If Not Restored Immediately, Past Trauma Can Reduce Memory

Living life in the shadow of trauma in the past is certainly not easy for anyone. However, this trauma cannot be left continuously and needs to be restored immediately.

Not just undermining mental health, the effects of trauma in the past can also increase your risk of developing chronic diseases as adults. In fact, this can also reduce your memory, you know. How could that be? Here's the explanation.

The effect of past trauma on one's memory

The brain is a vital organ that plays an important role as a center of body coordination. In addition, the brain also serves to store millions of records of your life's journey. Starting from the occurrence of fun to the bitter experience that leaves trauma.

During this time, you believe that trauma in the past can disturb your mental health. In fact, the effects of trauma have not yet reached that point, you know. Prolonged trauma can also weaken the nervous system throughout the body, even reducing your ability to remember things.

When you are stressed, there are three areas of the brain that become excessively active, namely the amygdala, hippocampus, and prefrontal cortex. The amygdala is an area of ​​the brain that records your various emotional experiences. While the hippocampus is a part of the brain that is the place for the formation of long-term memory.

Take for example in people who have severe trauma or PTSD. According to a study published in the journal Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience in 2006, the amygdala function in the brains of someone with PTSD tends to increase, but the size of the hippocampus actually shrinks. This finding was also reinforced by other studies that found that children who had experienced violence in the past also proved to have smaller hippocampal size.

When the trauma of the trauma returns, the active amygdala will make you feel more emotional when you remember it again. For example, children who have experienced sexual violence tend to be hysterical or stay away after seeing other people whose characteristics are similar to the perpetrators.

At the same time, the area of ​​the hippocampus will get smaller and disrupt the ability to remember long-term. If this continues, the effects of the trauma can make your memory and memory continue to decrease. As a result, you can easily forget the things that you just passed.

Past trauma also increases the body's stress hormones

People with PTSD often complain of difficulties in overcoming their fears in the past. They have difficulty controlling their own thoughts and memories. In fact, his mind is often chaotic because it always remembers his bad experiences first.

This has to do with how the brain works when responding to the trauma we experience. Stress that occurs continuously can trigger the response of the hormone cortisol aka stress hormone. Well, this hormone makes you more aware of external threats.

Reporting from Very Well Mind, a study conducted on animal samples showed that high cortisol levels during stress can damage or destroy hippocampal cells. This means that the smaller the size of the hippocampus in the brain, the more difficult it will be to remember the important things in your life.

How to reduce the effects of past trauma

It's not easy to reduce or even forget all the bitter experiences of the past. However, you still need to find a way to recover trauma. The goal is of course that your memory is not eroded just like that.

Being calm is the easiest way you can do to reduce the effects of trauma. Even though it's not easy, try to do it slowly.

When the trauma reappears, sit in your most comfortable position and slowly breathe. While closing your eyes, breathe through your nose and exhale slowly through your mouth.

Feel every positive energy going through your fingers and let your body muscles relax. Don't hesitate to ask your parents, siblings, or closest friends for help to calm you down.

If this is not enough to deal with the effects of trauma, it is time for you to go to a psychologist or therapist. You may be advised to take certain therapies to restore your trauma.

In addition, you will also be asked to complete a puzzle or do a number of movements to train memory. Not only does it help to divert the effects of trauma in the past, it can also help strengthen your memory and memory.