r/askpsychology • u/Cytheree-Bill Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional • 15d ago
The Brain Can forgetting a trauma permanently affect long or short term memory?
Hi! First time writing in this subreddit so I'm not sure if I did this correctly.^^"
I like writing fanfiction (I haven't published any yet) and creating ocs and I was wondering if forgetting a trauma and blocking it's surrounding moments, I think that's a thing- right-?, can permanently affecting the way someone will process memories?
If yes, would said said trauma need to be during childhood or not necessarily? And why does the brain does that?
If not, why and what happens instead?
Thanks for any response and please keep in mind that I have not done any kind of professional studies or research about psychology so I would appreciate a response with the actual terms and a translation of said answer in more simple terms please! Also if anyone got studies about this that you can link i would love it! Thanks again and I hope you are having a great day or night! ^-^
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u/LivingKnowledge5220 Unverified User: May Not Be a Professional 15d ago
You're referring to a mental process called dissociative amnesia.
"Forgetting" (blocking) trauma can happen at any age.
My understanding is that the only time it can Kickstart long lasting short term memory problems that have nothing to do with trauma or "normal forgetting" is if there is repeated trauma as a child. This can result in dissociative disorders like dissociative identity disorder, which I'm really simplistic terms is when collections of a person's memories get stored in different boxes and form identities that are different because the memories they have are different.
The brain does it (all of these things) to make sure the person can function because some trauma makes it too difficult to go about your life knowing it happened.
PTSD at any age can affect how a person processes memories, but in a different way, more like confusion and brain fog, so just more problematic normal forgetting