If your parents physically abused you or shouted at you often, you’ll probably retain some of those memories. You’re also more likely to remember events you experienced more than once, say researchers. Survivors tend to remember traumatic events at least partially, though they may not fully understand what happened. Others simply refuse to think about the trauma and wall off the event, but this isn’t quite the same as actually forgetting.Įither way, trauma usually doesn’t completely disappear from memory. Some children respond to trauma by dissociating, or mentally detaching, which could affect how they remember what happened. While it’s unlikely that you’d completely forget everything about a traumatic event, a 2019 review of studies suggests that experiencing abuse can indeed affect the way your brain creates memories. You might struggle to place specific life events on a timeline or doubt what you remember - but you probably remember bits and pieces, at the very least. Survivors might have disjointed memories or gaps in memory around the time of the abuse. Many of these recovered “memories” later proved to be false.Įxperts haven’t conclusively ruled out the idea that people can forget traumatic events and recall them later, but more research is needed.
Some therapists worked to help clients regain so-called repressed memories through the unethical process of suggestion. This idea really began to gather steam in the 1990s when a number of therapists suggested a link between unexplained mental health symptoms and forgotten childhood abuse. Sigmund Freud was the first to connect childhood trauma with memory loss, or repressed memories, to be precise. A quick overview of the repressed memory theory can help explain why. While this is possible, it probably isn’t the case. If you don’t have many childhood memories, it can be hard to shake the idea that might be something traumatic lurking below the surface. Perhaps you’ve heard the theory that people often cope with painful memories by forgetting the event. Childhood or infantile amnesia, the loss of memories from the first several years of life, is normal, so if you don’t remember much from early childhood, you’re most likely in the majority. You’re pretty sure you didn’t experience anything traumatic, so what gives? Why can’t you remember? Did you live through something deeply distressing, after all? If you’re used to hearing friends and loved ones talk about childhood, you might wonder why you have blank space instead of nostalgic recollections.
Try as you might to search your brain, you might come up with nothing more than some fuzzy images that drift away when you try to examine them more closely. Some people have plenty of memories from various stages of early life, but others remember very little of their formative years by the time they reach adulthood. Long, lazy summer days, shenanigans with friends, squabbles with siblings, and freshly baked cookies after school are just a few of the memories that might linger from your childhood. Share on Pinterest Gillian Vann/Stocksy United
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