to that strongly. I once wound up talking about embarassing or painful situations in class, with an old school friend. He came up with two or three, then I got going and he stopped me around the twentieth or so. He couldn't believe I remembered all that stuff, I couldn't believe he didn't 

[Ellis]

Saw this infographic about trauma and how it affects four different types of memory on Twitter this morning and thought Id share it.  Explains a lot about my interesting memory issues.

Hey Kizzie,

I was excited to look at this but it looks like the link is broken now? Is there any other way to view it?

Regards,
Ellis.

[Kizzie]

Tks for pointing that out Ellis, the link is fixed now.

https://www.nicabm.com/trauma-how-trauma-can-impact-4-types-of-memory-infographic/