I’m sure you’ve heard a quote similar to, “Memories make us who we are.” Well, there’s a lot of truth to that statement. Your Memories Affect Your Brain and Mental Health It can be an effective coping mechanism in the short term, but eventually, suppression increases anxiety and depression when the suppressed items aren’t dealt with. Suppression can happen automatically in people who habitually suppress thoughts, emotions, and memories. It’s the conscious effort to forget or not think about painful or unwanted thoughts or memories and is typically applied to temporary thoughts and emotions, such as anxiety or anger. Suppression is entirely voluntary, and suppressed memories are explicit. The belief is that these memories are still present in the unconscious mind but are not accessible to be recalled. Unlike implicit memories, repressed memories were once conscious but have been moved out of conscious awareness. While some individuals and therapists do believe in the validity of repressed memories, there is a fair amount of skepticism within the scientific and psychological communities. These memories are stored in the unconscious mind and can resurface later in life, often through therapy. It’s suggested that repressed memories are pushed out of a person’s conscious awareness as a defense mechanism to protect the person from emotional distress. The concept of repressed memories is an ongoing topic of debate among psychologists and scientists and is still being researched. Repressed memory is a scientifically debated psychiatric phenomenon where a person cannot recall autobiographical memories, usually of a traumatic or stressful nature. What Are Repressed and Suppressed Memories? The unprocessed remnants of trauma stored in memory can cause health issues throughout a person’s life. Trauma can also impact explicit episodic memory because it can prevent information from various parts of the brain from combining to make a semantic memory. Instead, you feel the emotions and bodily sensations from the memory when triggered by present circumstances. Because they are unconscious, bodily memories, when they are triggered in the present, you don’t realize that your reactions are coming from the past. Implicit memories can be invisible forces in your life, impacting you in powerful ways. “These memories got quickly and permanently stored, even though you don’t have conscious awareness of them as memories - they’re just kind of “in there,” informing and influencing you without any kind of time stamp, and without your being aware of their influence.” Marsha Lucas, PhD, neuropsychologist, and psychotherapist, calls implicit memories the “unthought known” and labels them the “unconscious effects of your past experiences.” She writes: Alzheimer’s patients can remember how to read, write, walk, and talk even after they can no longer recognize loved ones because of implicit memory. An explicit memory would be the recollection of someone teaching you how to ride. A good example of implicit memory is hopping on a bike and remembering how to ride. Implicit memory can be behavioral, emotional, perceptual, or somatosensory, and is often felt in your body. Unlike an explicit memory, an implicit memory doesn’t involve the experience of recalling and can be described as retention without remembering. Semantic memory: all non-biographical explicit memory.Episodic memory: the recall of life events and autobiographical knowledge, and.Learning things for school or work, and.Explicit memories include factual and general knowledge about things. Explicit MemoriesĮxplicit memories are memories that involve conscious thought, can be recalled, and are declarative. Your brain also files away implicit and repressed memories below your conscious awareness and while you can’t actively retrieve or recall these memories, they can still significantly impact your life.Īll types of memories influence your mental health, behavior, perception of the world, response to new situations, and interaction with others. These are all examples of explicit memories, which you can consciously recall - even if you would rather not. In the latter case, you might make a conscious effort to avoid thinking about the uncomfortable memories - but you’re still aware of them. Other not-so-good memories evoke pain, stress, or difficult emotions. Glimpses of life’s happy little moments can bring back feelings of joy. Significant life events - both good and bad - get cemented in your memory. Did you know that your brain stores memories, which you may not even be aware of, that continuously impact your mental health, behavior, and life?
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