Is it possible to repress memories of abuse

If you have unaddressed ACEs, you may find that you are extremely upset by the everyday actions of others. You find yourself quickly going from relaxed and at ease to filled with anger or fear, all because of something seemingly small. Often this change is because that seemingly small thing subconsciously reminds you of some aspect of your repressed childhood trauma. Many ACEs cause you to have an intense fear of abandonment.

Attachment issues can be because of developmental disruptions caused by traumatic experiences. You may find that you become intensely attached to other people and feel upset or highly emotional about them leaving.

Even if it is just your partner leaving for an evening out or your friend going out of town, it causes intense anxiety and fear. Anxiety is an emotion many people cope with throughout their lives.

Those who have repressed childhood memories may experience more anxiety than others. Moments of immaturity and childish outbursts are typical. But when this happens frequently, and you find that you regress into a child-like state, you may be coping with adverse experiences. It could be that you throw tantrums, speak in a child-like voice, or are stubborn about small things.

You only have so much mental and emotional energy in a day. If you repress traumatic childhood memories, you subconsciously spend much of your energy on that. Exhaustion robs you of the energy you need to build and form new relationships and makes it difficult for you to connect with others. Life comes with seemingly constant stressors. People with repressed childhood trauma find themselves unable to cope with these everyday events and often lash out or hide.

It sounds simple enough, but the concept of memory repression is a controversial one that experts have long debated. The idea of memory repression dates back to Sigmund Freud in the late s. He began developing the theory after his teacher, Dr. Joseph Breuer, told him about a patient, Anna O. She experienced many unexplained symptoms. During treatment for these symptoms, she started remembering upsetting events from the past she previously had no memory of.

After regaining these memories and talking about them, her symptoms began to improve. Freud believed that memory repression served as a defense mechanism against traumatic events. Some mental health professionals believe the brain can repress memories and offer therapy to help people recover hidden memories.

But the majority of practicing psychologists, researchers, and other experts in the field question the whole concept of repressed memories. Despite the controversy surrounding repressed memories, some people offer repressed memory therapy. Practitioners often use hypnosis , guided imagery, or age regression techniques to help people access memories. Repressed memory therapy can also have some serious unintended consequences, namely false memories.

These are memories created through suggestion and coaching. They can have a negative impact on both the person experiencing them and anyone who might be implicated in them, such as a family member suspected of abuse based on a false memory. There are differences between her description at six and her recall at When she was six, she had referred to repeated assaults. In the later video, she recalls only one episode. At 17, she is less confident that it was deliberate abuse.

Today, Kluemper still looks bewildered at the surge of memories that overtook her so abruptly. Accidentally creating a video of someone apparently recalling sexual abuse was unprecedented. Once again, Kluemper granted Corwin permission to use her story, and he published an academic article carefully shielding his subject behind the pseudonym Jane Doe.

Despite having no recall of this for two decades, she insisted she was reminded of the killing when she looked at her own young daughter. There followed a number of high-profile cases that seemed to support those psychiatrists who believed it was possible for children to recover memories of abuse years later.

Now, a year later, along came Corwin with what seemed to be video evidence supporting the existence of repressed memories. For Kluemper, the second interview with Corwin had been an attempt to put the past behind her. She cut off contact with her mother and signed up for the US navy. She rose rapidly to become a helicopter pilot, a job that demanded extensive technical skills. She operated from the naval base on Coronado Island, just off San Diego, and flew her helicopter for hundreds of hours over the course of her career.

She was part of a counter-narcotics force off South America, and the search-and-rescue efforts after Hurricane Katrina , hovering over the flooded houses of New Orleans during the desperate hunt for survivors.

She took pride in her job. It gave me an identity when I was sorely lacking one. It was a good scaffold for rebuilding my life. But one day, she started hearing rumours of an investigation into her past.

Inexplicably, a private investigator had turned up on the doorsteps of old friends. It was a sickening feeling, to know there was someone watching. Kluemper, who adored her father, insists this was simply not true. Then she realised it had to be something to do with Jane Doe.

S itting in her office in the University of California, Irvine, Loftus speaks with the confidence of a woman at the end of a long and distinguished career. A photograph of her with Bill Clinton sits on the book-lined shelves. The only jarring note is a gun target pinned to the wall, complete with bullet holes.

She worked her way up to a senior role at the University of Washington, before moving, in , to Irvine. Along the way, Loftus has carried out groundbreaking research into memory. One of her key discoveries was proving that people will recall events differently, depending on how they are questioned, whether by a psychologist or a police officer. By her own calculations, she has worked on court cases over the past 40 years. At the time of a traumatic event, the mind makes many associations with the feelings, sights, sounds, smells, taste and touch connected with the trauma.

Later, similar sensations may trigger a memory of the event. While some people first remember past traumatic events during therapy, most people begin having traumatic memories outside therapy.

A variety of experiences can trigger the recall. Reading stories about other people's trauma, watching television programs that depict traumatic events similar to the viewer's past experience, experiencing a disturbing event in the present, or sitting down with family and reminiscing about a terrible shared episode—for some people, these kinds of experiences can open the floodgates of frightful and horrible memories.

Scientists believe that recovered memories—including recovered memories of childhood trauma—are not always accurate. When people remember childhood trauma and later say their memory was wrong, there is no way to know which memory was accurate, the one that claims the trauma happened or the one that claims it did not. A great deal of laboratory research involving normal people in everyday situations demonstrates that memory is not perfect. Evidence shows that memory can be influenced by other people and situations, that people can make up stories to fill in memory gaps and that people can be persuaded to believe they heard, saw or experienced events that did not really happen.

Studies also reveal that people who have inaccurate memories can strongly believe they are true. Trauma-focused treatments do work, though not all the time and not for every person. It is important for doctors, psychotherapists and other health care providers to begin a treatment plan by taking a complete medical and psychiatric history, including a history of physical and psychological trauma.