Repressed memories. Do they exist?

Memory can change the shape of a room; it can change the color of a car. And memories can be distorted. They're just an interpretation, they're not a record, and they're irrelevant if you have the facts.

That is a line from the movie "Memento" it is a decent watch and this is something that has stayed with me since I watched the film.

The subject of repressed memories or recovered memories is a controversial one. Some psychiatrists say they are real and some say fake and there is some research that shows that most forms of recovered memory therapy are ineffective at best and at worst can plant false memories in people's minds but also research that suggests that memory recall is based on the condition in which the memory was formed, something called state-dependent learning.

Our internal states can color our memories just as powerfully as the external environment. A study finds that hippocampal GABAA receptors and associated microRNAs are important for generating state-dependent contextual fear memories.

What happens underwater stays underwater. Essentially, that was the conclusion of what became a classic study in psychology conducted some 40 years ago by Godden and Baddeley1. The two researchers somehow persuaded a group of divers, who were otherwise enjoying a relaxing holiday in Scotland, to learn a long list of simple words either when they were in the water or on land, and then asked them to freely recall the words in one or the other environment. As Godden and Baddeley had suspected, more words were recalled when the divers were in the same environment, wet or dry, in which they had originally learned them in. This phenomenon is now well-known in psychology as state-dependent learning2. It tells us that not only does the external environment direct what we learn and remember, but so too does the internal state of our body and mind. And this applies to all manner of memories. It might even apply to the kinds of memories that are indelibly linked to profoundly traumatic events that can spiral into an anxiety disorder or post-traumatic stress disorder. These disorders have become some of the most prevalent of all psychiatric conditions and place a heavy burden on individuals, their families and society at large. But, although we have been making appreciable progress in drawing an increasingly detailed schematic of the brain circuitry responsible for forming, storing and erasing fear memories3,4,5, we still know surprisingly little about how the brain processes information about state to modulate fear memories.

www.nature.com...

The other population, extra-synaptic GABA receptors, are independent agents. They ignore the peppy glutamate. Instead, their job is internally focused, adjusting brain waves and mental states according to the levels of internal chemicals, such as GABA, sex hormones and micro RNAs. Extra-synaptic GABA receptors change the brain’s state to make us aroused, sleepy, alert, sedated, inebriated or even psychotic. However, Northwestern scientists discovered another critical role; these receptors also help encode memories of a fear-inducing event and then store them away, hidden from consciousness.

“The brain functions in different states, much like a radio operates at AM and FM frequency bands,” Radulovic said. “It’s as if the brain is normally tuned to FM stations to access memories, but needs to be tuned to AM stations to access subconscious memories. If a traumatic event occurs when these extra-synaptic GABA receptors are activated, the memory of this event cannot be accessed unless these receptors are activated once again, essentially tuning the brain into the AM stations.”

news.northwestern.edu...

I have tried for many years to recover a memory with very little success. I know factual pieces of the event that happened based on others around me telling me what they remember and what happened to their knowledge however I personally am in a unique position to know exactly what happened because I was the only one present at the time and I *really* want to know. Just for myself, because it would change the tenor of my life and give me a reason for why things were the way they were. This has nothing to do with abuse or sexual assault or anything like that and I have crystal clear recall of parts of the event. I am hesitant to try hypnosis because I do not want to conjure up a false memory so I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions to help put more pieces together? Most of my attempts to remember have involved just me sitting and thinking about what happened, trying to put myself in the scene but a recent semi confirmation of a piece of my memory I had sort of doubted has made me even more determined to figure out what the hell happened.

a reply to: Antimony

I would ponder the feelings those pieces evoke...

I would never let anyone mess with my head except myself...

a reply to: Antimony

If a memory is bad enough that you've blocked it out, maybe it should be left alone. Maybe you forgot for a very good reason.

I know factual pieces of the event that happened based on others around me telling me

My ex would talk about the time he was in the front seat of a car with his brother was in the back seat, and when his mother (the driver) rounded the corner the door flew open and his brother was thrown out, dying from the injuries.

One day his mother brought up the event and I told her my (then) husband vividly remembers that day. She told me that was impossible, as he had only been three months old when the accident happened; that he was just repeating stories he heard.

Under hypnosis, the memory doesn't have to be true or even accurate; all that's required is that the person believes it's true.

id like to believe so because theres a lot of things i repressed

I've experienced another person's repressed memory recall that affected me personally in a tremendous way. Looking back in regard to the person recalling it, her entire life reflected the truth of what was recalled, and so did mine. It came after an intense period of reflection and deep spiritual diving, but with no preconceived goal or idea of recalling anything. It came without any secondhand help like hypnosis or therapy. And the recalled memory was to me like a puzzle piece finally fitting so many things together.
In consequence, I have tried to do my own memory recall, but I was very young and just cannot call up more than a few very detailed images and recollections that always haunted me as "wrong" or "odd", but that's all. The recalled memory also fits with certain verified facts that also never quite felt right or complete.
But that's all I may ever get, and that's okay.
When this other person's recalled memory arrived, my instant gut reaction was that I had "known" it was true all along, and so also knew and accepted it as true without any doubt, though it was a major, devastating recall.
But I trust and know my source.
Hell of a tricky thing, this human business.

Dunno about that. I can’t remember anything up to about eight years old. So what does that say about my (apparently and by all accounts) normal childhood?

It definitely couldn’t have been terribly traumatic.

a reply to: DAVID64

Interesting thread.
What would ET say?a reply to: Antimony